Research Catalog

Title

America on film : representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies / Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin.

Author

Benshoff, Harry M.

Publication

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Griffin, Sean.

Description

xvi, 371 p. : ill.; 26 cm.

Subjects

• Minorities in motion pictures
• Motion pictures > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• pt. I. Culture and American film -- 1. Introduction to the study of film form and representation -- Film form -- American ideologies : discrimination and resistance -- Culture and cultural studies -- Case study : The Lion King (1994) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- 2. The structure and history of Hollywood filmmaking -- Hollywood vs. independent film -- The style of Hollywood cinema -- The business of Hollywood -- The history of Hollywood : the movies begin -- The classical Hollywood cinema -- World War II and postwar film -- "New" Hollywood and the blockbuster mentality -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening --
• pt. II. Race and ethnicity and American film -- Introduction to part II : what is race? -- 3. The concept of whiteness and American film -- Seeing white -- Bleaching the green : the Irish in American cinema -- Looking for respect : the Italian in American cinema -- A special case : Jews and Hollywood -- Case study : The Jazz Singer (1927) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 4. African Americans and American film -- African Americans in early film -- Blacks in classical Hollywood cinema -- World War II and the postwar social problem film -- The rise and fall of blaxploitation filmmaking -- Box : Blacks on TV -- Hollywood in the 1980s and the arrival of Spike Lee -- Black independent film vs. "neo-blaxploitation" today -- Case study : Bamboozled (2000) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 5. Native Americans and American film -- The American "Indian" before film -- Ethnographic films and the rise of the Hollywood western -- The evolving western -- A kinder, gentler America? -- Case study : Smoke Signals (1998) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 6. Asian Americans and American film -- Silent film and Asian images -- Asians in classical Hollywood cinema -- World War II and after : war films, miscegenation melodramas, and kung fu -- Asian American actors and filmmakers today -- Case study : Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 7. Latinos and American film -- The greaser and the Latin lover : alternating stereotypes -- World War II and after : the good neighbor policy -- The 1950s to the 1970s : back to business as usual? -- Expanding opportunities in recent decades -- Case study : My Family/Mi Familia (1995) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening --
• pt. III. Class and American film -- Introduction to part III : what is class? -- 8. Classical Hollywood cinema and class -- Setting the stage : the Industrial Revolution -- Early cinema : the rise of the Horatio Alger myth -- Hollywood and unionization -- Class in the classical Hollywood cinema -- Case study : The Grapes of Wrath (1940) -- Conclusion : recloaking class consciousness -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 9. Cinematic class struggle after the depression -- From World War II to the Red Scare -- From opulence to counterculture -- New Hollywood and the resurrection of the Horatio Alger myth -- Case study : Bulworth (1998) -- Conclusion : corporate Hollywood and labor today -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening --
• pt. IV. Gender and American film -- Introduction to part IV : what is gender? -- 10. Women in classical Hollywood filmmaking -- Images of women in early cinema -- Early female filmmakers -- Images of women in 1930s classical Hollywood -- World War II and after -- Case study : All That Heaven Allows (1955) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 11. Exploring the visual parameters of women in film -- Ways of seeing -- "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema" -- Case study : Gilda (1946) -- Conclusion : complicating Mulvey's arguments -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 12. Masculinity in classical Hollywood filmmaking -- Masculinity and early cinema -- Masculinity and the male movie star -- World War II and film noir -- Case study : Dead Reckoning (1947) -- Conclusion : masculinity in 1950s American film -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 13. Gender in American film since the 1960s -- Second wave feminism and Hollywood -- Into the 1980s : a backlash against women? -- A new generation of female filmmakers -- Case study : The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) -- Conclusion : gender at the turn of the millennium -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening --
• pt. V. Sexuality and American film -- Introduction to part IV : what is sexuality? -- 14. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and classical Hollywood -- (Hetero)sexuality on screen -- (Homo)sexuality in early film -- Censoring sexuality during the classical Hollywood era -- Postwar sexualities and the weakening of the production code -- Camp and the underground cinema -- Case study : The Celluloid Closet (1995) -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- 15. Sexualities on film since the sexual revolution -- Hollywood and the sexual revolution -- Film and gay culture from Stonewall to AIDS -- The AIDS crisis -- Queer theory and new queer cinema -- Case study : Go Fish (1995) -- Conclusions : Hollywood today -- Questions for discussion -- Further reading -- Further screening -- Glossary.

Call Number

Sc F 10-541

ISBN

• 063122582X (hbk. : alk. paper)
• 9780631225829 (hbk. : alk. paper)
• 0631225838 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 9780631225836 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

2003004935

OCLC

51837654

Author

Benshoff, Harry M.

Title

America on film : representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies / Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin.

Imprint

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Griffin, Sean.

Research Call Number

Sc F 10-541