Josiah Koser
04/10/2017
Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America, Random House inc., New York City, New York, 1994.
The argument made by the author Robert Sklar in his book Movie-Made America has to do with the impact that American movies have had on the country's culture and society as a whole. Sklar says this by stating that, “American movies, through much of their span, have altered or challenged many of the values and doctrines of powerful social and cultural forces in American society, providing alternative ways of understanding the world.” (6470). Throughout his book Sklar goes through the history of film in American culture and analyzes how different American film’s have impacted our country in different ways, and vice versa.
Sklar starts his book by looking at the beginning of film in the early 20th century. Sklar starts by looking at how film in the years between 1890 and 1910 became so popular. As films were gaining popularity American cities population’s were
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Sklar shows this by looking at the film “Male and Female” by Cecil DeMille. This film was very controversial for the time it was released. Sklar quotes Adolph Zukor’s comments on the film’s morality; “‘the noble lady falling in love with the butler—would probably not have been acceptable to prewar audiences.’” (1933). DeMille’s post war films urged moviegoers for social change.
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The relationship between film and society continue in the 1930’s. With the start of the great depression came the start of the Breen Office. The Breen Office regulated films in the mid 1930’s and the movie makers decided to embrace the American Values the Breen Office was trying to stand for. Sklar states that this new sense of American Values in film helped to “boost the morale of a confused and anxious people by fostering a spirit of patriotism, unity and commitment to national values,” (3597).