| Chapter 4: | Integrating Social Science Perspectives into Film Criticism |
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Lighten up. It’s only a movie?
Peter Rainer of the L.A. Times (1991:24) responded to that question, “Sensationalistic material doesn’t exist in some value-free zone. Or is it OK to be racist or misogynist in pulp entertainment?…That pulp can seem brainless and yet still carry political content should be obvious…Pulp has always been one of the preferred ways of transmitting “ideas” in American society…on a deeper level we—literally—get the picture. Pulp movies carry a charge precisely because they don’t lay out all the meanings for us like the prestigious message movies do.”