Screening Violence

Stephen Prince is associate professor of communication studies at Virginia Tech. He has written many books on film, including The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa, and Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film.

Screening Violence features an impressive scope of articles on the problem of media violence and its increase since the 1960s. In his introduction, Prince states his editorial goals, which are to examine Æthe origins of ultraviolent movies, the long-standing controversies over the effects of viewing film violence, the evidence furnished by social science about these effects, and the inherent characteristics of screen violence that subvert its progressive, legitimate uses.Æ . . . Screening Violence offers an excellent introduction to the topic for use in the classroom . . . and the variety of sources invites selective courses of reading. Students will also appreciate the focus on the historical moment, before their time, when the discussion of media violence begins to take the shape familiar to them from their own experience. (H-Net Review) This welcome collection on cinematic Æultra violenceÆ comprises 14 readable contributions, most by film critics, film scholars, and social scientists. . . . Readers will enjoy Bosley CrowtherÆs elitist angst and Jack ValentiÆs convoluted testimony before the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Suitable for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses. (Choice)

• Graphic Violence in the Cinema: Origins, Aesthetic Design, and Social EffectsThe Historical Context of Ultraviolence -The Thin Red LineMovies to Kill People ByAnother Smash at ViolenceCrowther Crowther's `Bonnie'-Brook: Rap at Violence Stirs BrouhahaStatement by Jack Valenti, MPAA President, before the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of ViolenceThe Aesthetics of Ultraviolence -Bang Bang Bang Bang, Ad NaseumDeath and Its DetailsViolence: The Strong and the WeakThe Violent Dance: A Personal Memoir of Death in the MoviesHer Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher FilmThe Aesthetic of Slow-Motion Violence in the Films of Sam PeckinpahThe Effects of Ultraviolence -Some Effects of Thoughts on Anti- and Prosocial Influences of Media Events: A Cognitive-Neoassociation AnalysisMass Media Effects on Violent BehaviorContributorsIndex