American Film and the Culture Wars

An exploration of the turbulent relationship between contemporary American film and the divisive Trump presidency.

American Film and the Culture Wars: Battleground in the Trump Era is an exploration of the relationship between American cinema and what many have referred to as the “Trump era,” the “Trump age,” or even the “Trump phenomenon.”

This book contends that American cinema offers an insight into this fractious period and emerged as one of the primary battlegrounds on which a war of interpretation was fought, a frontline in what many refer to as the “culture wars.” This resulted in a body of films which should not be regarded as disposable entertainment, but rather as visceral cultural artefacts which reflect, engage with, and have even been able to influence the tumultuous period in a range of palpable ways. Films discussed include: Sound of Freedom (2023), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Get Out (2017), Superman (2025), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), and The Hunt (2020), among many others.

Across six theoretically informed but accessible chapters, McSweeney interrogates how American film emerged as a striking manifestation of the political and historical moment in which they were formed: engaging with a broad tapestry of social movements (Black Lives Matter [2013-], Me Too [2017-], and Times Up [2018-]); genres (superhero, horror, action, science fiction film); and key issues, debates, and events (gun control, abortion, religion), revealing that it is still the cinematic medium which provides a frame of reference for how we understand and comprehend the world, as much as, if not more than, it has ever done.