Spring 2001	Pat Day
English 270	Rice 114, (440) 775-8574
TuTh, 9:35-10:50 King 321	Office hours: TuTh, 3:00-4:00, W, 3:00-4:30 & by appt
	email: William.Patrick.Day@oberlin.edu

The Scene of the Crime

http://www.oberlin.edu/~pday

The object of study in this course is American movies about crime made since 1967. The subject of the course is two-fold. We're concerned with the ways in which American filmmakers have used this subject matter to articulate a way of seeing American society, as crime seems to have become a central metaphor in the American imagination at the end of the twentieth century. We'll also be concerned with the way in which crime films are reflections on the nature and possibilities of film art. While it would be easy to see crime movies as exercises in realism and judge them accordingly, these movies are as interesting for the ways in which filmmakers choose to use crime as a way of making movies as they are for what they have to say about the way things really are.

We will also pay considerable attention to the ways in which we approach movies critically, addressing fundamental issues in the criticism of any artistic work as well as specific issues in film criticism and theory. Our goal in this is not simply to provide a "toolbox" of methods but to reflect on what it means to adopt a particular way of seeing and thinking about art. We will be especially concerned to explore the tension between considering movies as autonomous texts and as part of a larger system we call "culture"

	Film	Supplementary Veiwing	Readings
2/5	Rear Window	House of Games	Jay Clayton Culture/Narrative./Power Scott Carpenter Monkeys at the Typewriter Rounding Up the Usual Suspects John Belton Mise-en-Scene
This American Life Part 1
2/12	Bonnie & Clyde	Gun Crazy	Tim Corrigan Themes, Narratives, and Elements of Style Thomas Friedman"Crimes of the Self" & "A Nation Beseiged" Pauline Kael"Bonnie and Clyde"
2/19	The Godfather	Little Ceasar OR Scarface OR Public Enemy OR	Corrigan Genre & Other Assumptions
2/26	Badlands		Scott Carpenter Mssng Lttrs Thomas Schatz Film Genre
Watching the Detectives
3/3	Chinatown	The Maltese Falcon OR	Belton: Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night John Cawelti Chinatown and Genric Transformation in Recent American Cinema
3/10	The Long Goodbye	The Big Sleep AV Murder My Sweet AV	Paul Schrader Notes on Film Noir
3/18	Devil in a Blue Dress	Night Moves AV
3/25	Fall Break
Monsters and Heroes
4/1	Dirty Harry		Andrew Sarris Notes on the Auteur Theory Peter Wollen Auteur Theory
4/8	Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer		Parker Tyler from The Myth and Magic of the Movies
4/15	Silence of the Lambs		Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
This American Life Part 2
4/22	The Grifters	Detour, Double Indemnity
4/29	One False Move	Out of the Past Hard Choices AV Body Heat AV
5/6	Fargo	Touch of Evil

The Reader for this course is available in the English Department Office, Rice 130. It costs $10.00; please bring exact change.

1) I assume valuable things happen in class sessions. I take attendance; I expect you to keep track of your attendance too, because "I didn't realize I'd missed that many classes" is not an excuse. You get two unexcused absences, that is absences other than illness or family emergency . "I had a paper due for another course, my fish was depressed, I don't do Tuesdays, I'm in a production of The Sunshine Boys and we had rehersal" are not excusable absences.

We only have 26 classes, less than 33 hours over the semester. More than 2 unexcused absences and your grade goes down; after 6 unexcused absences, you've no-entered the course.

2) You have to participate in the class. Participation doesn't mean talking a lot, it means being engaged in the interchange among the members of the class: asking good questions, responding to other people's questions, thinking before you talk. Talking in groups such as a class is a skill, every bit as much as writing is. Its a skill worth having, because in fact a lot of work in all institutions gets done in that way. Being able to talk effectively in a group is, as they say, an important "self-empowerment." I know that a number of people have trouble speaking up in class. You should feel as free to consult me on strategies and methods for doing that as you'd to consult me about your writing.

3)You have to form, with other members of the course, a discussion group that meets outside of class once a week. Some groups prefer to meet before discussions and/or lectures, other prefer to meet after. That's up to each group to decide. Groups should be 4 or 5 people maximum.

Academic or emergency incompletes are yours to take if you want, as long as you are in good standing in the course. You don't need to tell me the story, unless you want to; I trust that you wouldn't take an incomplete without a good reason. "Good Standing" means that you have completed all the work assigned for the first module and at least some of the work for the second

• Written work must be handed in on time.
• Late essays will be accepted at the discretion of the instructor
• All work must be handed in in order to get credit for the course.
• Essays must be typed, double spaced, stapled together,with pages numbered.
• Backs of previously used paper is fine for drafts; final version should be printed on both sides of the sheet.
• Essays must have a title, though they don't have to have a cover sheet.
• References should be in the following form: (Wordsworth, "Preface" p. 2) with full citation in end notes

I'll divide you into 5 listerve groups. Once each module, each of the members of a group will be required to post a short essay (about 900 words) about a movie on the listserve for the course. Half the essays will be posted on Monday by 5 pm; the other half on Wednesday by 5 pm.

