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Article
Graffiti goes to the movies: American fictional films featuring graffiti artists/writers and themes
Contemporary Justice Review (2015)
  • Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D., University of Baltimore
Abstract

Since the early 1980s, in addition to the increase in graffiti and street art in many urban contexts, a number of movies have been made that have either examined this phenomenon and the people who engage in this activity, or used graffiti and street art as a backdrop to tell a story. This article briefly reviews the scholarly literature that examines movies that portray criminals and criminal actions, and then analyzes seven American-produced fictional (drama) films using graffiti writers/artists as major characters and then draws generalizations about them. Although this is not a semiotic analysis of the films, to the extent possible, it delves into the settings, plots, characters, dialog, and how realistic the movies appear to be. In general, most of the films include unrealistic aspects and/or are of poor quality, and this contributes to misrepresentations of and stereotypes about graffiti writers/writing.

Keywords
  • graffiti,
  • street art,
  • vandalism,
  • film,
  • movies
Publication Date
2015
Citation Information
Jeffrey Ian Ross. "Graffiti goes to the movies: American fictional films featuring graffiti artists/writers and themes" Contemporary Justice Review Vol. 18 Iss. 3 (2015)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jeffreyianross/11/