GENRE-BUSTING DARK COMEDIES OF THE 1970S by Wes D. Gehring ( 9780786495429 )

Item Details

Title:

GENRE-BUSTING DARK COMEDIES OF THE 1970S
TWELVE AMERICAN FILMS

By:

Wes D. Gehring

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£39.95

Our price:

£35.96

Discount:

10% off

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£3.99

ISBN 10:

0786495421

ISBN 13:

9780786495429

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Publisher:

MCFARLAND & CO INC

Pub. date:

3 March, 2016

Pages:

277

Synopsis:

This examination of dark comedies of the 1970s focuses on films which concealed black humor behind a misleading genre label. All That Jazz (1979) is a musical...about death - hardly Fred and Ginger territory. This masking goes beyond misnomer to a breaking of formula that director Robert Altman called "anti-genre." Altman's M.A.S.H. (1970) ridiculed the military establishment in general - the Vietnam War in particular - under the guise of a standard military service comedy. The picaresque Western Little Big Man (1970) turned the bluecoats vs. Indians formula upside-down - the audience roots for the Indians instead of the cavalry. The book covers 12 essential films, including Harold and Maude (1971), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Being There (1979), with notes on A Clockwork Orange (1971). These films reveal a compounding complexity that reinforces the absurdity at the heart of dark comedy.

Illustrations:

Illustrations

Publication:

Imprint:

McFarland & Co Inc

Returns:

Non-returnable

Some other items by this author:

"MR.B" OR COMFORTING THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BISON (HB)

AMERICAN DARK COMEDY (HB)

BUSTER KEATON IN HIS OWN TIME (PB)

CHAPLIN'S WAR TRILOGY (PB)