Prison Movies : Cinema Behind Bars / Kevin Kehrwald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kehrwald, Kevin, author.

Series:

Short cuts (London, England)

Short Cuts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media and criminal justice--United States.

Mass media and criminal justice.

Prison films--United States--History and criticism.

Prison films.

Prisoners in popular culture--United States.

Prisoners in popular culture.

Prisons in mass media.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : 16 b&w illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

Prison Movies: Cinema Behind Bars traces the public fascination with incarceration from the silent era to the present. Often considered an offshoot of the gangster film, the prison film precedes the gangster film and is in many ways its opposite. Rather than focusing on tragic figures heading for a fall, the prison film focuses on fallen characters seeking redemption. The gangster's perverse pursuit of the American dream is irrelevant to the prisoner for whom that dream has already failed. At their core, prison films are about self-preservation at the hands of oppressive authority. Like history itself, prison films display long stretches of idleness punctuated by eruptions of violence, dangerous moments that signify liberation and the potential for change. The enclosed world of the prison is a highly effective microcosm, one that forces characters and audiences alike to confront vexing issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. These portrayals of men and women behind bars have thrived because they deal with such fundamental human themes as freedom, individuality, power, justice, and mercy.Films examined include The Big House (1930), I Want to Live! (1958), The Defiant Ones (1958), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Midnight Express (1978), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Starred Up (2013).

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction: After the Crime is Over

1. Prison Films of Pre-Code Hollywood: Big Houses, Death Houses and Chain Gangs

2. Women's Prison Films of the 1950s and Early 1960s

3. Identity and Violence in Popular Prison Films from the 1960s to the 1990s

Afterword: Post-9/11 Prison Movies and the Era of Mass Incarceration

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 07. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

9780231851046

0231851049

OCLC:

968732274