Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-219) and index.
Contents:
Introduction. Hollywood at Ground Zero: confessions of a conflicted fan -- 1. "It was like a movie!": theorizing the eerie symmetries of a War of Terror -- 2. On the frontier between hate and empathy: the post-9/11 border Western -- 3. Femmes fatales as torturers and lost detectives in a fragile city: post-9/11 noir -- 4. Soaring above the law: the post-9/11 superhero -- "5. 9/11 transformed the whole planet, not just America!" the War of Terror's shadow across global law and cinema.
Summary:
"A deeply personal study of post-9/11 film that exposes how genre can frame the shifting meanings of the War on Terror and its impact on American law and culture"-- Provided by publisher. No Jurisdiction interweaves autobiography and analysis to explore how a disabled American of French-Arab descent justifies his love for the (super)heros who destroy brown people like himself. Framing Hollywood genre films as a key to understanding a crisis-filled world shaped by the global War on Terror, Fareed Ben-Youssef shows how, in response to 9/11, filmmakers and lawmakers mobilized iconic characters--the cowboy, the femme fatale, and the superhero--to make sense of our traumas and inspire new legal landscapes. The competing visions of power produced in this dialogue between Hollywood entertainment and mainstream politics underscore genre cinema's multivalent purpose: to normalize state violence and also to critique it. Chapters devoted to the Western, film noir, superhero movies, and global films that deploy and comment on these genres offer compelling readings of films ranging from the more apparent (The Dark Knight, Sicario, and Logan) to the more unexpected (Sin City, Adieu Gary, The Broken Circle Breakdown, and Tokyo Sonata). Through narratives of states of emergency that include vaguely defined enemies, obscured battlefield boundaries, and blurred lines between victims and perpetrators, a new post-9/11 film canon emerges. No Jurisdiction is a deeply personal work of film scholarship, arguing that we can face our complicity and discover opportunities for resistance through our beloved genre movies--back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.