Exploitation Films and Poetic Justice

I hope you'll excuse the shamless self-promotion here, and I know I've already blogged once this week, but reading Neve's chapter on the censorship and politics of noir reminded me of a conference essay that I wrote in the spring about poetic justice in exploitation movies of the 1960s (I know, more 60s stuff...).

Here's the thrust of my argument: I talk about the use of poetic justice to "punish" "transgressions" of sex, drugs, and violence in several late 60s movies and suggest that "In the late 60s [. . .] youth culture was no longer incipient. Indeed, there’s much evidence to suggest that while exploitation cinema prior to the 1960s was primarily aimed at parents, late 60s exploitica was aimed at young and old alike. In the late 60s youth culture had itself reached adolescence, and for the first time, youth culture was truly mass culture, not just some underground or alternative. For this reason, the moral stakes were higher and were important not just to the youth and not just to their parents, but to the culture at large."

I thought of this because I feel like it dovetails with Neve's comment that "The censors [. . .] always saw to it that evil was punished in these pictures and that sin or corruption was depicted with a degree of restraint" (98)

If Neve's essay or my preview has piqued your interest, you can check out my essay by following this link.

Again, I apologize if this feels tacky or isn't in the spirit of this blog. My intention here is simply to add to the discussion, so I hope it doesn't seem like I'm instead trying to directed it toward myself. Just give me dirty looks in class today if you feel it's warranted.