Overview

An incisive analysis of contemporary crime film in Brazil, this book focuses on how movies in this genre represent masculinity and how their messages connect to twenty-first-century sociopolitical issues. Jeremy Lehnen argues that these films promote an agenda in support of the nation's recent swing toward authoritarianism that culminated in the 2018 election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.Lehnen examines the integral role of masculinity in several archetypal crime films, most of which foreground urban violence, including Cidade de Deus, Quase Dois Irmãos, Tropa de Elite, O Homem do Ano, and O Doutrinador. Within these films, Lehnen finds representations that criminalize the poor, marginalized male; emasculate the civilian middle-class male intellectual, casting him as unable to respond to crime; and portray state security as the only power able to stem increasing crime rates. Drawing on insights from masculinity studies, Lehnen contends that Brazilian crime films are ideologically charged mediums that assert and normalize the presence of the neo-authoritarian male within society. This book demonstrates how gendered scripts can become widely accepted by audiences and contribute to very real power structures beyond the sphere of cinema.

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9781683402541

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Reviews

""Lehnen boldly argues that this particular genre of Brazilian cinema was partially responsible for dictator-in-the-making Jair Bolsonaro. Through a broad overview of Brazilian crime film since cinema novo and deep, nuanced readings of popular and/or acclaimed 21st-century classics . . . Lehnen provides the cinematic evidence to back up his argument. . . . Theoretically dense yet highly readable.""--Choice

Author Information

Jeremy Lehnen is visiting associate professor of gender studies and Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Brown University.

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