Herman Melville: Consider the Sea, and: Nathaniel Hawthorne: Light in the Shadows (review)

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter is a warm, humorous, evocative film that makes admirable use of oral history methods. The five women interviewed are lively, acute observers oftheir own lives and ofthe wartime era. By relying so heavily on these interviews and on stills and newsreels, however, the film somewhat distorts the experience of women war workers. Three of the five women interviewed are black, hardly a reflection ofblack women's participation in the wartime work force. All ofthe women were young during the war emergency, and all ofthem had been employed before their shift into war work. However, over 3.7 million ofthe 6.5 million females who entered the labor force during the war described themselves as former housewives, and "for the first time, more wives were employed than single women, more women over thirty-five than under thirty-five." (1) While the former Rosies interviewed found menial employment once barred from industrial work, the film implies that they succumbed to the feminine mystique and settled down to careers ofmotherhood and domesticity. Lola Weixel laments: "We wanted babies, O.K. But we gave up everything for that. We gave up everything." In fact, many former Rosies did not return home. They remained in the workplace because their economic contribution was essential to their families, even if much oftheir support was diverted to the purchase of "consumer durables" meant to lighten their work load at home, and because they preferred the sociability ofwage work to the isolation ofwork at home. (2) The film's avoidance ofnarrative and statistics lends it the greater immediacy ofpersonal narrative, but it somewhat distorts its accuracy as representation. Nevertheless, Rosie the Riveter triumphs as a filmic evocation ofthe life and times ofwomen war workers, their words lend dignity and authenticity to their work experience and preserve its meaning for the present generation. 1 William H Chafe, The American Women: Her Changing. Social. Economic, and Political Roles. 1920-1970 (1972, reprinted New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 145, 148. 2 Paddy Quick, "Rosie the Riveter: Myths and Realities," Radical America. 9 (July-August 1975), 124-130. FILM & HISTORY NEWS The Historians Film Committee was pleased to sponsor a screening and discussion ofthe new documentary, The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time, at the Philadelphia Convention ofthe Organization ofAmerican Historians. The screening was arranged with the assistance ofRonald Radosh of C.U.N.Y., Radosh chaired a panel discussion following the screening in which Warren Susman ofRutgers University and Fred Hellerman, one ofthe original Weavers, discussed the film and the role of the famous folk group in the radical movements ofthe 40's, 50's and 60's. FILM REVIEWS Herman Melville: Consider the Sea (28 min., color, 16 mm), rental $45, sale $525. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Light in the Shadows (23 min., color, 16mm), rental $35, sale $425; International Film Bureau Inc. 13 Both ofthese films have been made presumably to introduce the two American authors to students on the high school or possibly college level. Both films attempt to survey the life and work ofeach author in very brieftime: the Melville succeeds admirably in this, but the Hawthorne fails to penetrate the mysteries ofthat novelist's complex career. By choosing Richard Wilbur as narrator ofthe Melville film, Jean McCIure Mudge, the producer-writer, assured its success. Wilbur is not only a major American poet, he is also a professor ofAmerican literature who conveys a deep understanding of Melville's tragic sense. One feels the ironic juxtaposition ofthe events ofMelville's exciting youth and the bitterness and even tragedy ofhis career after the publication of Moby Dick in 1851. To attempt to survey so complicated a development in 23 minutes at first seems foolhardy, but the film succeeds surprisingly enough. The script analyzes three major works with astute comments and leaves us with a series of valuable ideas about the nineteenth century author that would spur the average reader to set forth on a reading journey into Moby Dick, "Bartleby the Scrivener," and Billy Budd. A second quality of the film is the memorable series of images presented in color. These include the views ofwhaling ships, of "Arrowhead," the farm in western...