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Informationen zum Autor Chair of the Graduate Program in Culture and Film Studies at Haifa University's Faculty of the Humanities. Klappentext Killing as punishment in the USA, whether ordained by lynch mob or by the courts, reflects a paradox of the American nation: liberal, pluralistic, yet prone to lethal violence. This book examines the encounter between the legal history of the death penalty in America and its cinematic representations, through a comprehensive narrative and historical view of films dealing with this genre, from the silent era to the present. It addresses central issues including racial prejudice and attitudes towards the execution of women, and discusses how cinema has chosen to deal with them. It explores how such films as Michael Curtiz's 20,000 Years in Sing Sing and Fritz Lang's The Fury, Errol Morris's documentary The Thin Blue Line, John Singleton's Rosewood and Frank Darabont's death-row movie The Green Mile, have helped to shape real historical developments and public perceptions by bringing into sharper relief the legal, social and cultural tensions associated with capital punishment. In the process, Yvonne Kozlovksy-Golan provides the reader with a superb understanding of the complexities of the death penalty through US history.This book examines the encounter between the legal history of the death penalty in America and its cinematic representations, through a comprehensive narrative and historical view of films dealing with this genre, from the silent era to the present. Zusammenfassung This book examines the encounter between the legal history of the death penalty in America and its cinematic representations, through a comprehensive narrative and historical view of films dealing with this genre, from the silent era to the present. Inhaltsverzeichnis IntroductionChapter 1 Law, Fiction and DeathIntroduction: Criminality and Retribution in Hollywood FilmSilent Film: The Death Penalty as a Social Problem and as Popular EntertainmentCensorship and Manipulation: The Difficult YearsThe Golden Age of Legal Cinema…And Justice for All: Legal Cinema since the 1960sChapter 2 The Death Penalty in the United StatesHistorical Aspects of Culture, Society and LawProgress and Creativity in the Service of DeathA Living Penalty: How Much Longer?Chapter 3 A Cinematic Window to Problems Concerning the Death PenaltyLegal Controversy as a Cinematic EventA Particularly Subjective Objectivity: The Jury ProblemStrange FruitThe Mentally Retarded and the Mentally Ill on Death RowOld Enough to DieForbidden RelationshipsTechnological and Procedural Innovation in the Service of DeathChapter 4 Death Becomes Them: Women on the Gallows2.1.The Winning Formula: Women, Gallows, CameraOff with Their Heads: Politics, Monarchy, and ReligionFemale Spies and Patriotism in FilmFrom the Gallows Chamber to Iconic StatusBetween Drama and Musical Comedy: Life (and Death) as a Circus...
