Changing Images of Law in Film and Television Crime Stories (Politics, Media & Popular Culture) [Paperback]

Timothy O. Lenz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing (May 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820457922
• ISBN-13: 978-0820457925
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,626,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Useful Starting Point, January 21, 2004

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This review is from: Changing Images of Law in Film and Television Crime Stories (Politics, Media & Popular Culture) (Paperback)

The author categorizes dramatizations, mostly in movies, by the degree to which they resemble liberal imagery, conservative imagery, or images between those stereotypes. Dr. Lenz labels liberal those films or shows that depict or endorse due process ideals, rehabilitation, indeterminate sentencing, judicial review, legal autonomy, or professional administration of criminal justice. Movies or television programs that prefer crime control ideals, punishment, determinate sentences, legislative control, populist sovereignty, or political administration of justice Professor Lenz labels conservative. Those loosely defined "poles" form a Liberal-Conservative Non-Continuum, which leaves room for other images that the author presumes to be intermediate.

The author then associates these archetypes and the intermediate category with historical eras. Accordingly, he finds that liberal images are associated with films of the 1930s and around 1960. Conservative images, by contrast, have been more prominent since the 1970s; while the transitional 1960s and early 1970s, accompanied by waning regard for liberal views and waxing support for conservatism, shaped admixtures of liberal and conservative imagery. Lenz speculates that a new transitional state may be in the offing as criticisms of current criminal justice conservatism mount.

Lenz detects themes in cinematic or televised productions by closely assessing the plotlines that he then interprets consistent with his categorization of images and periodization of productions. Some of his descriptions of movie plots are quite lengthy, such as his treatment of such classics as "12 Angry Men" or "To Kill a Mockingbird," so this monograph may launch some college or high school papers. The narratives are generally accurate and reasonably representative of main story lines and include some peripheral but meaningful scenes and characters. Long or short, his sketches of films and television programs, such as "Dragnet" and "Law & Order," usually yield messages that Lenz then fits to liberal or conservative themes.

Of course, this book's approach has some problems. First, most dramatizations emphasize one or more themes but feature opposing perspectives implicitly. Any feature film will likely project images from one pole, from the other pole, and points in between. Of course some facets of criminal justice need little or no emphasis to be accessible to mass moviegoers, so the presence of this theme or the dearth of that theme need not betoken much in any instance. The import of any asserted theme, it follows, is problematic.

Lenz is sometimes interpretive and sometimes impressionistic, an approach that generates insights but tempts both the author and his readers to overlook opposing premises, baseline norms, and clashing values that make many movies rich and interesting. Readers thus will find in this monograph a wealth of ideas but should not use it for confirmation or authority.

Third, the author's themes often require that he hammer films until they fit. For example, Lenz has obvious reasons to assert that the multiple "Dirty Harry" movies denigrate liberal legalism and liberal politics. Beyond the obvious, however, each of the motion pictures featuring Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) also reinforces liberal politics and images inconsistent with either of Lenz's ideological "poles." Inspector Callahan's partners in the first three films of the series are Hispanic (in "Dirty Harry"), African-American (in "Magnum Force"), or female (in "The Enforcer" after Callahan's Italian American male partner is stabbed), and each projects the mettle of a member of a previously under-represented group in law enforcement. This strikes me as a liberal message that might induce some in the audience to believe that desegregation-even (in "the Enforcer") affirmative action-might result in an influx of courage and competency into the police ranks that tend, across the series, to be led by craven incompetents. Harry Callahan attacks newfangled notions and resists "progress," but he also learns the error of some of his ways even as he reasserts at great muzzle velocity and caliber the superiority of his cowboy ways. Moreover, judges and administrators (in the Lenz liberal column) and elected officials and their handlers (who likely align on the conservative pole) frequently appear loathsome when they are not inept, which could easily foster selective confirmation of expectations by a viewer/interpreter.

The selection of motion pictures and television programs should trouble any reader familiar with movies of a given era. Given the volume of movies that are produced, a number that have some focus on criminal justice must be neglected, of course, in a short book. Many readers will never have heard of "Adam's Rib" (1949) and will be unaware of its multiple liberal and conservative themes regarding criminal justice that are embedded in the comedic battle of the sexes between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

For the reasons above, this book serves to generate insights and ideas but does not provide comprehensive coverage or much depth.