Screening America

By combining the study of films with the text-based primary sources,Screening America gives students clear guidance in studying, interpreting, and understanding the motion picture's significance as a primary source in investigating U.S. History. Students will come to understand history as not only the record of what governments did, but also the way in which people lived their lives, experienced the wider world, and engaged in leisure pursuits, from which we can learn much about the society in which they lived.

James J. Lorence, Eminent Scholar of History, Gainesville College

Preface

vii

Introduction: The Analysis of Primary Sources

1

(1)

Primary Sources and Critical Thinking

1

(1)

The Motion Picture as Primary Source

2

(1)

Reading Film: The Analytical Process

3

(1)

Historical Background: The Origins of the Motion Picture Industry

4

(5)

PART I: Progressive America: Militant Reform and the Postwar Reaction

Social Protest: A Corner in Wheat (1909) as Muckraking Film

9

(10)

The Literary Inspiration for A Corner in Wheat

13

(1)

U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette Attacks Financial Manipulators

14

(1)

The Selling of A Corner in Wheat

15

(1)

Critical Reaction to the Film

16

(3)

Cultural History Through a Cloudy Lens: The Birth of a Nation (1915) and the Racial Climate of Progressive America

19

(12)

The NAACP Challenges Hollywood to Respect the Will of the National Board of Censorship

25

(1)

NAACP Mobilizes National Resistance to the Screening of a Racist Film

26

(1)

The Film's Producers React to the Threat of Censorship

27

(1)

NAACP Considers a Film as an Answer to The Birth of a Nation

28

(3)

Social Change and Sexual Politics: Dancing Mothers (1926) and Moral Ambiguity in the Jazz Age

31

(13)

Elinor Glyn Describes ``It''

37

(1)

A New Marriage Style Discussed by Fannie Hurst

37

(1)

Suzanne La Follette Describes a New Attitude on Divorce

38

(1)

Frederick Lewis Allen Assesses the Impact of the Movies and the Producers' Response to the Critics

39

(1)

The Motion Picture Code Prescribes Appropriate Treatment of Sexual Issues and Relationships

40

(4)

The End of Romantic War: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Disillusionment in the Interwar Era

44

(11)

Determination to Avoid World War

50

(1)

New York Times Reviewer Acknowledges Milestone's Achievement

51

(1)

Erich Maria Remarque Surveys War's Devastating Impact on Those Who Served

52

(3)

PART II: A Nation Under Stress: The Depths of Economic Despair

Making It in Depression America: The Street or the Stage in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

55

(10)

A Recollection of the Bonus March

61

(1)

The Exhilarating Depression of FDR

61

(1)

Director Mervyn LeRoy Assesses the Market

62

(1)

A Social Historian Recalls Avoidance of Unpleasant Realities

63

(2)

The Resilient People: The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Exposes Poverty in the Land of Plenty

65

(13)

A Migrant Mother

73

(1)

John Steinbeck Describes the Migrant Experience

73

(2)

Californians React to Steinbeck's Portrayal of Golden California

75

(1)

An ``Okie'' View of the Film from Woody Guthrie

76

(2)

PART III: A Democracy at War

Thinking of Intervention: Foreign Correspondent (1940) and the Winds of War

78

(12)

Walter Wanger Describes the Impediments to the Production of Foreign Correspondent

85

(1)

A Hollywood Executive Sees a Connection Among Good Business, Good Propaganda, and Good Policy

85

(1)

Walter Wanger and Hollywood Internationalists Endorse Roosevelt's Leadership During the Prewar Crisis

86

(1)

Senator Gerald P. Nye Speaks Out for the Isolationists Against Alleged Hollywood Propaganda

87

(1)

Wanger Recalls his Objective in the Production of Foreign Correspondent

88

(2)

Government Persuasion: Prelude to War (1943), The Negro Soldier (1944), and the Issues of the War

90

(14)

The Army States Its Objectives for the Why We Fight Series

98

(1)

