Abstract
A second relevant narrative mode of this crime film trend is the proliferation of complex point of view that provides detailed dissections of social issues, institutions and politics to expose the complicity of the forces that shape the characters’ worlds. Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and José Padilha’s Tropa de élite show the potential of complex narratives to shape social melodramas where several storylines channel interest in detailed analysis of social and historical phenomena. John Sayles’ Silver City, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Ajami illustrate how the prominence granted to point of view suggests truthfulness and provides complex analysis of social malaise, two narrative choices that associate the films with the tradition of US quality television.
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García-Mainar, L.M. (2016). Complex Narrative and Social Melodrama. In: The Introspective Realist Crime Film. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49653-9_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49653-9_7
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