A Tale of Two Versions: I Am Legend and the Political Economy of Cultural Production

Abstract

Based on a comparative reading of the officially released version and the director’s cut of Francis Lawrence’s movie <i>I Am Legend</i> (2007a; 2007b), the present contribution interrogates possible connections between the political economy of film production and aesthetic form. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks such as Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model and Artz’ critical study of global entertainment industries, and combining these with an analysis of Lawrence’s two versions, I argue that profit-oriented adaptations to implied market pressures are not neutral endeavours, but inherently political acts that shape aesthetic form to, often-tacitly, reiterate a received hegemonic status quo.