Movies and Modern American Society at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo

blacks are taboo but also idealized and seductive (the black go-go dancer excites Charlie but he's a bit frightened of her). Jews are erotic (easy lays), close to the fringes of the community; though still "other," one can joke, drink and screw with them. In an attempt to expand his scope, Scorsese has a scene with a Viet vet which intimates that the outer world is a demonic jungle with even more irrational violence than the world ofthe bar. The vet is told affectionately by Tony to calm down, for: "This is American, Jerry." However, though such grand themes may be part of Scorsese's ultimate intent, the film's prime strength lies in his ability to mine his own world and past for more than local color, nostalgia, and overly precious lyric images. Scorsese has moved us down a road, which seems truly promising for American directors: to dramatically evoke and probe the codes, rituals, and myths, which are the stuff of everyday life in America. That he falls into standard melodramatic cliches and overly baroque flourishes should not disguise the authentic power and originality of the film. By narrowing his focus on the world of "the boys," he has at times really opened up a past, which was both banal and complex, ritualized and aimless, and warm and thoroughly destructive. MOVIES AND MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY AT S.U.N.Y. BUFFALO BY MILTON PLESUR Milton Plesur is Professor ofHistoiy at the State University ofNew York at Buffalo specializing in the Histoiy of Popular Culture. He is preparing a monograph on the Public's Perception ofthe Motion Picture Industry. 1920-40. The development ofthe medium of the motion picture was one ofthe principal achievements of the United States in the twentieth century. The aim of this course is to examine that development in terms of the film as a social and personal document. Films tell us a great deal about an era and its people—their hopes, ideals, values, and concerns. The movie is more than low-brow entertainment. Movies can help recover the total spirit ofa period, in essence they can be considered one significant manifestation ofthe popular culture ofan era, ofthe Zeitgeist. Films were and are used as escapism and fantasy, as social comment, as commentaries about the nature of society, and as expressions of innocence and idealism tempered by the realities ofeveryday life. Movies assist in comprehending the apparent as well as the "underside" of American life more than other vehicles. The motion picture has provided a form ofculture whereby divergent peoples can share the same cultural experience and thereby has influenced behavior, manners, and taste. Movies can show mistaken impressions about realities but they can also improve and enrich American experiences. This course, then, is in essence a study ofthe evolution of the motion picture as a medium ofexpression and communication—how it has become what one authority calls the most "culture pivoted" form ofexpression, how it can examine society, how it may even stimulate social change, how it reflects the felt needs ofthe people in a given period, and in general, how it has proved to be as changeable as American society itself. 36 Naturally the list of readings differ from semester to semester. A recent list included: Survey Histories Knight, Arthur, The Liveliest Art 2 of the following: Baxter, John, Hollywood in the Sixties Bergman, Andrew, We're in the Money: Depression America and Its Films Gow, Gordon, Hollywood in the Fifties Genres 2 of the following: Gow, Gordon, Suspense in the Cinema Huss, Roy and T. J. Ross, Focus on the Horror Film MacArthur, Colin, Underworld USA Personalities 2 of the following: Capra, Frank, The Name Above the Title Schickel, Richard, The Disney Version Zierold, Norman, The Moguls and 3 ofthe following: Geduld, Harry, Focus on D. W. Griffith Gottesman, Ronald, Focus on Citizen Kane Guiles, Fred, Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe Latham, Aaron, Crazy Sunday: F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood McCaffrey, Donald W., Focus on Chaplin Novels Lous, Mary, The Beggars are ComingWest, Nathanael, Day of the Locust Criticisms 1 ofthe following: Kael, Pauline, Going Steady Kael, Pauline, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang Each session is two-three...