Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 494 g
Crime Films and Society
Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 494 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-512982-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press
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.
Everyone watches crime films, but almost no one has analysed the sources of their appeal or their role in popular culture. Nicole Rafter, a well-known criminologist, fills this gap with Shots in the Mirror, the first comprehensive study of movies about crimes and criminals. Crime films, she argues, reflect our ideas about fundamental social, economic, and political issues while at the same time shaping the ways we think about these issues. When we look at the relationship between crime films and society, we find a dynamic interplay of art and life, one that Rafter examines from the multiple perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, social history, and sociology.
