Shadows of doubt
Subtitle: negotiations of masculinity in American genre films
By: Barry Keith Grant
Series: Contemporary approaches to film and television series
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Detroit
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9780814334577
Description: In Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films, Barry Keith Grant questions the idea that Hollywood movies reflect moments of crisis in the dominant image of masculinity. Arguing instead that part of the mythic function of genre movies is to offer audiences an ongoing dialogue on issues of gender, Grant explores a wide range of genre films, including comedies, musicals, horror, science fiction, westerns, teen movies, and action films. In ten chapters arranged chronologically according to the films discussed, Grant provides a series of close analyses of such disparate films such as Broken Blossoms, The Fatal Glass of Beer, Red River, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Night of the Living Dead, and The Hurt Locker to demonstrate that representations of masculinity in the movies involve a continuous process of ideological testing and negotiation. While some of the films considered offer important challenges to dominant representations of masculinity, others reveal an acceptance or capitulation to them. Always attentive to the details of individual film texts, Grant also places the genre films he discusses within their historical contexts and the broader contexts and traditions of popular culture that inform them, including literature, theater, and music. Scholars of film and television studies as well as readers interested in gender studies will appreciate Shadows of Doubt.--Publisher description.

"In Shadows of Doubt, Barry Keith Grant moves through virtually the entire history of American cinema, from the silents to the new millennium. Grant demonstrates both the ubiquity of masculinist ideals in American cinema and some key texts that challenge these notions within mainstream genre forms."--David Desser, professor of cinema studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Pistols and stamens : gender and genre in D. W. Griffith's Broken blossoms; title: Walking small : W. C. Fields, Groucho Marx, and the emasculation of the American comic tradition; title: Cock and bull story : Howard Hawks's Red river, professionalism, and the Western; title: The classic Hollywood musical, male desire, and the "problem" of rock n' roll; title: Growing up absurd : shtick meets teenpic in the delicate delinquent; title: "Cussers last stan'" : black masculinity in the cool world; title: Of men and monoliths : science fiction, gender, and 2001 a space odyssey; title: Taking back The night of the living dead : George Romero, feminism, and the horror film; title: Rich and strange : economic performance anxiety and the yuppie horror film; title: Man's favorite sport? the action films of Kathryn Bigelow.