THE BIG TOMORROW

HOLLYWOOD AND THE POLITICS OF THE AMERICAN WAY

by Lary May ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2000

La-La Land goes political.

May (Screening Out the Past, 1980) begins his account with Will Rogers in the 1930s and ends it somewhere between Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando in the 1960s. His quest to show how the movies, through their erection of idealized images of self and home, influenced American nationalism. Needless to say, this is a pretty broad canvas, and May finds no lack of material to consider—especially during the war years, when Hollywood became a kind of Ministry of Propaganda serving the Allied High Command. The House on 92d Street, Back to Bataan, This Is the Army, and The Fighting 69th are just a handful of the suspects he rounds up to support his case. In his examination of the McCarthy years, May relates the many ways in which the US government worked hand-in-glove with Hollywood to root out communist influence from the industry. Curiously enough, however, May stops short of labeling such efforts “propaganda.” More interesting are his comments on some of the more memorable films by respected directors, such as Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity), Mark Hellinger (High Sierra) and John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). May sees these efforts as attempts made by the more radical elements in Hollywood to counter the trend toward succumbing to the political pressures emanating from Washington. May, of course, is not the first cultural historian to point to Hollywood’s political impact on American society, but he does, however, give greater recognition than usual to minorities and the role they have played in the public consciousness (as expressed through popular films), both before and immediately after the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. He also points to a certain cross-cultural fertilization in American entertainment that perhaps is inevitable given the nature of our heritage.

Somewhat academic, but not without its merits.

Pub Date: June 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-226-51162-6

Page Count: 328

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION