Dreams and Dead Ends

This work provides a history of the 20th-century American gangster film. Moving chronologically through nearly seven decades, this volume offers illuminating readings of a select group of the classic films that best define and exemplify each period in the development of the American crime film.

Praise for the previous edition: Dreams and Dead Ends is quite a remarkable book. One would expect a formal, academic theorist to discuss the great and near-great American gangster movies in terms much duller than the films themselves. Not here, for Mr. Shadoian's essays are aggressive, readable, and often profound. He has a fine, firm grasp of photography, composition, editing, direction, acting, and screenwriting. His cultural and sociological observations are brilliant. He traces the development of gangster films from Little Caesar to Point Blank with sure-footed finesse, and ends up by admitting that, as the latest cycle has only just begun, predictions regarding its course would be presumptuous and foolish. Recommended.

Autorentext
Jack Shadoian is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts.

Klappentext
Dreams and Dead Ends provides a compelling history of the twentieth-century American gangster film. Beginning with Little Caesar (1930) and ending with Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead (1995), Jack Shadoian adroitly analyzes twenty notable examples of the crime film genre. Moving
chronologically through nearly seven decades, this volume offers illuminating readings of a select group of the classic films--including The Public Enemy, D.O.A., Bonnie and Clyde, and The Godfather--that best define and represent each period in the development of the American crime film. Richly
illustrated with more than seventy film stills, Dreams and Dead Ends details the evolution of the genre through insightful and precise considerations of cinematography, characterization, and narrative style. This updated edition includes new readings of three additional movies--Once Upon a Time in
America, Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead, and Criss Cross--and brings this clear and lively discussion of the history of the gangster film to the end of the twentieth century.

Zusammenfassung
The second edition of this classic study provides a reintroduction to some of the major films and theoretical considerations of film noir and gangster films in twentieth-century America. Ranging from Little Caesar (1930) to Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), Shadoian guides the reader through twenty classic movies of the genre. His approach is to use brief introductions to introduce distinct eras of the gangster films in each of seven chapters. Moving chronologically, he offers plot synopses and close readings of such definitive examples as Bonnie and Clyde, The Public Enemy, D.O.A. and The Godfather, each accompanied by photographs and author's critiques. Compenendia of facts on each film are also provided. This updated version looks a newer films as well as how the genre has moved into the new century. Appendices look at the movie Criss Cross as an epitome of the genre while others offer different lists of gangster films, including the author's top fourteen alltime, fifty post-Godfather films worth seeing, and fifty vintage films.

Inhalt
Introduction
1. The Golden Age
The "Classic" Gangster Film
Little Caesar (1930)
The Public Enemy (1931)
2. Dark Transformations
The Descent Into Noir
High Sierra (1941)
The Killers (1946)
3. The Genre's "Enlightenment"
The Stress and Strain for Affirmation
Kiss of Death (1947)
Force of Evil (1948)
Gun Crazy (1949)
4. Going Gray and Going Crazy
Disequilibrium and Change at Midcentury
D.O.A. (1949)
White Heat (1949)
5. Focus on Feeling
"Seeing" Through the Fifties
Pickup on South Street (1953)
99 River Street (1953)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
The Brothers Rico (1957)
6. Contemporary Colorations
The Modernist Perspective
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather II (1975)
7. Towards the 21st Century
Frenzies and Despairs
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)
Appendix 1: Criss Cross: "One to Watch Over and Over"
Appendix 2: Gangster/Crime/Noir/Post-Noir: The Top 14
Appendix 3: 50 Post-Godfather Crime/Noir Films Worth a Look
Appendix 4: Aging Well: 50 Vintage Gangster/Crime/Noir Films
Notes
Selected Bibliography

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