Call for Roundtable Participants-James Landis The Sadist 

 

       Deadline for submission: November 15, 2006

       Online: http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/index.html

       the 29th Annual Meeting of the

       Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Associations

       February 13–16, 2008

       Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

       Albuquerque , New Mexico

 

The area chairs for Trangressive Cinema are seeking participants for a roundtable discussion on 

James Landis’ 1963, The Sadist. Like Terrence Malick’s Badlands a decade later, The Sadist 

takes its story from real-life mass-murdering Romeo and Juliet, Charlie Starkweather and  

Caril Fugate.  The Sadist also features cult actor Arch Hall Jr. (Eegah!) as half of the homicidal 

couple.   Along with his insane girlfriend, he makes his way across the country picking victims at 

random.  Three people driving into Los Angeles for a Dodgers game have car trouble and pull off 

into an old service station and junkyard for repairs.  Unfortunately, this is also where Hall has 

decided to come off the road, and he manipulates and finally murdersthem just as he had the 

owners.  This film was a major influence on QuentinTarantino script for Oliver Stone’s 1994 film, Natural Born Killers; the similarities are uncanny.  As the inaugural film in the 

Starkweather/Fugate cycle, The Sadist is a key text in a modern folktale of a type only exceeded 

By the Manson murders.  With striking cinematography by Vilmos  Zsigmond—who would

later win an Oscar for his camera work—The Sadist provides a glimpse  at Trangressive Cinema in its most pure form.  As a surprisingly accomplishedfilm, it is our hope that The Sadist will 

provide a springboard for discussion about exploitation cinema, mass murderers as cultural icons, and transgression as a concept, among other related topics.

 

 

Co-chairs

 

   Rob Weiner

       [log in to unmask] >

   John Cline

     [log in to unmask]

 

   Box 53841

   Lubbock texas

   79453

 

 

 

 

    Conference Rates: Professionals, $140; Graduate students $120;

 Spouse, partner   $50 Information about our areas of study, conference travel, lodging, and the

Organization can be found on our regularly updated website:

       http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/index.html

 

 We look forward to seeing you this winter in sunny Albuquerque

 Where we invite you to explore Route 66, local pueblos, hiking  trails,

 Museums, the Sandia and Isleta casinos, area ski resorts, and nearby Santa

 Fe.

       SW/TX PCA/ACA 2008 Conference

       February 13-16, 2008

 

       Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

       330 Tijeras

       Albuquerque, NM 87102

       Phone: 1.505.842.1234

       Fax: 1.505.766.6710

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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.ScreenSite.org