Number of Items in Your Basket
Basket Total
BFI Filmstore  >   Books & Magazines >  BFI Classics  > Big Heat, The: BFI Film Classics
Information
 Home
 Latest BFI Products
 Best Sellers
 Offers & Promotions
 BFI Member Discounts
 Visit the Filmstore
 Filmstore Events
 Certification
Products
Contact Us
Tel: 020 7815 135
Accepted Cards: Visa Mastercard Amex Maestro Delta Solo Electron
Big Heat, The: BFI Film Classics

31-Oct-92
80 pages
Published/distributed by BFI Publishing
ISBN/EAN: 9780851703428
Paperback
Price: £9.99
<back
Big Heat, The: BFI Film Classics 
McArthur, Colin
The Big Heat first appeared in 1953, towards the end of the film noir cycle which had begun in the early 40s. It was greeted in America and Britain as a successful but modest product of the Hollywood system, 'slickly written and directed', in the words of one critic. Only the extreme violence, as in the infamous scalding coffee scene, was singled out for special mention. Yet by the time the film was reissued in Britain in 1988 it had achieved undisputed classic status.
How had this transformation come about? Colin McArthur takes The Big Heat as a case study in film criticism. He examines the film's changing critical fortunes under the influence of the so-called auteur theory, and shows how other intellectual currents led to a reassessment of Lang's work in the 1970s. McArthur provides his own perceptive analysis of the film in the light of these revolutions in film criticism.
0