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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Genres
  5. Police films

Film Genres

This guide highlights library resources for some of the more popular film genres.
  • Introduction
  • Streaming services
  • Action films
  • Amateur films
  • Animation
    • Stop-motion animation
  • Animé
  • B movies
  • Biographical films
  • Blaxploitation films
  • Children's films
  • Comedies
  • Cult films
  • Crime films
    • Gangster films
  • Detective & mystery films
  • Documentary films
  • Ethnographic films
  • Experimental films
  • Exploitation films
  • Film noir
  • Historical films
  • Horror films
    • Slasher films
  • Independent films
  • Indigenous films
  • James Bond films
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Mockumentary films
  • Musicals
  • Newsreels This link opens in a new window
  • Police films
  • Religious films
    • Bible films
  • Road films
  • Science fiction
    • Star Trek films
    • Star Wars films
  • Science films
  • Shakespeare on film
  • Short films
  • Silent films
  • Sports films
  • Superhero films
  • War films
    • Anti-war films
  • Vampire films
  • Westerns
  • Zombie films

Film Studies Librarian

Profile Photo
Lucinda M. Hall
Email Me
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Social: LinkedIn Page LibraryThing Page
Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Internet resource(s)

  • The Best Police Movies
    This list of the best and most popular cop movies of all time includes recent action police dramas like End of Watch and cult comedy movies like Super Troopers. Whether they are old classics or new favorites, all the famous law enforcement movies can be found on this list. Many top police films, such as Training Day and the Lethal Weapon series, usually center on two cops throughout the movie. ...

Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

Finding library resources for police films

Police films are a subset of crime films. Where crime films focus on the criminals and their actions, police films focus on the legal force in uniform or plain clothes. Their actions are also under scrutiny, legal or not.

To find what we have in the Library's collection, you can do a subject search for "police films" in the online catalog. That search will show you what film titles are classified as police films as well as books and other items about them. As you look at the list under police films, the subject headings which include "history and criticism" talk about the genre itself. The headings which also include a country name are specifically talking about police films in that country.

  • police films
    Books and other items are scattered throughout call number range PN 1995.9 .P57 on Baker Level 4.
    Police films is used as a subject heading rather than "cop films."
  • "cop film*"
    This is a keyword search in the online catalog.
  • detective and mystery films
    Books and other items are scattered throughout call number range PN 1995.9 .D4 on Baker Level 4.
  • crime films
    Books and other items are scattered throughout call number range PN 1995.9 .C66 on Baker Level 4.

Introductory reading(s)

  • Cover artThe great cop pictures by James Robert Parish
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .P57 P37 1990
    ISBN: 9780810823167
    In this pathfinding new work, the author has included many of the major (and minor) cop film titles to emerge from Hollywood over the decades.
  • Cover artPolice on screen: Hollywood cops, detectives, marshals and rangers by M. Ray Lott
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .P57 L68 2006
    ISBN: 9780786425778
    From the Roman Praetorian Guard to the English shire-reeve to the U.S. marshals, lawmen have a long and varied history. At first, such groups were often corrupt, guilty of advancing a political agenda rather than protecting citizens. It was about the turn of the twentieth century that police officers as we know them came into being. At this time, a number of police reforms such as civil service and police unions were developed. Citizen committees were formed to oversee police function. About this same time, the technology of motion pictures was being advanced. Movies evolved from silent films with a limited budget and short running time to films with sound whose budget was ever rising and whose audience demanded longer, more complex story lines. ...

Selected book title(s)

  • Cover artThe BFI companion to crime by Phil Hardy, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Library Depository PN 1995.9 .D4 B23 1997b
    ISBN: 9780520215382
    Robbers, gangsters, murderers, and criminals of every description have long been a staple of popular entertainment. Movies are no exception, and film buffs and scholars alike now have a complete guide to the vast array of films that make up the fascinating world of crime cinema. The BFI Companion to Crime offers detailed information on the sub-genres and motifs of movies dealing with criminals and their behavior: prison dramas, heist stories, kidnappings, the exploits of serial killers, juvenile delinquents, and hired guns. ...
  • Cover artGood with their hands: boxers, bluesmen, and other characters from the Rust Belt by Carlo Rotella
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry E 169.04 .R68 2002
    ISBN: 9780520225626
    This eloquent, streetwise book is a paean to America's Rust Belt and a compelling exploration of four milieus caught up in a great transformation of city life. With loving attention to detail and a fine sense of historical context, Carlo Rotella explores women's boxing in Erie, Pennsylvania; Buddy Guy and the blues scene in Chicago; police work and crime stories in New York City, especially as they converged in the making of the movie The French Connection; and attempts at urban renewal in the classic mill city of Brockton, Massachusetts. ...
  • Cover artHeroes in hard times: cop action movies in the U.S. by Neal King
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .P57 K56 1999
    ISBN: 9781566397025
    According to Neal King, cop action movies point both an accusatory finger and homoerotically murderous race at powerful white men. A close look at a massive and hugely popular fictional culture, Heroes in Hard Times considers the over 190 cop action movies released between 1980 and 1997; examines the generic moral logic that they offer; and explores the crisis in American masculinity that, King argues, propels the action in their stories. King studies how, in the cop action genre, working-class police officers weigh in on such topics as racial justice, homosexuality, misogyny, unemployment, worker resistance, affirmative action, drug use, poverty, divorce, and the use of violence to deal with social problems. ...
  • Cover artShots in the mirror: crime films and society by Nicole Rafter
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .G3 R34 2006
    ISBN: 9780195175066
    Movies play a central role in shaping our understanding of crime and the world generally, helping us define what is good and bad, desirable and unworthy, lawful and illicit, strong and weak. Crime films raise controversial issues about the distribution of social power and the meanings of deviance, and they provide a safe space for fantasies of rebellion, punishment, and the restoration of order. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, Nicole Rafter examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology. ...

