Genre: Film
Hardcover; [Audio CD]
ISBN #: 9780300220018; [9781705232798]
Yale University Press; [Tantor Audio]
240 Pages
$26.00; [$24.99]
August 5, 2020
⭐⭐
How many acts of murder have each of us followed on a screen? What does that say about us? Do we remain law-abiding citizens who wouldn't hurt a fly? Film historian David Thomson, known for wit and subversiveness, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister narrative process.
By turns seductive and astringent, very serious and suddenly hilarious, Murder and the Movies admits us into what Thomson calls "a warped triangle": the creator working out a compelling death; the killer doing his and her best; and the entranced reader and spectator trying to cling to life and a proper sense of decency.
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I have to tell you that I am a huge fan of classic films and own thousands of them. Movies of today, not so much. However, this doesn't mean that I haven't seen any of them; of course I have, but that doesn't make a difference in this book at all.
While I was looking forward to this book insofar as that fact, what it contained was something quite different, and it threw me for a bit of a loop. I do love Mr. Thomson's other works, so this was quite a surprise.
While I expected to read a discourse on how murder and the movies coincide with one another, there was rare mention of any film noir which, of course, have a great deal of murder within them; and to be honest, every single film mentioned tells you the ending. Now the only reason I am saying this is some people might not have seen the films mentioned (as I have never several of them) and I wouldn't want them to be blindsided by this fact.
But the thing that struck me the most wasn't the facts listed above, but the fact that at one point it descended into a mini-political rant, telling us that perhaps we shouldn't own guns because they cause more problems. Well, I think if you can get the guns out of the hands of the criminals, then we won't need them to protect ourselves. Also, if Hollywood is so concerned about getting rid of guns, why are they making films that use them? (My mini-rant).
Anyway, he does make several very good points as to the fact that perhaps seeing all this murder onscreen might have deadened our sense of it; but one could also say that playing violent video games might cause the same effect. I've often thought myself that if people could stop playing them for hours on end they might begin to be less aggressive, but who knows? (I have heard of them calling the police on one another during a gaming session just to 'get revenge.' How is this normal?)
Nevertheless, as I've stated above, I own thousands of films, and many of them mysteries. Yet never once have I had that desire to "do someone in," and I also read hundreds of mysteries every year (I read a book a day on the average); and I also watch true crime on television. Has it deadened my senses? Notably not. I still cringe at the thought of someone senselessly losing their life, and I wonder at the type of person who can take a life so easily. I think you have to be a certain type of person to have their senses deadened, much like you have to be a certain type of person to kill the way Charles Whitman did. If not, we'd all be in deep doo-doo when we left our homes on a daily basis.
I'm not positive that this is exactly what Mr. Thomson meant when he wrote the book, but it is what was interpreted to me. Just because we see it on the screen does not mean that we're so numb to life that murder means nothing to us as a people. Unfortunately, I found little humor in the book and wish I could recommend it, but I can't. I will just wait for Mr. Thomson's next book -- which I am sure will be superior to this one.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Movies-David-Thomson/dp/0300220014/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3413992829
More on David Thomson's Books: https://www.amazon.com/David-Thomson/e/B001K8AFRO/ref
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