Exploring gender, race, nation and narration, this groundbreaking study isolates how mainstream cinema works to bestow value upon certain lives and specific socio-cultural identities in a hierarchical and partisan way. Dedicated to the popular, to the political and ethical implications of mass culture's themes and imperatives, this book takes this culture to task for its mortal economies of expendability. It also disinters the capacity for film, and film criticism, to engage with life and vulnerability differently.