Though Hobbes gives tragic realism its tone and Kaplan its epithet, foreign policy pessimism goes back to Thucydides, the great Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War.

But "Hoodlum" fails to evoke the tragic realism that gave the first two installments of "The Godfather" the force of social history writ in stone.

He advocates the possibility of tragic realism as containing potential for social change.

They are neither hostile nor celebratory, but seem subsumed by a tragic realism.

They seem subsumed by a tragic realism.

Admirers of Richard Yates, of whom there are growing numbers in this country, will hope that the star power Mendes has at his disposal doesn't obscure the tragic realism at the heart of this masterful story.

What this all adds up to is a tragic, fever-dream realism.

But their descendant has adopted their veneer of preciosity while abandoning the tough and tragic realism behind it.

Some of his films have also had a light-hearted comic tone which marks a break from the tragic historical realism which characterized Taiwanese filmmaking after the end of the martial law period in 1987.

Together with its 1972 forerunner, it brought a new and deeper strain of tragic realism into American culture.