Mean Streets and Raging Bulls (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Classic "film noir" was Hollywood's "dark cinema" of crime and corruption; a genre underpinned by a tone of existential cynicism which stripped bare the myth of the American Dream and offered a bleak, nightmarish vision of a fragmented society that rhymed with many of the social realities of forties and fifties America. "Mean Streets and Raging Bulls" explores how, since its apparent demise in the late fifties, the "noir" genre has been revitalized during the post-studio era. The book is divided into two sections. In the first, the evolution of "film noir" is contextualized in relation to both American cinema's industrial transformation and the post-Depression history of the United States. In the second, the evolution of neo-noir and its relation to classic "film noir" is illustrated by detailed reference to representative texts including "Chinatown" (Roman Polanski, 1974), "Night Moves" (Arthur Penn, 1975), "Taxi Driver" (Martin Scorsese, 1976), "Blood Simple" (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984), "After Hours" (Martin Scorsese, 1985), "Sea of Love" (Harold Becker, 1989), "Resevoir Dogs" (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), and "Romeo is Bleeding" (Peter Medak, 1994).

About the Author

Richard Martin (Ph.D., Film Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a freelance writer and editor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. (March 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810836424
• ISBN-13: 978-0810836426
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,940,483 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WEALTH OF INFO ON HOLLYWOODS 2ND GOLDEN AGE, March 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mean Streets and Raging Bulls: The Legacy of Film Noir in Contemporary American Cinema (Hardcover)

I really like this book!!! I have about 50 pages to go and dread finishing it. I love the great films of the late sixties and seventies- Coppola, Scorcese, Ashby, Kubrick, and this book looks behind the scenes of the machine that produced them and the creative people who made them. Check it out. Only reason for 4 stars is that I would have liked more photos.