American Cinema/American Culture

481 Pages·2012·25.333 MB·English

by  John Belton

AmericAn cinemA / AmericAn culture looks at the interplay between American cinema and mass culture from
the 1890s to 2011. It begins with an examination of the basic narrative and stylistic features of classical Hollywood
cinema. It studies the genres of silent melodrama, the musical, American comedy, the war/combat film, film noir, the
western, and the horror and science fiction film; investigating the ways in which movies shape and are shaped by the
larger cultural concerns of the nation as a whole. The book concludes with a discussion of post–World War II Hollywood,
and separate coverage of the effects of the Cold War, 3-D, television, the counterculture of the 1960s, directors from the
film school generation, and the cultural concerns of Hollywood from the 1970s through 2011.
Ideal for introduction to American cinema courses, American film history courses, and introductory film appreciation
courses, this text provides a cultural overview of the phenomenon of the American moviegoing experience.
Features oF the Fourth edition
• An expanded treatment of digital cinema—new sections on the technology and aesthetics of digital 3-D
cinema, and an analysis of Avatar as a fantasy film in 3-D are part of the extensive revisions in Chapter 17, “Into the
Twenty-First Century.”
• The changing landscape of films about the war in Iraq is examined in a new study of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt
Locker in Chapter 9, “War and Cinema.”
• A new segmentation and discussion of David Fincher’s the Social network is included in Chapter 2, “Classical
Hollywood Cinema: Narration.”
• A new section on recent comedies including The Hangover and Easy A is now included in Chapter 8, “American
Comedy.”
• A discussion of Joel and Ethan Coen’s true Grit is included in Chapter 11, “The Making of the West.”
hallmark Features
• Cultural Focus. A reflection on the cultural history of American film, focusing primarily on topics and issues rather
than on what happened when.
• Scholarship. Basic concepts are presented in a manner that encourages discussion, not so much of individual
films, but of films in general.
• Accessibility. Methods and discoveries are appropriate for an introductory level course surveying American cinema.
Md. Dalim #1173333 12/02/11 Cyan Mag Yelo Black
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AMERICAN CINEMA /AMERICAN CULTURE
Fourth Edition
John Belton
Rutgers University

