Synopses & Reviews
Killing as punishment in the USA, whether ordained by lynch mob or the courts, reflects a paradox of the American nation: liberal, pluralistic, yet prone to lethal violence. This book examines the encounter between the legal history of the death penalty in America and its cinematic representations, through a comprehensive narrative and historical view of films dealing with this genre, from the silent era to the present. It addresses central issues of, for example, racial prejudice and attitudes towards the execution of women, and discusses how cinema has chosen to deal with them. It explores how such films as Michael Curtiz's 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, Errol Morris' documentary The Thin Blue Line, John Singleton's Rosewood and Frank Darabont's death-row movie The Green Mile, have helped to shape real historical developments and public perceptions by bringing into sharper relief the legal, social, and cultural tensions associated with capital punishment. In the process, it illuminates the complexities of the death penalty through US history.
About the Author
Yvonne Koslovsky-Golan is Chair of the Graduate Program in Culture and Film Studies at Haifa University's Faculty of the Humanities, Israel.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I: LAW, FICTION AND DEATH
1. Introduction: Criminality and Retribution in Hollywood Film
2. Silent Film: The Death Penalty as a Social Problem and as Popular Entertainment
3. Censorship and Manipulation: The Difficult Years
4. The Golden Age of Legal Cinema
5. ...And Justice for All: Legal Cinema since the 1960s
PART II: THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES
6. Historical Aspects of Culture, Society and Law
7. Progress and Creativity in the Service of Death
8. A Living Penalty: How Much Longer?
PART III: A CINEMATIC WINDOW TO PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE DEATH PENALTY
9. Legal Controversy as a Cinematic Event
10. A Particularly Subjective Objectivity: The Jury Problem
11. Strange Fruit
12. The Mentally Retarded and the Mentally Ill on Death Row
13. Old Enough to Die
14. Forbidden Relationships
15. Technological and Procedural Innovation in the Service of Death
PART IV: DEATH BECOMES THEM: WOMEN ON THE GALLOWS
16. The Winning Formula: Women, Gallows, Camera
17. Off with Their Heads: Politics, Monarchy, and Religion
18. Female Spies and Patriotism in Film
19. From the Gallows Chamber to Iconic Status
20. Between Drama and Musical Comedy: Life (and Death) as a Circus