There is no shortage of loaded ― and often gendered ― symbolism in the sport of cockfighting. And this becomes a starting point for author Kier-La Janisse (who broke new ground in film criticism with her 2012 book House of Psychotic Women ) to investigate the themes of obsession, competition, mobility and nobility that dominate the hyper-masculine world of Monte Hellman's existential and controversial film, Cockfighter (1974), based on the 1962 novel by crime writer Charles Willeford (Miami Blues). Infamously touted as the only movie that producer Roger Corman ever lost money on, Cockfighter stars character actor Warren Oates as Frank Mansfield, a career cocker who has taken a vow of silence until he can win the Cockfighter of the Year Award. Surrounded by fellow cockfighters played by Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley, Jr, Steve Railsback, Richard B. Shull and even author/screenwriter Charles Willeford himself, the film traverses the underground cockfighting world of the Deep South, with a highly detailed documentation of this unique subculture brought vividly to life by esteemed cinematographer Nestor Almendros. Densely illustrated and featuring interviews with director Monte Hellman, producer Roger Corman and several surviving cast and crew members, Janisse’s study explores the many mythologies that intersect in Cockfighter , approaching the story and its backdrop through a variety of lenses, using a combination of cultural criticism, production history and even personal anecdotes, as the author delves into the contradictory world of cockfighting in the American South. At its core it is a story about work, honour, conviction and finding religion and beauty in strange places. "Janisse leverages her impressive scope of research toward a truly dazzling analysis of the film." -- LA Review of Books "Janisse's magnificent book is breathtaking in scope." -- Film programmer and critic Chris Hallock "[The] High Priestess of Horror." -- Lydia Lunch, musician, poet, author & No Wave icon Kier-La Janisse is a film writer and producer, and works for Severin Films. She authored House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (2012) and A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007), and has edited numerous books including Warped & Faded (2021) and Satanic Panic (2015). She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021), and produced the blu-ray box sets All the Haunts Be Ours (2021) and The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle Mansfield, Georgia looks much the same as it did in 1974, when New World Pictures descended on the tiny town of less than 400 people to shoot a film whose main character shared the hamlet’s name. Many storefronts in the sleepy town square sit vacant, some lost to fire or succumbed to various forms of decrepitude over the years, while a new roadside diner called Rooster’s finds itself ― rather fittingly in this context ― the locus of social activity. The bus station where cocker Frank Mansfield disembarks, driven back home penniless after losing everything in a match, is now a lot that sells cars and ornate backyard sheds, but one can cross the street to where the railroad tracks once were - they were ripped up in 2016 ― and see the town pretty much as Warren Oates did when he played the complex anti-hero of Monte Hellman’s controversial film Cockfighter. Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) is a solitary cockfighter who, after shooting his mouth off, loses his prize cock in a late night drunken hack, immediately before he is poised to win a decisive tournament. As a result, he takes a vow of silence until he can win the Cockfighter of the Year Award. He teams up with former Madison Avenue ad man Omar Baradinsky, who dropped out to raise fighting cocks, and they make a partnership for the season, hustling their way through the cockfighting circuit in the hopes of being invited to the prestigious Southern Conference Tournament in Milledgeville, where Frank will get his long-awaited second chance at winning the medal. In addition to constantly fielding the question of “why Cockfighter?” the typical trajectory when I bring it up is for the conversation to be hijacked by a discussion of Two-Lane Blacktop. Even Monte Hellman himself deflected the conversation in such a way. Now, Two-Lane Blacktop is a great film. It is a canonical film. There are books about it. But this is a book about Cockfighter. Furthermore, it’s not just a book about the film Cockfighter, nor is it just a book about the book Cockfighter, although it does delve into the production history of both. But it is also a book about work, about ideals, about stubbornness ― and perhaps most of all it’s about what happens when you break a promise to yourself. That said, this is not the True Story of Cockfighter. All the people who could tell that story are dead. This is my story of