James J. Dowd - Social Life in the Movies: How Hollywood Imagines War, Schools, Romance, Aging, and Social Inequality

Through an analysis of hundreds of Hollywood movies, this book examines some of the most contentious social issues of our time, including racism, social inequality, sexism, and gerontophobia. With studies of some of the most enduring film genres in Hollywoods history, including romantic films such as Casablanca, war movies from World War II through the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, alienation films, including Five Easy Pieces and Lost in Translation, the school movie, from Goodbye, Mr. Chips to other films set in academia, including Dead Poets Society and Dangerous Minds, the book outlines and demonstrates the sociological approach to viewing films and highlights the socially conservative nature of much Hollywood movie production, which draws on common stereotypes and reinforces dominant cultural values but is also capable of challenging and serving to change them.

James J. Dowd is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia, USA. He is the author of Stratification Among the Aged and the co-author of The Primary Group: Its Rediscovery in Contemporary Sociology.

James J. Dowd

First published 2021

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2021 James J. Dowd

The right of James J. Dowd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Names: Dowd, James J., author.

Title: Social life in the movies: how Hollywood imagines war, schools,
romance, aging, and social inequality/James J. Dowd.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020022946 (print) | LCCN 2020022947 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367277161 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367277147 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780429297458 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Social problems in motion pictures. |
Motion picturesSocial aspectsUnited States. |
Motion picturesUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC PN1995.9.S62 D69 (print) |
LCC PN1995.9.S62 (ebook) | DDC 791.43/655dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022946

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022947

ISBN: 978-0-367-27714-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-27716-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-29745-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by Newgen Publishing UK

I am grateful to the many colleagues, students, and teachers who have contributed to the ideas that I have worked to develop in these chapters. The many excellent graduate students who shared with me their views on movies, and whose thoughts often influenced my own, include Allen Shelton, Nicole Pallotta, Jeff Kidder, Tim Gill, Becca Hanson, Phil Lewin, Arialle Crabtree, and many others. I must also acknowledge the intellectual debts I owe colleagues at the University of Georgia, including Barry Schwartz, Pablo Lapegna, Joya Misra, Ron Bogue, Richard Neupert, Cynthia Hewitt, and others whose work continues to motivate my own efforts. As inevitably happens, many who have played a crucial role during my own graduate student days and later during the first years of my professional life are now no longer with us. I think of Jim Teevan, Vern L. Bengtson, Pauline Ragan, and Hoyt Barnaby most especially. Their kindness to me during those uncertain early days will always be remembered. I would also like to thank the editors and staff at Routledge publishers, especially Alice Salt, for their encouraging words throughout the process. Finally, there is Laura who has sat through innumerable movies with me, liking a few and patiently accepting the necessity of others. It was after we saw the Woody Allen film, Hannah and Her Sisters, that a pleasant conversation about that film led into an argument, which eventuated in a critical examination of Allens early and mid-career movies and then to the course I taught for almost twenty-five years on the sociological analysis of film. For this and her many close readings of every chapter in this book, as well as for her love and support over the years, I am thankful and will strive to re-balance the scales of fair exchange that have become so obviously out-of-whack during the writing of this book.

This is a book about movies and the ways in which they interpret and imagine human lives in the world today. It is written from a sociological perspective, which is unusual considering that sociology is a discipline committed to the analysis of social groups and the real people who populate those groups. Movies are social products created by the efforts of creative individuals working collaboratively across a number of professions, including writers, actors, advertisers, musicians, composers, sound and lighting technicians, editors, cinematographers, investors, and many others. The films themselves, however, are not people and so are not often the object of sociological interest. It would be mistaken, however, to interpret this disinterest as a rejection by sociologists of the importance of movies, or as a judgment on their centrality to the cultures of societies around the world. It is, instead, an oversight, a byproduct of the ways in which sociology initially developed and the important issues that captured the imagination of the founders of the discipline.

Sociology emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century, largely in response to the dramatic social changes in European and American societies wrought by industrialization, paramount among which was the increasing disjuncture between the lives of those in urban and rural areas and that between the poor and those more prosperous. Considering that movies only became available for viewing by the public in theaters in the mid-1890s (Streible, 2008: 45), their presence as a force within American culture only gradually came to be understood, largely due to their popularity among the growing populations of larger cities like New York and Chicago. Today, however, the significance and ubiquitous presence of popular culture in its many forms has become an important focus of critics, scholars, and educators throughout the world.