An Interdepartmental Analysis of Prelude to War Prepares the Way for Widespread Civilian Distribution

98

(1)

The Office of War Information's Director Explains the Agency's Reservations About Public Distribution of Prelude to War

99

(1)

Lowell Mellett Expresses the Bureau of Motion Pictures' Reasons for Limited Distribution of Army Productions

100

(1)

The Hollywood War Activities Committee Promotes The Negro Soldier

101

(3)

Social Unity in a Nation at War: Since You Went Away (1944) and Women's Mobilization for Victory

104

(13)

OWI Outlines Hollywood's Wartime Responsibilities

110

(2)

A Recollection of Wartime Sacrifice

112

(2)

A Wartime Analysis of Selznick's Work from Time

114

(1)

Visual Images of the Women's War

115

(2)

PART IV: Cold War America: Domestic Anticommunism and Fear of Failure

Hollywood's Cold War: The Suppression of Salt of the Earth (1954)

117

(14)

Congressman Donald L. Jackson Sounds the Alarm

125

(1)

Roy Brewer Promises Labor Action

126

(1)

Howard Hughes Outlines a Blueprint for Suppression

127

(1)

Paul Jarrico's Chronicle of External Harassment

128

(3)

A Cautionary Tale: Dr. Strangelove (1964) as a Vision of Nuclear Endgame

131

(13)

SANE Launches the Debate over Nuclear Proliferation

137

(2)

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara Explains Assured Destruction

139

(1)

Journalist I. F. Stone Reads the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

140

(1)

Terry Southern Recalls the Origins of Dr. Strangelove

140

(1)

Ambivalence in a New York Times Review

141

(3)

The Alienation Films of the 1960s: Alice's Restaurant (1969), The Graduate (1967), and Social Fragmentation

144

(13)

An Account of the ``Crime of the Century''

150

(1)

The Producers Are Warned of Possible Local Resistance to Alice's Restaurant

150

(1)

Mixed Reviews Reflect Historical Context

151

(6)

Review in the New York Times

151

(1)

Review in Newsweek

152

(1)

Review in the Boston Globe

153

(1)

Second Sight

154

(3)

PART V: Legacies: Toward Modern America

Worker Solidarity and Human Dignity: Norma Rae (1979) and Southern Labor Activism

157

(12)

Crystal Lee Sutton Asserts the Need for Union Organization

163

(2)

Two Contemporary Evaluations of Norma Rae as a Depiction of Working-Class Life

165

(2)

Norma Rae, an Old-Fashioned Film

165

(1)

Textile Mill Organizing

166

(1)

ACTWU Uses Norma Rae as an Organizing Tool

167

(2)

Coming Home (1978): Vietnam and the Uncertain Future of American Foreign Policy

169

(13)

Jane Fonda's Radio Hanoi Broadcast

175

(1)

A Reviewer's Analysis of Coming Home as a Statement on the Outcomes of the Vietnam War

176

(1)

Public Attitudes Toward the War

177

(2)

General Norman Schwartzkopf Assesses Vietnam's Impact on the Army

179

(1)

Cynicism in the Post-Vietnam Generation

180

(2)

Unfinished Business: Do the Right Thing (1989) and the Escalation of Social Tension

182

(13)

The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders Outlines the Problems of Urban America

188

(1)

Spike Lee Explains Violence in His Film

189

(2)

Roger Ebert's Analysis of Do the Right Thing

191

(1)

Lee Uses the Lyrics of Public Enemy's Recording ``Fight the Power'' to Set a Tone for the Violence to Come

192

(3)

Suburban Anxiety in Modern America: American Beauty (1999) and the Pitfalls of Prosperity

195

(9)

Director Sam Mendes Describes His First Reaction to the Script

200

(1)

Two Conflicting Critical Reactions to the Film

201

(3)

Dark Side of the American Dream

201

(1)

American Beauty is an American Horror

202

(2)

Epilogue: Thinking About Your Movies

204

(3)

Credits

207

(2)

Index

209

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials