Spina Crime Films Oxford Encyclopedia PDF

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Spina Crime Films Oxford Encyclopediaof Crime Mediaand Popular Culture 2017...

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Crime Films Chapter · August 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.30

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Crime Films

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology Crime Films  Ferdinando Spina Subject: Crime, Media, and Popular Culture Online Publication Date: Aug 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.30

Summary and Keywords Cinema, together with television, has proved to be perhaps the most extensive, popular, and powerful medium in the representation of crime. From a criminological point of view, the crime films are all those movies whose central theme is crime and its consequences. The crime films should be defined on the basis of their relationship with society. On one hand, crime films say something important about the social context that they represent and from which they have been fashioned. On the other hand, they themselves have an effect on the social context, since their representation of crime, law, justice, and punishment itself becomes culture, acquires meaning, and provides an interpretation of reality. The approach of criminology to crime films has a series of important theoretical and methodological consequences. It leads to a fundamental enrichment of academic knowledge, for example, regarding the themes to be tackled, the disciplines and research methods to be used, and even the forms of teaching. Indeed, the analysis of crime films can help to better investigate many aspects of the perception and understanding of crime, law, and justice in society. The criminological study of crime requires a multifaceted approach, looking at the changing representation of crime and criminals in relation to the wider political, economic, and cultural transformations, and to the commercial and technological development of the cinematographic industry. The historical and thematic reconstruction of the productive and stylistic cycles of crime films comprehends the gangster, noir, detective, courtroom, and prison film genres. Moreover, this perspective deals with the main reasons for the success of crime films, the elements that influence their production, and finally the thorny topic of the effects of crime films. Keywords: crime in popular culture, law in popular culture, criminology and films, gangster films, police films, courtroom films, prison films

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Crime Films

Definitions and Methodological Issues The cultural representation of crime has a long history. Crime and criminal justice have been central themes in oral culture, myths, fables, literature, and the theater since antiquity (Cavender & Jurik, 2014, 2016; Greer & Reiner, 2012). The narration of crime has continued in the cinema, which, together with television, has proved to be perhaps its most extensive, popular, and powerful medium. The crime film is a complex and variegated object of study, with many facets (Benyahia, 2012;

Hardy, 1997; Leitch, 2002; Rafter, 2006; Thompson, 2007). The first issue to present itself

is that of definition. Unlike the western or the war film, the definition of the “crime film” as a cinematographic genre is not straightforward. For Clarens (1997, p. 13) for example, crime films present a symbolic representation of criminals, law, and society. They describe what is culturally and morally abnormal, and in this respect they differ from thrillers, which in contrast are concerned with the psychological and private spheres. Schatz (1981, p. 26) does not refer to the concept of crime film as a genre and separates the gangster film, whose protagonist “has aligned himself with the forces of crime and social disorder” from the hardboiled-detective film, in which, in contrast, the “detective, like the Westerner, represents the man-in-the-middle, mediating the forces of order and anarchy.” Neale (2000) also refrains from using the concept of crime film, referring instead to three main crime genres: the gangster film, the detective film, and the suspense thriller, which respectively emphasize the essential figures of the crime film, that is, the criminal, the agent of law and order, and the victim (see also Derry, 1988; Rubin, 1999). From a criminological point of view, however, the problem of how to frame the crime film within a given and consistent genre does not seem to be fundamental: it is more interesting to consider its overall social meaning. To this end, it would seem more useful to adopt the approach proposed by Rafter (2006, p. 6)—that is, to consider the crime film not as a genre, but rather as “a category that encompasses a number of genres—caper films, detective movies, gangster films, cop and prison movies, courtroom dramas, and the many offerings for which there may be no better generic label than, simply, crime stories.” With the conclusions of the law and film movement (Greenfield & Robson, 2010; Machura, 2016) in mind, it can thus be stated that crime films are all those movies whose central theme is crime and its consequences. At this juncture, it might be tempting to change the question and ask, somewhat provocatively, what is meant by crime? Crime is a historically relative concept: a social construct and, indeed, a highly contested one. For this reason, to understand the meaning of crime and crime control, one must understand their cultural representations, that is, the way they are portrayed in the media (Carrabine, 2008; Ferrell, Young, & Hayward, 2008).

Indeed, according to Leitch (2002), crime films can be distinguished from other types

of film and recognized as a genre precisely because they dramatize the uncertainty of

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Crime Films

moral categories and the ever-present tension between the social order and its violation. Crime films bring the spectator face to face with the constant ambivalence between the comforting safety of good and the fascination of evil. For this reason, crime films should be defined on the basis of their relationship with society (Rafter, 2006). As with every cultural product, this relationship is reciprocal. On one hand, crime films reveal something important about the social context that they represent and from which they have been fashioned. On the other, they themselves have an effect on the social context, since their representation of crime, law, justice, and punishment itself becomes culture, acquires meaning, and provides an interpretation of reality. This is the case for both the general public and for the criminals, policemen, and judges. However, the influence of crime films also extends to criminology. Not only does a crime film express its own verdict on the causes of crime, anticipating or strengthening certain criminological theories, but it can also serve to enrich scientific reflection, shifting attention to problems and perspectives that criminology can unwittingly neglect (Deflem, 2010; Frauley, 2010; Hayward & Presdee, 2010; Jacobsen, 2014; Picart, Jacobsen, & Greek, 2016; Rafter, 2006, 2007; Rafter & Brown, 2011; Tzanelli, Yar, & O’Brien, 2005). The discourse on crime generated by crime films and other media, which Rafter (2007) calls popular criminology, has an even greater social significance than academic criminology. As Machura (2016, p. 27) says, “films, as complex entities, are the product not only of a work team but also of a society (or, at least certain segments of society). Broader social communications, myths, stories, and stereotypes are filling in the spaces of films, as if the audience has a say in the production.” How then should the criminological study of crime films be approached? First of all, this perspective requires a complex and interdisciplinary methodological approach, which draws not only on criminology, but also on sociology, criminal law, psychology, and economics, as well as on the history and aesthetics of cinema. Indeed, an analysis of what Young (2009) calls “the cinematic nature of the medium of film” is also required. The external aspects that influence the production of crime films and their reception should also be considered. In this regard, Cameron (1975, p. 12) is right when he affirms that of all the film genres, “no genre has been more consistently shaped by factors from outside the cinema than the crime movie.” A broader cultural study is thus necessary, looking at the changing representation of crime and criminals in relation to the wider political, economic, and cultural transformations, and to the commercial and technological development of the cinematographic industry. 1 Given this premise, a highly selective historical and thematic reconstruction of the productive and stylistic cycles of crime films is attempted here, specifically tackling the gangster, noir, detective, courtroom, and prison film genres. Subsequently, the main reasons for the success of crime films and what elements influence their production are described. Lastly, the thorny topic of the effects of crime films is discussed. This way of structuring the questions has a purely heuristic value, since, as with all means of

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Crime Films

communication, it is wrong to consider the three levels of investigation (the content, production, and impact of crime films) separately.

A Brief History of Crime Films The difficulty of writing a history of the crime film arises first and foremost from its uncertain definition. If the crime film is to be considered as an umbrella category that encompasses numerous different genres, it becomes necessary to take account of the specific evolution (gestation, take-off, success, decline, recovery) of each of these genres, for example, the gangster or the noir. Another difficulty is that of following the evolution of crime films in light of broader social transformations, which helps to understand how society’s attitudes toward crime and criminals have changed. For this reason, it is necessary to study the individual national milieus, the characteristics of the social, criminal, and juridical contexts of reference. Studies and research that apply a combined sociological and criminological approach to media products thus have great potential. Listed in the following are examples of how the specific types of crime and criminals that cinema chooses to represent depend on the social context. It will be seen how cinema, as with all media, contributes to the cultural construction of the social problems that preoccupy the citizens and for which intervention on the part of politicians and police is required. The interest of the cinema and the cinema-going public in crime is a global phenomenon. However, it is inevitable that most of the references given here are to American cinema and society. Given the uncertainty regarding the definition of crime films, there can be no sure way to accurately quantify them, although quantitative research does demonstrate their success. In one of the earliest studies of cinematic content, Dale (1935) found that crime was the second most frequent theme, after love, in the films of the 1920s. Langman and Finn (1994, 1995A, 1995B) counted over 4000 American crime films from the 1890s to 1959, including more than 2000 for the silent era, more than 1000 for the 1930s, and more than 1200 for the 1940s and 1950s. A total of 26% of British films between 1930 and 1983 can be classified as crime films (Gifford, cited in Chibnall & Murphy, 2005, p. 1). Allen et al. (1997) demonstrated that nearly half of all films released in Britain between 1945 and 1991, which include American and European films as well as British productions, had crime as a central part of the narrative structure, with little change in this proportion over the period. From its very beginnings, cinema has been about crime. The first American film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), is a story of robbery, violence, and pursuit. In the phases of experimentation and then consolidation of the cinematographic industry, a valuable source of compelling stories of criminals with which to attract the public was literature: not only the detective fiction of Poe and Conan Doyle, but also the great 19th-century

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Crime Films

novels by Dickens, Sue, and Zola, who so vividly depicted the emergence of urban and industrial society and all its contradictions (Abruzzese, 2007; Ousby, 1976). The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) by D. W. Griffith is considered the first-ever gangster film. The title card of the movie, which tells the audience that the story will take place on “New York’s Other Side,” is significant. It is proof of the close link between the crime film and the dangerous side of the metropolis, depicted with all its social contradictions (Clarens, 1997). This interest in the underworld is attested by the masterpiece of the same name, which enjoyed great success: Underworld (1927) is the classic example of a redemption story, just like many other crime films of this silent phase of cinema (e.g., Me, Gangster, 1928). However, this film already fully expressed two characteristics that were to become typical of the crime films of the following decade: the fascination of the gangster and the spectacle of violence. Crime films were also extremely popular in Europe and contributed to the rise of cinema. Of great importance is the cycle of Fantômas film (1913–1914), set in the streets of Paris (Abel, 1994). The main character is an uncatchable and evil thief, a symbol of rebellion against the social conformism of the Belle Époque. Figures of criminals such as Fantômas are frequent in European silent cinema: they expressed the feeling of a crisis of civilization caused by the profound social transformations of the modern world and the shock of the First World War. In this sense, some of the most important films of German cinema are particularly significant (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920; Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, 1922; and Sunrise, 1927) (Elsaesser, 2000).

Gangster Films The tendencies of silent cinema regarding the representation of crime were to be amplified in the cinema of the 1930s, when cinema became the most important means of mass communication. Cinema was now the dominant culture for Americans, providing new values and social ideals that contrasted with tradition (Sklar, 1994). At the start of the 1930s, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the advent of talking pictures left an indelible sign on the American consciousness (Clarens, 1997, p. 40). It is no coincidence that the first all-talking full-length feature film was Lights of New York (1928), centered on the crime of bootlegging. In this context, the American gangster movie provided a mythical but ambivalent representation of urbanization and immigration, two phenomena that posed a threat to traditional America (Rosow, 1978; Sklar, 1992). In the Prohibition era, modern urban pleasures clashed with traditional morality, leading to feelings of loss and uncertainty (Doherty, 1999; Potter, 1998). The gangsters of the cinema in that period, like those in real life, were all second-generation immigrants, especially Italians, but also Irish, Jewish, and others. However, crime films were also a reflection of the crisis of the American Dream in the epoch of the Depression (Bergman, 1971; Dickstein, 2009). There

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Crime Films

was a general loss of confidence in the government and the elites, both of whom were seen to be responsible for the economic crisis. All these factors are behind the “richest decade in crime film history” (Todd, 2006, p. 25). The gangster movie was the key genre of these years (Grieveson, Sonnet, & Stanfield, 2005;

Mason, 2002; Munby, 1999; Renga, 2011; Rosow, 1978; Shadoian, 2003; Silver & Ursini, 2007;

Wilson, 2014). The gangster, together with the western, is one of Hollywood’s most representative and easily recognizable genres (Warshow, 1954). Preceded by a boom in popular literature based on gangsters and private detectives, the beginning of the 1930s saw films such as The Doorway to Hell (1930), the first film about Al Capone, and above all the three so-called classic gangster films: The Public Enemy (1931), Little Caesar (1931), and Scarface (1932). Following a classic rise-and-fall structure, these films emphasize the figure of the criminal in a clear and realistic way. The gangsters of these films, condemned to failure and punishment, were the tragic expression of individualism in a mass society (Warshow, 1948). The gangster film was a metaphor for the conflict between individual men, women, or groups and society as a whole: a social conflict, arising from a struggle against the legal order and society’s dominant values (Shadoian, 2003). Thus, it represented the profound contradictions of American society, including the desire for wealth and power at all costs. The success of this social critique was soon opposed by conservative movements that forced the classic gangster movie formula to be abandoned (Munby, 1999, pp. 93–110; Rosow, 1978, pp. 153– 171). The feeling of crisis, be it economic, political, or cultural, also pervades the European cinema of the 1930s, and this is clearly seen in the crime films of this period. France saw the rise of poetic realism, a style that expressed the climate of oppression of the urban lower classes (Andrew, 1995). The gangsters of the French cinema symbolized these sentiments. They are heroic figures whose poetic destiny is defeat, but unlike their American colleagues they are more sentimental (Pépé le Moko, 1937; Port of Shadows, 1938). Often their lives are marked by an encounter with a femme fatale, for which the prototype is seen in the film The Bitch (1931) (Mainon & Ursini, 2009). Before the thematic and stylistic closure imposed by the Nazis, German cinema offered another crime film masterpiece, M (1931), which contains many interesting features:...