Savage Cinema

by Rick Trader Witcombe

No medium is as well equipped as the cinema to bite deeply into the scale of twentieth century violence and its terrible complexity. in Savage Cinema the author explores the theme as presented in the Western and the Horror film. He moves through the worlds of Hitchcock and Polanski, the master so suspense and bloodletting. He analyzes the "mindless violence" of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, set in the near-future, where queerbashing, mugging, gratuitous robbery and rape are an everyday phenomena. The question posed here is "Who is to blame and who is the villain?" Is it the hoodlum? Or is it the bland and sterile society which has spawned him?

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Willy Boy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catnip for cinema fetishists of a certain disposition ... could be called 'dated' by the know-all pedants of the internet (who know nothing!) ... there are even a few morsels of arcane trivia/inaccuracies (the days when rumour held a firmer sway over the imagination, before deadening accurate maps made travel unnecessary) that might raise an eyebrow ... You only want it for the cover anyway, and that's fine. All the film books in this series (Ape: The Kingdom of Kong, Cut - The Unseen Cinema) are extremely sought after by cool people, but don't pay very far into double figures.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stroll down memory lane. From Charles Bronson to Dirty Harry to A Clockwork Orange... many movie stills of violence on the screen. A bit mixed up but overall an impressive view on many violent movies most of us have seen or heard about. Corresponds to the title. Really recommended!