Languages & Culture
Film & Media: 5 Classic British Crime Thrillers Revisited
Course overview
What does it take to keep the audience on the edge of their seat for the classic film thriller experience? What happens when crime is thrown into the mix? We explore five examples now regarded as classics of this genre and question – do they all have far more than ‘just’ generic entertainment value? For a brief period in the 1980s, it appeared as though the crime thriller expressed something about what was perhaps a changing, or changed Britain – we examine two of these films, The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa. Classics such as Brighton Rock provide an interesting and historical British cinematic parallel to the gangster and noir films of 30s and 40s U.S. Whereas, Get Carter, a film now regarded as an icon of national cinema was initially conceived as a trashy ‘pot-boiler’ for the U.S drive-in market, leaving some to argue it could be viewed as more of a ‘revenge Western’ set in North East England? Whilst Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave seemingly reinvigorates the genre into something arguably more sophisticated and/or accessible in the 1990s? What common techniques do these films employ and what do they say thematically about reoccurring anxieties and tensions of the societies which produced and consumed them? Can filmmakers still learn from these or have some now dated in their power to keep us on the edge of the seat? Mona Lisa (1986), The Long Good Friday (1980), Get Carter (1971), Brighton Rock (1948), Shallow Grave (1994).
Course description
A friendly and accessible exploration of five classic British crime thrillers, promoting knowledge, understanding and appreciation not only on the big screen crime thriller, but also of cinema in general. The British crime thriller, something often regarded as ‘iconic’ – why? Five films which chart social change as well as how crime, justice and morality in a changing Britain are represented on screen. The crime thriller itself is a sub-genre which can be read of crossing through other genres, dipping into and out of fashion. Touches of Film Noir? Sometimes dangling on the edge of horror but are some of these films just mimicking bigger budget U.S cinema or does the British Crime thriller have something to say?
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