These essays should comment on the movies and pose a question question about the movie, though the essay can also put the movie relation to the earlier works and to the readings. The essay should have a point of view, a way of interpreting the movie, rather than emphasizing plot summary or description. When writing these, think about what you want to tell the reader that is important, rather than just present an analysis of some element of the movie. Or to put it another way, if we analyse the movie in this way, why does that matter?

Each week a disussion group will be responsible for a brief presentation whose goal is to start discussion.

A 3000 word essay on a topic of your choice. The essay will be developed over the course of the semester in five stages.

1. A 750-900 word essay in which you explain why crime stories are interesting.
2. Midterm essay, 1000 words. This essay will take the form of a reflection on what we have done in the first half of the semester. You may revise or reflect back upon your first essay, or you can write something totally new. Due the week before Spring Break
3. Proposal. A brief 500 word explanation of what you want to write about and why. due 3/17
4. First Draft due 3/28. I'll read and comment on this draft. It should be as complete as possible, but I don't expect a "finished" product. You'll read and comment on the drafts of 2 other members of the class.
5. Final Draft. Due at the end of Reading Period.

The comments on your writing will be, as one former student put it, "ambiguous." I don't do much "this is good, that's bad" commenting. The comments I make will be directed to making you think about what you're writing about, raissing issues you may want to consider in revising, or writing about in the next prep essay. For specific advice on how to revise, what to do with a particular argument, etc., we should set up a conference.

You won't receive any grades over the course of the semester. This isn't because the grade is unimportant (if it was unimportant we wouldn't give it, would we?) but because the work in the course is part of a process, rather than a sequence of discrete units. If I am trying to encourage you to use your writing to be experimental and speculative, leading to your final essay, it makes little sense to grade it along the way. But if you want a sense of how you're doing, you should feel free to come and speak to me about your work. I will be able to tell you if you are making what I see as reasonable progress, what things you may want to work on, what things you seem to be doing best. I won't be able to be extremely precise about a grade equivelent, however. On a rough scale, though, I would say that if you are doing intelligent analysis of the works we consider and are able to state your own views clearly, that is C- to C+ work. If you are able to interpret the material we are working with, discuss not only what is "said" but what its significance might be, you would be in the B- to B range. If in addition you can demonstrate a capacity for self-reflective critical work (thinkingabout your own way of thinking and what it means to think as you do) you would be in the B+ to A range. So these are the kinds of mental activity you will be doing in the course: analysis & response, interpretation, and self-reflection.

Other Works on Reserve:

Carlos Clarens Crime Movies: An Illustrated History

Thomas Schatz Hollywood Genres

Filmography, Scene of the Crime. In Chronological Order

Bonnie and Clyde Warner/Seven Arts/Tatira/Hiller/Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty, prod. dir. Arthur Penn, scr. David Newman and Robert Benton, ph Burnett Guffey, mus. Charles Strouse 1967

Dirty Harry Warner/Malpaso Don Siegal, prod. dir. Don Siegal, scr Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, Dean Reisner, ph Bruce Surtees, mus. Lalo Schifrin. 1971

The Godfather Paramount/ Alfran Albert S. Ruddy, prod. dir. Francis Ford Coppola, scr. Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo from his novel, ph Gordon Willis, pd Dean Tavourlais, mus. Nino Rota 1972

Chinatown. Paramount/Long Road Robert Evans, prod. dir. Roman Polanski, scr. Robert Towne, ph John Alonso, pd Richard Sylbert, mus Jerry Goldsmith 1973.

The Long Goodbye UA/Lion's Gate Jerry Bick, prod. dir. Robert Altman, scr. Leigh Brackett from the novel by Raymond Chandler, ph Vilmos Zsigmond, mus John Williams 1973

Badlands Columbia/Pressman/Williams/Badlands Terrence Malick, prod. dir & scr. Terrence Malick ph Brian Probyn, Tak Fujimoto, Stevan Larent, mus. George Tipton 1973

Henry. Portrait of A Serial Killer prod. Waleed Ali, dir. John McNaughton, scr. Richard Fire 1986

House of Games Filmhaus/Orion Michael Hausman, prod. dir & scn David Mamet, from a story by Jonathan Katz and David Mamet, ph Juan Ruiz Anchiva, pd. Michael Merritt, mus. Alaric Jans 1987

The Grifters prod. Martin Scorsese, Robert Harris, James Paintern dir. Stephen Frears, scr. Donald E. Westlake 1991

Silence of the Lambs Orion Pictures Edward Saxon, Kenneth Utt, Ron Bozman prod. dir. Jonathan Demme, scn Ted Tally from the novel by Thomas Harris ph Tak Fujimoto, pd Krista Zea, mus. Howard Shore. 1991

One False Move IRS Media Jesse Beaton and Ben Myron, prod. dir. Carl Franklin, scn Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, ph James L. Carter, pd Gary New, Peter Haycock, Derek Holt, mus. 1991

Devil in a Blue Dress Tristar/Clinica Estetica/Mandy Lane Entertainment prod. Jesse Beaton, Johnathan Demme, prod. dir & scn by Carl Franklin from the novel by Walter Mosley, ph Tak Fujimoto, pd Gary Frithuff, mus. Elmer Bernstein 1996

Fargo Gramercy/Polygram Tom Bevan, Ethan Cohen, prod. dir. Joel Cohen, scn Joel and Ethan Cohen, ph. Roger Deakins, pd. Rich Heinrichs, mus. Carter Burwell, 1996