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AMERICAN CINEMA/AMERICAN CULTURE, FOURTH EDITION
Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2009, 2005, and 1994. Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic
storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.
Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers
outside the United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOC/DOC 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
ISBN 978-0-07-353509-8
MHID 0-07-353509-5
Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Michael Ryan
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All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the
copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Belton, John.
American cinema/American culture / John Belton.—4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes fi lmographies and index.
ISBN 978-0-07-353509-8 (alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—United States—History. 2. Motion picture industry—United States—
History. 3. Motion pictures—Social aspects—United States. 4. Popular culture—United
States—History—20th century. 5. Culture in motion pictures. I. Title.
PN1993.5.U6B365 2012
791.430973—dc23
2011044045
www.mhhe.com
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CCoonnfifi rrmmiinngg PPaaggeess
To Mike Moore, a teacher of teachers
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CONTENTS
Preface xv
Introduction xxi
PART 1 THE MODE OF PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 THE EMERGENCE OF THE CINEMA AS AN INSTITUTION 3
“The Cathedral of the Motion Picture” 3
Developing Systems: Society and Technology 4
Edison and the Kinetoscope 6
Capturing Time 6
Peepshows versus Projectors 7
Mass Production, Mass Consumption 9
A Public Spectacle 9
Middle-Class Amusements 9
The Nickelodeon: A Collective Experience 10
Cleaning Up: The Benefi ts of Respectability 12
Spectacle and Storytelling: From Porter to Griffi th 1 3
The Camera as Recorder 13
The Camera as Narrator 14
The “Feature” Film 15
Presenting . . . the Movie Palace 16
“Gardens of Dreams” 16
The Great Showmen 16
An Evolving Institution 19
Select Filmography 20
CHAPTER 2 CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA: NARRATION 21
A National Style 21
“The Temper of an Age . . .” 21
A Narrative Machine 22
Equilibrium and Disruption 23
iv
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
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Contents v
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Characters and Goals 24
Problem Solving 24
Through Time and Space 25
High Artifi ce, Invisible Art 27
Denial and Recognition 27
Underlying Patterns 28
Analyzing Film Narratives: Segmentation 28
A Circular Pattern: Chaplin’s The Gold Rush 30
Symmetry 31
At the Center: Imagination 32
Journey to a New Place: S ome Like It Hot 32
Flight and Pursuit 32
Narrative Structure and Sexuality 34
Resolution/Irresolution 35
Modernist Narration: Citizen Kane 35
Unresolved Questions 35
Segmentation of Citizen Kane 36
Artifi ce Exposed 36
The Social Network: “The Citizen Kane of John Hughes Movies” 38
Multiple Points of View 39
Collective Authorship of an Idea 40
A Moral Tale 41
Other Nontraditional Narratives 42
Select Filmography 43
CHAPTER 3 CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA: STYLE 44
Film Form and Character Development 44
Classical Economy: The Opening Sequence of Shadow
of a Doubt 44
The Art of Details 46
Mise-en-Scène 46
The Camera 47
Meaning through Context: Camera Angle and Distance 48
Systematic Meaning: Some Defi nitions 49
Camera Movement 50
Lighting 52
Three-Point Lighting 52
High-Key/Low-Key Lighting 53
Star Lighting 54
Sound 55
Miking and Mixing 55
The Musical Score 56
Sound and Continuity 56
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vi Contents
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Editing from Scene to Scene 57
Transitions 57
Editing and Narrative Structure 58
Editing within Scenes 59
Matches 60
Point-of-View Editing 61
The 180-Degree Rule 61
Select Filmography 63
CHAPTER 4 THE STUDIO SYSTEM 64
Manufacturing Dreams 64
Movies and Mass Production 64
Intangible Goods 66
The Majors and the Minors 67
Origins 67
Vertical Integration 68
Block Booking, Blind Bidding, and Runs, Zones, and Clearances 69
Studio Production: From Story Idea to Ad Campaign 70
Under Contract 70
A Self-Contained World 71
The Chain of Command 72
Studio Style 74
M-G-M and Paramount 76
Warner Bros. 77
20th Century-Fox 77
RKO 80
Columbia Pictures 80
Universal Pictures 81
Poverty Row 81
Collapse: The End of the Studio Era 82
Divestment, Independent Production, and a Changing
Marketplace 82
Starting from Scratch: The New “Studios” 83
Select Filmography: From Four Sample Studios 85
CHAPTER 5 THE STAR SYSTEM 87
The Mechanics of Stardom 87
Making Stars 87
Star Power 90
Persona 94
Stardom and Mass Culture: From Persona to Star 96
Stars, the System, and the Public 99
Stars and Culture: A Historical Survey 101
The Early Years 101
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Contents vii
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Exoticism, Eroticism, and Modern Morality: Stars of the 1920s 104
Depression/Repression: The 1930s 108
World War II and Its Aftermath 111
Stars and Anti-Stars 113
Different Faces: The Rise of Black Stars 116
Economics and Contemporary Stardom 119
Select Filmography 121
PART 2 GENRE AND THE GENRE SYSTEM
CHAPTER 6 SILENT FILM MELODRAMA 125
The Origins of Melodrama 125
Types of Melodrama 127
The Melodramatic Mode 127
A Moral Phenomenon 128
Democratic Virtue 129
A Social Vision 130
Melodrama as a Tool of Reform 130
Politics and Melodrama 132
Two Film Melodramatists: Griffi th and Vidor 133
An Agrarian Past 133
History as Melodrama: The Birth of a Nation 134
Everyman/No Man: The Crowd 136
Escape and Transcendence 138
Home as “Seventh Heaven” 138
The Lure of the City: Sunrise 139
Sound and Melodrama 140
Select Filmography 141
CHAPTER 7 THE MUSICAL 142
From Narrative to Musical Number 142
Setting the Stage 142
Narrative Reality 143
Musical Reality 143
Shifts in Register 145
Chicago 145
Nine 146
Narrative and Musical Number: Degrees of Integration 147
Musical Forms 148
Backstage Musicals 148
Busby Berkeley Musicals 148
Moulin Rouge 149
Showpeople 150
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viii Contents
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Transformation of Space: Performer, Props, Audience 150
Performer 151
Props 151
Audience 153
Stylistic Registers 153
From Black-and-White to Color 153
From Noise to Music 153
The Operetta 154
The Astaire–Rogers Musical 155
The Integrated Musical 157
The Freed Unit 157
Singin’ in the Rain 157
Ideology and the Musical 159
The End of an Era 160
A New Era Begins 161
Select Filmography 162
CHAPTER 8 AMERICAN COMEDY 163
Laughter and Culture 163
Comedy, Repression, and Cultural Dreamwork 163
From Racism to Social Integration 164
Comic Disintegration and Disorder 168
Containing Chaos 170
Comedy, Class, and Democracy 172
A Short History of American Screen Comedy 173
Silent Comedy 173
Early Sound Comedy 177
Screwball Comedy 179
After the Screwball 184
Alienation and Self-Refl ection: The 1960s and Beyond 188
From Animal Comedies to Ironic Romantic Comedies 190
Geek Comedy 191
Serious Jokes 194
Select Filmography 194
CHAPTER 9 WAR AND CINEMA 195
A World of Extremes 195
Breaking Rules 196
A Suspension of Morality 196
Deviant Narratives: From Individual to Group Goals 197
Sexual Combat: Masculinity in the War Film 199
Oedipal Battles 199
Conventional Homoeroticism 199
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Contents ix
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Masculine/Feminine 200
Back from the Front 202
Crossovers: War and Genre 203
The Battle for Public Opinion: Propaganda and the Combat Film 205
Preaching War and Peace 205
Mass Conversion: The Politics of Sergeant York 206
Why We Fight: Education and the War Film 207
The Vietnam Reversal 209
Race, Ethnicity, and the War Film 210
Confl icted: The Psychic Violence of War 211
The Enemy Is Us 211
The Aftermath 212
The 1991 Gulf War and World War II Redux 214
The Gulf War 214
World War II 214
The Iraq War 217
Mediation and Representation 219
Select Filmography 220
CHAPTER 10 FILM NOIR: SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT 221
Made in the USA 221
Film Noir: Genre, Series, or Mode? 223
Noir as Genre: A Set of Conventions 223
Noir as Series: A Certain Style 224
Noir as Mode: An Uneasy Feeling 225
Noir Aesthetics, Themes, and Character Types 226
Noir Stylistics: A Shift in Perspective 228
American Expressionism 228
From Disturbing Conventions to Conventional Disturbances 229
Noir and the Production Code 230
Forbidden Subjects, Twisted Treatments 230
The End of Censorship, the End of Noir? 231
Innocence Lost: The Literary Origins of Film Noir 231
Hard-Boiled Fiction 232
The Detective Hero 233
Noir and Verbal Wit 234
Women in Film Noir 235
Women as Social Menace 235
Women as Psychological Terror 236
A Critique of Populism 238
New Culture, Old Myths 238
Capra and Film Noir 239
Film Noir: An Undercurrent in the Mainstream 241
Select Filmography 241
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