Detecting Men

Philippa Gates

Description

Detecting Men examines the history of the Hollywood detective genre and the ways that detective films have negotiated changing social attitudes toward masculinity, heroism, law enforcement, and justice. Genre film can be a site for the expression and resolution of problematic social issues, but while there have been many studies of such other male genres as war films, gangster films, and Westerns, relatively little attention has been paid to detective films beyond film noir. In this volume, Philippa Gates examines classical films of the thirties and forties as well as recent examples of the genre, including Die Hard, the Lethal Weapon films, The Usual Suspects, Seven, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Murder by Numbers, in order to explore social anxieties about masculinity and crime and Hollywood's conceptions of gender. Up until the early 1990s, Gates argues, the primary focus of the detective genre was the masculinity of the hero. However, from the mid-1990s onward, the genre has shifted to more technical portrayals of crime scene investigation, forensic science, and criminal profiling, offering a reassuring image of law enforcement in the face of violent crime. By investigating the evolution of the detective film, Gates suggests, perhaps we can detect the male.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

PART I
The Crime Lab—Theorizing Masculinity and the Detective Genre

1. Introduction: The Case

2. The Myths of Masculinity

Part II
Investigating Masculinity—The 1940s and the 1980s

3. Investigating National Heroes: British Sleuths and American Dicks

4. Investigating Crisis: Neo-Noir Heroes and Femmes Fatales

5. Investigating Crisis: The Spectacle of “Musculinity”

Part III
Investigating the Crime Scene—The 1990s and 2000s

6. Investigating the Hero: The Criminalist

7. Investigating the “Other”: Race and the Detective

8. Investigating the “Other”: Women and Youth

9. Investigating the “Other”: The Cult of Villainy

10. End of the Investigation: Case Closed

Notes
Filmography
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Popular culture
• History of film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481387
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Detecting Men MASCULINITY AND THE HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE FILM

Philippa Gates

DETECTING MEN

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CULTURAL STUDIES IN CINEMA/ VIDEO

W H E E L E R W I N S T O N D I X O ND I T O R| E

DETECTING MEN

Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film

P H I L I P P A G A T E S

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Published by State University of

New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data

Gates, Philippa, 1973– Detecting men : masculinity and the Hollywood detective film / Philippa Gates. p. cm — (SUNY series, cultural studies in cinema/video) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6813-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6814-3 (pbk : alk. paper). 1. Detective and mystery films—United States—History and criticism. 2. Masculinity in motion pictures. I. Title. II. Series.

PN1995.9.D4G38 791.43'6556—dc22

ISBN-13: ISBN-13:

2006

978-0-7914-6813-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 978-0-7914-6814-2 (pbk : alk. paper)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2005024123

C O N T E N T S

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

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PART I The Crime Lab—Theorizing Masculinity and the Detective Genre

C H A P T E R O N E 3 Introduction: The Case

C H A P T E R T W O 27 The Myths of Masculinity

PART II Investigating Masculinity— The 1940s and the 1980s

C H A P T E R T H R E E 55 Investigating National Heroes: British Sleuths and American Dicks

C H A P T E R F O U R 95 Investigating Crisis: Neo-NoirHeroes andFemmes Fatales

C H A P T E R F I V E 125 Investigating Crisis: The Spectacle of “Musculinity”

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CONTENTS

PART III Investigating the Crime Scene— The 1990s and 2000s

C H A P T E R S I X 157 Investigating the Hero: The Criminalist

C H A P T E R S E V E N 189 Investigating the “Other”: Race and the Detective

C H A P T E R E I G H T 217 Investigating the “Other”: Women and Youth

C H A P T E R N I N E 253 Investigating the “Other”: The Cult of Villainy

C H A P T E R T E N 283 End of the Investigation: Case Closed

Notes

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Filmography

Works Cited

Index

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Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

Will Petersen and Marg Helgenberger inCSI

Daniel Day Lewis inThe Last of the Mohicans

Josh Hartnett

Glenda Farrell inSmart Blonde

William Powell

Boris Karloff inMr. Wong in Chinatown

Humphrey Bogart inThe Maltese Falcon

Jack Nicholson inChinatown

Michael Douglas inFalling Down

Ellen Barkin inSea of Love

Clint Eastwood inDirty Harry

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ILLUSTRATIONS

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Danny Glover and Mel Gibson inLethal Weapon

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Spacey in L.A. Confidential

Barry and Dick Van Dyke inDiagnosis Murder

Clint Eastwood inBlood Work

Morgan Freeman inSeven

Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in The Bone Collector

Denzel Washington inDevil in a Blue Dress

Tom Cruise

Sandra Bullock inMurder by Numbers

Ashley Judd inKiss the Girls

Sandra Bullock inMiss Congeniality

Kevin Spacey inThe Usual Suspects

Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins inThe Silence of the Lambs

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

The author gratefully acknowledges that financial support for this research was received, in its first stages, by the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Chari- table Trust and, later, from a grant partly funded by Wilfrid Laurier Uni- versity (WLU) Operating funds and partly by the SSHRC Institutional Grant awarded to WLU. I would like to thank Susan Hayward, Lee Grieveson, Nadine Wills, Duncan Petrie, and Frank Krutnik for their in- sight, advice, and guidance. A special thank you also to James Peltz, In- terim Director at SUNY Press, and Wheeler Winston Dixon, the series editor, for their support of this book and seeing it come to light. I would also like to thank my Hollywood detective film class of Winter 2005 for their enthusiasm and ideas—especially Jillian Harrington who encouraged me to reconsider the contributions of the female detective comedy. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to Micaela and Philip Gates, without whose love and support this project would never have been realized. I would like to thank my mother for her exhaustive editorial as- sistance through the evolution of this project and my father, who ignited my passion for the detective genre with an introduction to Perry Mason through re-runs of the original television series. I am sure it was my parents’ own addiction to detective fiction that led me to Agatha Christie in the first place and then beyond. This is for you.

The author is grateful for the kind permission to reproduce selections from the following copyrighted material: • An earlier version of Chapter 7—Investigating the “Other”: Race and the Detective—appeared as “Always a Partner in Crime: Black

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