Violent Screen is a confident walk on the rough side of movie-making with one of today’s rarities: a gun enthusiast, bestselling novelist, and the son of a murder victim who, for the past thirteen years, has written passionately and thoughtfully about violence in contemporary films. In his popular Baltimore Sun reviews, interviews, and articles, Stephen Hunter observes how the movies, with their pervasive violence, reflect our increasingly violent and alienating culture.

He ranges widely—from ironic film noir to dark horror and teenage slashers, from cop suspense, westerns, true-crime and war movies, to gangster flicks and sci-fi pics, from the cinema of urban decay and sexual obsessions, to psychopathic killers and action thrillers. Because it deals with a subject on the minds of many Americans and American politicians, Violent Screen is extraordinarily timely.

It’s also entertaining. Hunter’s movie-reviewing is rife with energy, humor, sharp-edged analysis, and intensity. His tour of America’s violent film archives is quickly becoming a “must have” for film and video buffs everywhere.