Screening Violence

Graphic cinematic violence is a magnet for controversy.

From passionate defences to outraged protests, theories abound concerning this feature of modern film: is it art or exploitation, dangerous or liberating?

This volume provides an examination of the history, merits and effects of cinematic "ultraviolence".

Movie reviewers, cinematographers, film scholars, psycologists and sociologists all contribute essays exploring topics such as: the origins and innovations of film violence and attempts to regulate it; Hollywood's production code and the evolution of the ratings system; the explosion of screen violence following the 1967 releases of "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Dirty Dozen", and the lasting effects of these landmark films; the aesthetics of increasingly graphic screen violence; the implications of our growing desensitization to murder and mayhem, from "The Wild Bunch" to "The Terminator".