Urban Crime Control in Cinema : Fallen Guardians and the Ideology of Repression

This book uses popular films to understand the convergence of crime control and the ideology of repression in contemporary capitalism. It focuses on the cinematic figure of the fallen guardian, a protagonist who, in the course of a narrative, falls from grace and becomes an enemy of the established social order. The fallen guardian is a figure that allows for the analysis of a particular crime control measure through the perspective of both an enforcer and a target. The very notion of justice is challenged, and questions are posed in relation to the role that films assume in the reproduction of policing as it is. In doing so, the book combines a historical far-reaching perspective with popular culture analysis. At the core remains the value of the cinematic figure of the fallen guardian for contemporary understandings of urban space and urban crime control and how films are clear examples of the ways in which the ideology of repression is reproduced. This book questions the justifications that are often given for social control in cities and understands cinema as a medium for offering critique of such processes and justifications. Explored are the crime control measures of private policing in relation to RoboCop (1987), preventative policing and Minority Report (2002), mass incarceration in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and extra-judicial killing in Blade Runner 2049 (2017). The book speaks to those interested in crime control in critical criminology, cultural criminology, urban studies, and beyond. Vladimir Rizov is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Winchester, UK. He researches the history of documentary photography in relation to urban studies, the development of video game photography, and the cinematic representation of crime control. His work has been published in CITY, Theory, Culture & Society, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, and Journal of Urban History Acknowledgements 6 Contents 7 1: Introduction 8 Overview 8 Cinema, Cities, Critique 12 Critical Criminology and Critique of Criminology 15 References 19 2: Cinema 22 Cinematic Realism 22 Cinematic Narrative Justice 29 Capitalist Realism 39 References 47 3: Cities 52 Urban Social Science 52 Urban Abstractions 60 Urban Cinema 66 References 74 4: Critique 78 The Fallen Guardian 78 Spatial Illusions 88 Notes on Critique 96 References 104 5: RoboCop 108 Alex Murphy, the Perfect Cop 108 Violence Work and the Formation of the Dangerous Class 113 Labour and Automation in Detroit 123 From Detroit to Delta City 128 References 134 6: Minority Report 138 Chief John Anderton 138 Sprawling City, Splintered Space 147 PreCrime 154 References 162 7: Batman 166 Batman, the Vigilante Counterinsurgent 166 A Prison City 174 ‘Mass’ Incarceration 183 References 192 8: Blade Runner 196 Officer KD6-3.7 196 Manufactured Dystopia 203 Retirement Divisions 210 References 220 9: Conclusion 223 Overview 223 Crime Control, Cinema, and the Ideology of Repression 225 References 229 INDEX 231