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You cannot but be seduced and even sometimes bedazzled by Bodnar's clear, well-informed and impartial analysis.
An uncommonly well balanced account of the political biases of American movies... A fine read for the generalist yet a scholarly achievement.
Bodnar provides a useful provocation. He asks us to think imaginatively about the subtle and complex ways movies communicate ideas and attitudes.
Open minded and even handed, he appreciates the nuances and mixed messages of Hollywood cinema.
Timely, necessary, well-written, and accessible.
A worthwhile acquisition for an academic library.
By examining how movies handled the tension between the two ideals of individualism and democracy from the Depression era to the present, John Bodnar provides us with a refreshing antidote to the general tendency of film and cultural historians to only look at one era or decade. Bodnar gives us a new twist on the old theme of mass culture as a locale that promotes individual freedom and expression and erodes ideas of collectivity by arguing the experience of mass art has an inherent, stable essence that promotes liberalism over community, providing an alternative perspective on the conservative paradigm that has dominated previous scholarship on the subject.
John Bodnar's Blue Collar Hollywood makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the interaction of film, politics, and American society from the 1930s through the 1950s. Bodnar shows how working people—the numerical heart of the nation's population—were increasingly portrayed as troubled individuals with emotional problems, antisocial tendencies, and an inability to contribute to the collective political good. He argues that Hollywood films undermined ideas about democracy by advancing a dominant vision of working people as folk who do not participate in any meaningful way in American institutional and political life. Blue Collar Hollywood is a perceptive and important study of the impact of film on the evolving—or more appropriately, devolving—nature of American democracy.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x 9
Pages
328
ISBN
9780801885372
Illustration Description
13 b&w photos
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Mass Culture and American Political Traditions
Chapter 1. Political Cross-dressing in the Thirties
Chapter 2. The People's War
Chapter 3. War and Peace
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Mass Culture and American Political Traditions
Chapter 1. Political Cross-dressing in the Thirties
Chapter 2. The People's War
Chapter 3. War and Peace at HomeFOUR: Beyond Containment in the Fifties
Chapter 4. The People in TurmoilLiberalism at the Movies: A ConclusionNotes
Sources
Index
Films Mentioned in Blue-Collar Hollywood
Adventure (1945)
Air Force (1943)
Alamo Bay (1985)
Alice Adams (1935)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975)
All My Sons (1948)
All the Right Moves (1983)
America, America (1963)
American Madness (1932)
An American Romance (1944)
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Anna Lucasta (1949)
Baby Face (1933)
Bataan (1943)
Battle Cry (1955)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Black Fury (1935)
Black Legion (1937)
The Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Blue Collar (1978)
The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Body and Soul (1947)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
The Boston Strangler (1968)
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
Breaking Away (1997)
Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
Casablanca (1942)
The Catered Affair (1956)
The Champ (1931)
Champion (1949)
City Across the River (1949)
City for Conquest (1940)
Clash By Night (1952)
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
Coming Home (1987)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Crooklyn (1994)
Crossfire (1947)
Cry of the City (1948)
Dead End (1937)
Dead Reckoning (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1951)
Death Wish (1974)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Desperate (1947)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Do the Right Thing (1988)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dr. Strangelove (1963)
Duck Soup (1933)
Duffy's Tavern (1954)
Edge of the City (1957)
F.I.S.T. (1978)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Fallen Angel (1945)
Falling Down (1993)
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
The Fighting Sullivans (1944)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Force of Evil (1948)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
From This Day Forward (1946)
Fury (1936)
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
The Garment Jungle (1957)
Gentlemen's Agreement (1947)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Going My Way (1944)
Gold Diggers (1933)
Golden Boy (1993)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991)
Happy Land (1943)
The Harder They Fall (1965)
Heroes for Sale (1933)
Home of the Brave (1949)
Hoosier Schoolboy (1937)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Human Desire (1954)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
I Married a Communist (1950)
I Remember Mama (1948)
I'm No Angel (1938)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Inside Detroit (1955)
It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Joe (1970)
Joe Smith, American (1942)
Johnny Dark (1954)
The Jolson Story (1946)
Judge Priest (1934)
Juke Girl (1942)
Jungle Fever (1991)
Kid Galahad (1937)
The Killers (1946)
King's Row (1942)
Knock on Any Door (1949)
Knute Rockne, All American (1940)
The Last American Hero (1973)
The Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Lifeboat (1944)
Little Caesar (1931)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Mannequin (1937)
Marked Woman (1937)
Marty (1955)
Matewan (1987)
Mean Streets (1973)
Meet John Doe (1941)
The Men (1950)
Metropolis (1926)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Modern Times (1936)
The Molly Maguires (1970)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Naked City (1948)
Nashville (1975)
Native Land (1942)
The Negro Soldier (1944)
No Down Payment (1957)
No Way Out (1950)
Norma Rae (1979)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Our Daily Bread (1934)
Our Town (1940)
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
Paris Blues (1961)
The Pawnbroker (1965)
Peyton Place (1957)
Pin Up Girl (1944)
Pinky (1949)
Pittsburgh (1942)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Places in the Heart (1984)
Platoon (1986)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
The Prowler (1951)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Raging Bull (1980)
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Rambo: First Blood Part Two (1985)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Riff Raff (1963)
The River (1984)
Rocky (1976)
The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Rosie the Riveter (1944)
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
Saboteur (1942)
Salt of the Earth (1954)
The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Saturday's Hero (1951)
Scarface (1932)
Sergeant York (1941)
Shaft (1971)
Silkwood (1983)
Since You Went Away (1944)
So Proudly We Hail (1943)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
Sounder (1972)
The Southerner (1945)
Stagecoach (1939)
Stanley and Iris (1989)
The State of the Union (1948)
Steel Against the Sky (1941)
Stella Dallas (1937)
Street Scene (1931)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Superfly (1972)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Talk of the Town (1942)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Tender Comrade (1943)
Tender Mercies (1982)
They Drive by Night (1940)
They Were Expendable (1945)
Three on a Match (1932)
Thunder Road (1958)
Till the End of Time (1946)
The Time of Your Life (1948)
To Hell and Back (1958)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Tobacco Road (1941)
Tortilla Flat (1942)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Two Seconds (1932)
Valley of Decision (1945)
A View from the Bridge (1961)
Wake Island (1942)
West Side Story (1961)
The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951)
White Heat (1949)
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968)
Wild Boy's on the Road (1933)
Wings of the Eagle (1942)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
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