SOURCE: "The Genre's 'Enlightenment', the Stress and Strain for Affirmation: Force of Evil (1948)," in Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster/Crime Film, The MIT Press, 1977, pp. 134-48.

Shadoian is an American critic and educator who has written extensively on various aspects of the cinema. In the following excerpt, he analyzes Force of Evil as an example of the gangster film, arguing that the conventions of the genre provide an apt framework for the main thematic focus of Polonsky's work, namely a critique of capitalism.

After making this film [Force of Evil], his first, director Abraham Polonsky became a casualty of the blacklist, and he did not resume directing until 1969. The scarcity of his output and his sacrifice to the cause have combined to draw special attention to a small but ambitious film that, unusual though it may be, fits comfortably into the genre and works intelligently within...