This
section of crimeculture.com focuses on the most discussed forms
of crime film - gangster films, detective films, classic film noir,
neo-noir, cop action films, etc.; it also takes in parodies, TV
series, and video games.
Crime
Films ~ Main Sections
Film
reviews

Roger Westcombe's Big House Film Reviews are an expanding section of Crimeculture. More than 40 reviews of films noirs, both canonical and neo-noir,
are now available on our site, and additional reviews will
appear regularly.
See also: The Creation, Marketing and Contexts of Hollywood Crime Films (review article) LEE HORSLEY
The site also contains numerous articles on crime films. Recent additions include, for example, pieces on: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects
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This
section at the moment offers a brief introduction to the gangster
films of the 1930s; it includes discussion of the mythologised gangster
in relation to American capitalism and of the links between gangster
films and film noir. The main examples considered are Little
Caesar and Scarface. We are keen to find contributors
interested in providing more wide-ranging discussions of the genre.
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Philippa
Gates surveys a large range of films, from the Hollywood detective
series of the 1930s and the Basil Rathbone Holmes films to films
of the 90s, like Seven and Silence of the Lambs.
Other films discussed here include the detective-centred films
noirs of the 40s and 50s, police procedurals like Dragnet,
vigilante cop films of the 60s and 70s, and the action-cop films
of the 80s - discussed more fully in a separate
section.
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This
section traces the development of neo-noir from the 1960s
on; it considers such things as the charge that neo-noir is
a form of postmodern nostalgia and the ways in which neo-noir
films represent a 'culture of consumption'.
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Cop
action films
Charting
the shift from the vengeful vigilante cop of the 1970s to
the action-hero cop and retributive 'musculinity' of the
1980s, this section, by Philippa Gates, takes in the Dirty
Harry, Rambo, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard films, and concludes
with a discussion of changing images of masculinity in the
1990s.
Supplementary article:
Being a Buddy: The Black Detective
on the Big Screen
PHILIPPA GATES, Wilfrid Laurier University
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Heist films, police procedurals,
cop buddy films, etc.
Sections
on these and other types of crime film are currently under construction.
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This
section incorporates many varieties of parody and pastiche, ranging
from animated films and cartoons to postmodern parody/pastiche in
the films of, for example, the Coen brothers, Tarantino and David
Mamet.
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Vicky
Munro's introduction to TV representations of crime traces the
rise of American cop shows and considers some of the issues that
have come to the fore with the growth of 'reality TV' crime shows.
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This section is at present under construction.
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