America on Film : Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies

by Benshoff, Harry M.; Griffin, Sean

• ISBN13: 9781405170550
• ISBN10: 1405170557
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-20
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in the Movies is a lively introduction to issues of diversity as represented within the American cinema. provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial, socio-cultural, and aesthetic factors that contribute to cinematic representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality includes over 100 illustrations, glossary of key terms, questions for discussion, and lists for further reading/viewing includes new case studies of a number of films, including Crash, Brokeback Mountain, and Quincea_era

Author Biography

Sean Griffin is Associate Professor of Cinema and Television at Southern Methodist University.
Harry M. Benshoff is Associate Professor of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of North Texas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

How to Use This Book

Culture and American Film

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

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

G+ NewG+  Hollywood and the Blockbuster Mentality

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

Race and Ethnicity and American Film:

Introduction to Part II What is Race?

The Concept of Whiteness and American Film

Seeing White

Bleaching the Green: The Irish in American Cinema

Looking for Respect: Italians in American Cinema

A Special Case: Jews and Hollywood

Case Study: The Jazz Singer (1927)

Veiled and Reviled: Arabs on Film in America

Conclusion: Whiteness and American Film Today

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

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 vs

"Neo-Blaxploitation" Filmmaking

New Images for a New Century - Or Not?

Case Study: Bamboozled (2000)

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

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)

Conclusion: Twenty-First-Century Indians?

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

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

Contemporary Asian American Actors and Filmmakers

Case Study: Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989)

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

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

Conclusion: A Backlash Against Chicanos?

Case Study: My Family/Mi Familia (1995)

Questions for Discussion

Further Reading

Further Screening

Class and American Film:

Introduction to Part III What is Class?

Classical Hollywood Cinema and Class

Setting the Stage: T

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