America on Film. Sean Griffin

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       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data applied for:

      ISBN 978-1-118-74365-2

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      PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

      Many years have gone by since the first edition of this book was published in 2004, and even more than that since we first started writing it. The second edition appeared in 2009, right after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. At that time, we – like many other Americans – thought we were looking towards a new era of American equality. Women and people of color (as well LGBTQ people and differently‐abled folks) were being increasingly accepted into mainstream American life for their ideas and abilities, and not immediately excluded from it based on their perceived differences from the white male heterosexual norm (as had so often been the case in previous eras). That said, the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency in 2016 seemed to signal a sort of backlash to those ideals, as many of Trump’s public statements were openly degrading to women, disparaging to people of color, and insensitive (to say the least) to people with disabilities. Perhaps ironically, the self‐proclaimed billionaire Trump pitched his “Make America Great Again” campaign to working and lower/middle‐class voters, Americans who were struggling to make ends meet under the harsh realities of twenty‐first century corporate capitalism. He promised to restore their economic prosperity not by reigning in or regulating corporate capitalism – indeed his actions have so far been the exact opposite of that – but by promising to build a wall to keep out foreigners, who were within this rhetoric implicitly figured as thieves out to steal what did not belong to them: American prosperity. And while riding a wave of sexist invective against women and especially Hillary Clinton (“Lock Her up!”) and implicit racism (the “Birther” campaign questioning President Obama’s citizenship), Trump was narrowly swept into the Presidency via the Electoral College. (He lost the popular vote.)

So, what do these developments tell us about America today, versus ten years ago, or even a hundred years ago? It has always been the central thesis of this book, as a work of cultural studies, that there are different sorts of complex correlations between popular culture (in this case the movies) and the historical eras and industrial conditions in which they are produced and consumed. The first two editions of America on Film chronicled tremendous changes in over one hundred years of US (cinematic) history, as well as the many ways in which various diverse American identities had been portrayed on American movie screens. For most of the groups surveyed, it was a trajectory towards increasing access to self‐representation, a move away from simple‐minded stereotyping, and the production of media that emphasized the basic humanity of diverse social groups. It was a trajectory demonstrating that all human beings were and are complicated and diverse, but that all of us – regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, or physical ability – were deserving of fair and equal treatment under the ideals of the American Constitution. It was a hopeful story, and we hope this third edition will show that it remains one. Whether one imagines history as a pendulum, a circle, an upward spiral (hopefully not a downward one!) – theories of ideology and hegemonic negotiation suggest that history is always an ebb and flow of progress in one direction and backlash in the opposite. So, if the election of President Trump does indeed suggest a backlash to the multicultural ideals of the last few decades, it will undoubtedly not be the final word on the matter.

      As the first two editions of this book demonstrated, time marches on, as do the ever‐changing social meanings of identity categories like race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. However, this edition reflects a very changed America from those first two, especially in the ways we now consume movies (and television), share ideas about them, and relate to our fellow Americans. As Chapter Two will explore in greater detail, the media landscape of 2020 is vastly different than it was when we wrote the second edition of this book, let alone the first. New technologies and opportunities for making, distributing, and watching movies – including but not limited to digital (and therefore cheaper) modes of film production, streaming distribution platforms like Netflix and Amazon (who have also entered into the world of production), and the sharing of ideas, images, clips, and entire TV shows and movies via social media – might make today’s “American movie culture” seem entirely foreign to a filmgoer from Hollywood’s classical era. Social media has also dramatically altered the way Americans relate to one another: while social media platforms like Facebook were originally designed to bring people together, they can also be used to divide, spread falsehoods, and inflame hatreds. Anonymous “trolls” in online forums have embraced a new form of socio‐cultural criticism with absolutely no filters, concern for decorum, or social niceties; personal attacks on various films and celebrities now enter (and effect) the public discourse in ways that were impossible just ten or twenty years ago. Individuals from both the left and the right have used social media to barricade their positions, often not fully fact checking their assertions. As a result, positions have become polarized, keeping citizens from coming together as one country united in our diversity. (Evidence exists that various interests within the United States and from other countries have worked to stoke such division for their own benefit.)

As a result, there is a distrust of media prevalent in today’s culture that did not exist in the same way twenty years ago. Many critics of President Trump accuse him and his supporters of disseminating false statements and doctored media. On the other side, Trump and his supporters attack the free press repeatedly with cries of “Fake News!” The so‐called “cultural elite” – which of course includes Hollywood – is reported to be out of touch with mainstream American values. Education is suspect, and the liberal arts faculty of colleges and universities often find themselves under attack. Given all of that, this book may invite scorn from some sectors of contemporary American culture. It is an academic, scholarly book written for university students, based on previous research, vetted by other scholars, and published by a reputable academic press. The book’s central topics – film and media and the diversity of the American experience – may also be seen as “bad objects” by those people who want to define America and its culture as being solely the purview of white heteronormative people and institutions. To us, however, it is obvious that America means so much more than that. It is diversity that gives America its vibrancy. White, male, and heterosexual viewpoints are part of this diversity, but recognized as not the sole or “normal” viewpoints. In embracing that diversity, the American film and media industries are able to tell new stories from new perspectives, enriching the lives of all Americans. Despite the election of 2016 and the backlash it seems to represent, Hollywood has continued to give us game‐changing blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015),