Contents: Introduction -- melodrama and environmental crisis. Part 1 Wilderness in Hollywood cinema: discourses of nature and environmentalism the cinematography of natural landscapes gender and the encounter with wilderness ecological Indians and the myth of primal purity gender, race and the politics of the Amazonian rain forests. Part 2 Wild animals in Hollywood cinema: endangered species and the North American anti-hunting narrative North American ocean mammals the wolf and the bear African animals from safari to conservation. Part 3 Development and the politics of land use: the country and the city automobile culture the risks of nuclear energy. Conclusion.