Crime, Genre, Class, Race, Gender

We're back with an episode featuring just Neil and myself discussing a cinematic topic we both are invested in: The crime/heist genre. The core of this chat is an examination of how the structures of the genre intersect with social, racial, and economic contexts in four specific films. Sparked by our shared admiration for Justin Kurzel's The Order, we trace the lineage of socially conscious crime narratives from classic noir to contemporary thrillers. We consider genre cinema's desire to convey a sense of prestige - think of the notion of elevated horror - and revisit some of the core theoretical foundations of genre as a self-contained system, as proposed by thinkers such as Steve Neale and Rick Altman. Then we tackle four films as case studies:

• The Order (2023) - Justin Kurzel

• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) – Robert Wise

• Collateral (2004) – Michael Mann

• Widows (2018) – Steve McQueen

We analyse how each of these films, in varying ways, deploy genre frameworks to narrate the struggle for power, identity, and survival, and we interrogate the evolving relationship between cinematic pleasure and political subtext.

Shownotes

• Rick Altman - Film/Genre (London: British Film Institute, 1999)

• Neil Fox - Ashley Clark Curates BFI's Black Star - Director's Notes

• Luis M. Garcia-Mainar - Say it with generic maps: Genre, identity and flowers in Michael Mann’s Collateral - Screening the Past

• Steve Neale - Genre and Hollywood (London and New York: Routledge, 2000)

• Cayton Purdom - Mann Men - Los Angeles Review of Books

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Music Credits:

‘Theme from The Cinematologists’

Written and produced by Gwenno Saunders. Mixed by Rhys Edwards. Drums, bass & guitar by Rhys Edwards. All synths by Gwenno Saunders. Published by Downtown Music Publishing.