Presumed Innocence

Ewa Fiuk

Abstract

The article is a review of the book by Patrycja Włodek entitled Kres niewinności. Obraz i upamiętnienie ery Eisenhowera w amerykańskich filmach i serialach – pomiędzy reprezentacją, nostalgią a krytycznym retro [The End of Innocence. Image and Commemoration of the Eisenhower Era in American Films and TV Series – Between Representation, Nostalgia and Critical Retro] (2018). Fiuk describes the structure and methodology of the publication, presents the main theses of the author and refers to specific film examples, which the author uses in her argument. Fiuk also pays special attention to the context that is very important for Włodek’s analysis, namely the constructibility and conventionality of culture, including film culture, and the various paradigms of the functioning of film production, important for the very concept of the films in question, amongst others political and technological. In addition, the author refers to the links between the film work of the 1950s, the Reagan era and the period of Barack Obama’s government, as analysed by Włodek, pointing to different reasons, character and effects of the fascination with the Eisenhower era in later times.