Screening Violence (Rutgers Depth of Field Series)

About this book

Graphic cinematic violence is a magnet for controversy. From passionate defenses to outraged protests theories abound concerning this defining feature of modern film: Is it art or exploitation dangerous or liberating? Screening Violence provides an even-handed examination of the history merits and effects of cinematic ultraviolence. Movie reviewers cinematographers film scholars psychologists and sociologists all contribute essays exploring topics such as: the origins and innovations of film violence and attempts to regulate it (from Hollywoods Production Code to the evolution of the ratings system) the explosion of screen violence following the 1967 releases of Bonnie and Clyde and The Dirty Dozen and the lasting effects of those landmark films the aesthetics of increasingly graphic screen violence the implications of our growing desensitization to murder and mayhem from The Wild Bunch to The Terminator