Public Spectacles of Violence: Sensational Cinema and Journalism in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico and Brazil
On Location: Adventure Melodramas in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920–1927
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Published:May 2017
2017. "On Location: Adventure Melodramas in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920–1927", Public Spectacles of Violence: Sensational Cinema and Journalism in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico and Brazil, Rielle Navitski
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In the period of national reconstruction following the Mexican Revolution, the production of adventure films converged with efforts to forge a distinctly national culture that spanned regional, ethnic, and class divides. Incorporating scenic landscapes shot on location and incipient national icons like the charro (cattle wrangler), adventure films figured prominently in emerging discourses of film criticism. Journalists presented the staging of onscreen violence as a newsworthy spectacle while debating portrayals perilously close to stereotyped images of Mexicans in Hollywood films. In the latter half of the decade, El tren fantasma (The Ghost Train, 1926) and El puño de...
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