Genre-Busting Dark Comedies of the 1970s: Twelve American Films - Softcover

Gehring, Wes D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786495421 ISBN 13: 9780786495429

Publisher: McFarland, 2016

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 MASH (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.

About this title

About the Author:

Wes D. Gehring is a distinguished professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, for which he also writes the column "Reel World." He is the author of 35 film-related books, including award-winning biographies of James Dean, Carole Lombard, Steve McQueen, Robert Wise, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin.

Review:

"Gehring remains supreme in film comedy scholarship"--Choice.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0786495421
• ISBN 13: 9780786495429
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 252