1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910960553103321

Autore

Prince Stephen <1955->

Titolo

Classical film violence : designing and regulating brutality in Hollywood cinema, 1930-1968 / / Stephen Prince

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, N.J., : Rutgers University Press, c2003

ISBN

0-8135-6817-X

0-8135-3527-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (342 p.)

Disciplina

791.43/6

Soggetti

Violence in motion pictures

Motion pictures - United States

Motion pictures - Censorship - United States - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-324) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Censorship and Screen Violence before 1930 -- Chapter 2: Cruelty, Sadism, and the Horror Film -- Chapter 3: Elaborating Gun Violence -- Chapter 4: Throwing the Extra Punch -- Chapter 5: The Poetics of Screen Violence -- Chapter 6: After the Deluge -- Appendix A: Primary Sample of Films -- Appendix B: The Production Code -- Appendix C: Special Regulations on Crime in Motion Pictures (1938) -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author.

Sommario/riassunto

Stephen Prince has written the first book to examine the interplay between the aesthetics and the censorship of violence in classic Hollywood films from 1930 to 1968, the era of the Production Code, when filmmakers were required to have their scripts approved before they could start production. He explains how Hollywood's filmmakers designed violence in response to the regulations of the Production Code and regional censors. Graphic violence in today's movies actually has its roots in these early films. Hollywood's filmmakers were drawn to violent scenes and "pushed the envelope" of what they could depict by manipulating the Production Code Administration (PCA).  Prince shows that many choices about camera position, editing, and blocking of the action and sound were functional responses by filmmakers to



regulatory constraints, necessary for approval from the PCA and then in surviving scrutiny by state and municipal censor boards.  This book is the first stylistic history of American screen violence that is grounded in industry documentation. Using PCA files, Prince traces the negotiations over violence carried out by filmmakers and officials and shows how the outcome left its traces on picture and sound in the films.  Almost everything revealed by this research is contrary to what most have believed about Hollywood and film violence. With chapters such as "Throwing the Extra Punch" and "Cruelty, Sadism, and the Horror Film," this book will become the defining work on classical film violence and its connection to the graphic mayhem of today's movies.