Lead, White, and Blue: An American Perspective on Italian Years of Lead Cinema Kindle Edition

The Years of Lead was a tumultuous time in Italian history that gave birth to a few distinct movie genres: the spaghetti western, the giallo, and the poliziotteschi. The United States is going through a similarly tumultuous time today, but the genre film that it has become notorious for producing during this period — namely, the superhero movie — reflects the socio-political chaos of its contemporary cultural milieu in an entirely different way. Where the U.S. envisioned a broadly conservative, reactionary cinema, Italy envisioned a broadly critical, revolutionary cinema. In this book, I offer a brief overview of my perspective on U.S. superhero cinema followed by a deep dive into the themes of the spaghetti western, the giallo, and the poliziotteschi, the way that they reflect the sociological changes that were taking place during the time in which they were made, and how this differs from the way U.S. superhero cinema reflects its own moment in history. Read more