Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society - Couverture rigide

Rafter, Nicole Hahn

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0195129822 ISBN 13 : 9780195129823

Editeur : Oxford University Press Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Book by Rafter Nicole

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

It's hard to imagine a more entertaining, well researched, and insightful encyclopedia of English-language crime films. Anyone who wants to know the history and place of crime cinema in the US should start here. Criminologist Rafter combines formidable analytic skills with a genuine love of the movies. Her well supported arguments help us to see many of them in new ways. Each chapter made me want to run out and look at films she discusses; but I didn't want to set the book down until I had finished it. (Neil King, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)

Shots in the Mirror is a book for scholars as well as for buffs by one who is clearly both. It is also a necessary book for students of crime and society as well as for students of film. In this new edition Rafter goes even more pointedly to the question of how crime movies `mirror' our world, reflecting the blank, the ambiguous and the unfinished, as well as the heroic and the villainous. I expect to use this book in my teaching, but mainly to devour it for my own pleasure and education. (Richard Sparks, The University of Edinburgh)

Praise for the previous edition: "No serious studies have been conducted of how on-screen crime influences our perception of real-world crime. It is an ambitious topic, and [Rafter] handles it well in a very brief volume.... [She] concludes with a very interesting exploration of future social problems and how they may be played out on screen.... Food for thought on a very clever topic. (Library Journal)

Brims with variety (this may be the only film book that cites the protagonist of Falling Down, The Last Seduction, and The Godfather in one sentence.)

Provides a brief survey that manages to range wider than other literature in the canon.... [Rafter's] strategy works well to fill a gap in the literature of 'criminological issues raised by movies.' (Choice)

This book can help sociologists who want to know more about crime stories... A terrific resource book for crime movies as documents... The brief comparative accounts of scenarios and character portrayals provide a kind of cultural map about the language of justice, discourses of fear, and the significance of the criminal-as-other. Let us find ways to use such a fine resource to enliven our courses and research, to find ways to tell the right stories. (Contemporary Sociology)

One of my favorite chapters (chapter 2) is the examination of the way in which criminologists drop discredited theories over time, but movies "recycle them" because they resonate with audience expectations that are measured by box office receipts. (Contemporary Sociology)

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Movies play a central role in shaping our understanding of crime and the world generally, helping us define what is good and bad, desirable and unworthy, lawful and illicit, strong and weak. Crime films raise controversial issues about the distribution of social power and the meanings of deviance, and they provide a safe space for fantasies of rebellion, punishment, and the restoration of order. In this, the first comprehensive study of its kind, well-known criminologist Nicole Rafter examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology. Dealing with over 300 films ranging from gangster and cop to trial and prison movies, Shots in the Mirror concentrates on works in the Hollywood tradition but also identifies a darker strain of critical films that portray crime and punishment more bleakly.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press Inc
• Date d'édition: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0195129822
• ISBN 13: 9780195129823
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 216