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  1. Home
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  3. Crime Films
  • Cited by 40
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2009
Print publication year:
2002
Online ISBN:
9780511606458
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606458
Subjects:
Film, Film, Media, Mass Communication, Media, Mass Communication
Series:
Genres in American Cinema
Information

Book description

This book surveys the entire range of crime films, including important subgenres such as the gangster film, the private eye film, film noir, as well as the victim film, the erotic thriller, and the crime comedy. Focusing on ten films that span the range of the twentieth century, Thomas Leitch traces the transformation of the three leading figures that are common to all crime films: the criminal, the victim and the avenger. Analyzing how each of the subgenres establishes oppositions among its ritual antagonists, he shows how the distinctions among them become blurred throughout the course of the century. This blurring, Leitch maintains, reflects and fosters a deep social ambivalence towards crime and criminals, while the criminal, victim and avenger characters effectively map the shifting relations between subgenres, such as the erotic thriller and the police film, within the larger genre of crime film that informs them all.

Reviews

"Leitch makes his case, and provides a structure through which any crime film--and, really, any film with a criminal, victim, and avenger--can be studied. Such a structure is never more valuable than now." Erik Lundegaard, Film Quarterly

"No film critic writes more clearly, in a style unencumbered by jargon. Even the photo captions are unusually perceptive and amusing. Highly recommended." Choice

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