Blood, guns, and testosterone
Subtitle: action films, audiences, and a thirst for violence
By: Barna William Donovan.
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Lanham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9780810872622; 9780810872639
Subjects: Action and adventure films -- History and criticism; Violence in motion pictures; Masculinity in motion pictures
Description: Overview: Blood, Guns, and Testosterone: Action Films, Audiences, and a Thirst for Violence is a study of the modern action film as a symbolic art of masculinity and a study of this genre's fans who discuss the functions film violence fulfills in their lives. Far from causing real life violence, the book demonstrates that entertainment violence has important social, political, and psychological roles in modern society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Violence and much more; title: The controversies, the crisis, and the films. The history of a modern crisis; title: The audience matters; title: The modern American action film; title: The audience. The need for speed : the appeal of fast-paced story telling; title: Mirror image : finding a personal, social, and moral identity in the action film; title: Man talk : managing the modern male identity (crisis) in the genre; title: The opposition : men with a challenge; title: managing a well-deserved "crisis"; title: What women want : women talk about modern masculinity in the action film; title: Bloody fun : the appeal of watching violence; title: Conclusions: I'll be back? The future of action and masculinity in popular culture.