Other library resource(s)

  • Resource logoAction cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by James Kendrick
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    A hybrid genre that fuses the moral landscape of the western and the urban settings of film noir and police procedurals, the action film as we know it today is a relatively new genre, having taken shape in the late 1960s and early 1970s and become a fully recognized and immensely popular cinematic form in the 1980s.
  • Resource logoDetective films from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Phillippa Gates
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    The “detective film” can be defined as a film that focuses on a detective-hero’s investigation into the mystery surrounding a crime; however, detective films vary in terms of content and themes, and often cross over into other genres, including science fiction (e.g., Blade Runner [1982]), the western (e.g., Tall in the Saddle [1944]), and even the musical (e.g., The Singing Detective [2003]). This makes defining the genre difficult, and, in fact, many scholars and critics place the “detective film” into the broader category of “film noir” (along with criminal-heroes) or the “crime film” (along with the gangster). This tendency to generalize is reflected in the sources listed in this article: while there will be some books and articles devoted solely to the detective film, many—even influential sources—may only discuss the genre specifically in a brief section. The majority of scholarship in English that addresses the genre tends to focus on American—specifically Hollywood—films.

Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)

Articles and other writings about movies can be found in many publications. Our collection does not include a journal or magazine which looks exclusively at police films. Other film journals within our collection will cover police films. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find relevant articles.

  • Resource logoFilm & television literature index by EBSCO Publishing
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Use this index to find articles about police films.
  • Resource logoWeb of science citation databases by Clarivate
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.

Selected movie titles

Find more police films in the collections.

  • Movie poster artCry of the city by Richard Siodmak
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16661
    A police detective doggedly pursues a cop-killing gangster, whose devotion to his girlfriend could prove his downfall.
  • Movie poster artEnd of watch by David Ayer
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15758
    Two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel, during a routine traffic stop.
  • Movie poster artThe heat by Paul Feig, director
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16641
    Uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) and foul-mouthed Boston cop Shannon Mullins (McCarthy) couldn't be more incompatible. But when they join forces to bring down a ruthless drug lord, they become the last thing anyone expected... buddies.
  • Cover artThe lineup by Don Siegel
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #11272
    ISBN: 9781435965058
    Follows the duel plots of two criminals smuggling dope, and the policemen trailing them across San Francisco.
  • Cover artPolițist, adjectiv = Police, adjectiv by Corneliu Porumboiu
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13789
    Cristi is a young undercover cop who undergoes a crisis of conscience when he is pressured to arrest a teenager who offers hash to classmates. Not wanting to ruin the life of a young man he considers merely irresponsible, Cristi must either allow the arrest to weigh on his conscience or face censure by his serious superior, for whom the word 'conscience' has an entirely different meaning.
  • Cover artPrince of the city by Sidney Lumet
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #7910
    ISBN: 9780790789835
    New York cop Daniel Ciello (inspired by real-life undercover narcotics cop Robert Leuci) is involved in some questionable police practices. He is approached by Internal Affairs and in exchange for him potentially being let off the hook, he is instructed to begin to expose the inner workings of police corruption.
  • Cover artQ & A by Sidney Lumet
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #7451
    Assistant D.A. Reilly (Hutton) is assigned to investigate an incident in which veteran street cop Lt. Brennan (Nolte) killed a Puerto Rican drug dealer.
  • Cover artTraining day by Antoine Fuqua
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15957
    ISBN: 9781419892608
    Jake Hoyt, a fresh-faced rookie in the Los Angeles Police Department, gets a chance to join the elite narcotics squad headed up by 13-year veteran Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris. Jake is to prove himself during a one-day ride-along. As the day wears on, it becomes increasingly clear that Detective Harris has blurred the line between right and wrong to an alarming degree, enforcing his own code of ethics and street justice. Eventually, Hoyt begins to suspect that he is, rather than having the opportunity to join the squad, being set up to take the fall.
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  • Last Updated: May 15, 2025 12:11 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/filmgenres
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Tags: action films, adventure films, amateur films, anti-war films, Arts, b movies, baseball films, basketball films, blaxploitation films, boxing films, comedy films, cop films, crime films, cult films, detective films, documentaries, ethnographies, exploitation films, film & media studies, film noir, football films, gangster films, historical films, hockey films, horror films, independent films, James Bond films, mockumentaries, musicals, religious films, road films, science fiction films, science films, Shakespeare on film, silent films, slasher films, soccer films, sports films, star trek films, star wars films, superhero films, surfing films, vampire films, war films, westerns, zombie films

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