Detecting Men: Masculinity And the Hollywood Detective Film

by Gates, Philippa

• ISBN13: 9780791468142
• ISBN10: 0791468143
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-06
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

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. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
PART I The Crime Lab—Theorizing Masculinity and the Detective Genre
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: The Case	3	(24)
CHAPTER TWO The Myths of Masculinity	27	(28)
PART II Investigating Masculinity—The 1940's and the 1980's
CHAPTER THREE Investigating National Heroes: British Sleuths and American Dicks	55	(40)
CHAPTER FOUR Investigating Crisis: Neo-Noir Heroes and Femmes Fatales	95	(30)
CHAPTER FIVE Investigating Crisis: The Spectacle of "Musculinity"	125	(32)
PART III Investigating the Crime Scene—The 1990's and 2000's
CHAPTER SIX Investigating the Hero: The Criminalist	157	(32)
CHAPTER SEVEN Investigating the "Other": Race and the Detective	189	(28)
CHAPTER EIGHT Investigating the "Other": Women and Youth	217	(36)
CHAPTER NINE Investigating the "Other": The Cult of Villainy	253	(30)
CHAPTER TEN End of the Investigation: Case Closed	283	(4)
Notes	287	(14)
Filmography	301	(16)
Works Cited	317	(20)
Index	337