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From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing, Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while providing a diversion—sometimes entertaining, sometimes provocative—from the realities of their own lives.
In Blue-Collar Hollywood, John Bodnar examines the ways in which popular American films made between the 1930s and the 1980s depicted working-class characters, comparing these cinematic representations with the aspirations of ordinary Americans and the promises made to them by the country's political elites. Based on close and imaginative viewings of dozens of films from every genre—among them Public Enemy, Black Fury, Baby Face, The Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life, I Married a Communist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Peyton Place, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Boyz N the Hood—this book explores such topics as the role of censorship, attitudes toward labor unions and worker militancy, racism, the place of women in the workforce and society, communism and the Hollywood blacklist, and faith in liberal democracy.
Whether made during the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, or the Vietnam era, the majority of films about ordinary working Americans, Bodnar finds, avoided endorsing specific political programs, radical economic reform, or overtly reactionary positions. Instead, these movies were infused with the same current of liberalism and popular notion of democracy that flow through the American imagination.
Contents:List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Mass Culture and American Political Traditions
ONE: Political Cross-dressing in the Thirties
TWO: The People's War
THREE: War and Peace at HomeFOUR: Beyond Containment in the Fifties
FIVE: The People in TurmoilLiberalism at the Movies: A ConclusionNotes
Sources
Index
Films Mentioned in Blue-Collar HollywoodAdventure (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)
Overview
From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing, Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while providing a diversion—sometimes entertaining, sometimes provocative—from the realities of their own lives.
In Blue-Collar Hollywood, John...