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and local newspapers in Hollywood such as the Hollywood Reporter and Los AngelesTimes not only review the films on release but also give information at the pre-production,production and post-production stages. Other newspapers review the films on release intheir area while magazines can take more time and can give a deeper consideration.Most of the newspaper reviews were concerned with the overall quality of the film, thenarrative, the cast and their performance and the technical qualities and did not commenton the ideas or values expressed, nor alluded to the film's relationship to current events.Eighteen of the sixty-six films, which had a PCA file, either had no review material or thereviews did not contain anything more than comments about the quality of the film and asummary of the story. This was far more apparent in the 1960s. The reissuing of the Codein 1956 marked a significant change in the PCA's approach to the many issues it had oncetried to control for the public good by banning or severely limiting their representation anddiscussion. But there were other factors which were seriously threatening the film industry:the rise of television, the fall in theatre audiences, the movement to the suburbs and awayfrom the main theatre concentrations, the increasing influence of foreign films andHollywood's continuing financial crisis. The films released from 1957, were producedafter the landmark Brown decision of 1954 changed the racial climate from one ofrepression, subservience and disregard to the beginnings of recognition and inclusion,while the substantially revised PC enabled a whole range of subjects to be dealt with in amore open and realistic way - the subject of race in its many forms being one. However,from 1960, despite the nationally planned celebrations for the centennial of the Civil War,the increasing racial tension saw Hollywood distance itself from representations of theconflict with a dramatic reduction of films set in that period until 1964. There were alsochanges in the pattern of comments made by reviewers in these periods.Although there were comments 37 from thirty-one newspapers and journals the vastmajority came from three sources - Variety (36), the Hollywood Reporter (24) and the NewYork Times (28) - amounting to 58% of all the comments. Next came the Motion PictureDaily (10) and the Hollywood Times (8). The seven journals contributed only ten reviews.While there were differences in style and approach between the newspapers what wasmore remarkable, taking the comments as a whole, were the similarities. Unfortunately, thesouth and south-west were not represented although some comments make reference towhether a particular film would be well received there.172TO
Reference has already been made to the fact that reviewers were not aware of the changesthat had been made to the film prior to release. Reviewers however sometimes referredback to, and made comparisons with, the source of the story - normally a novel. 39 Giventhis different perspective it should not be surprising that the reviewers, in the main,focused on entirely different aspects of the film. On the other hand the reviewers may havebeen reflecting a popular consciousness that was considerably at variance to, and far moretolerant, than that of the PCA. (The 1950's was of course the era of the Kinsey Report intosexual relations between adults.) Whereas the PCA was concerned very much withrepresentations of sex and illicit relationships, violence in all its manifestations, law andorder, irreverence and moral values, reviewers saw and commented on a different set ofattributes. These revolved around American identity and American values, theidentification of myth and the film's relationship to current events. They also showed ahigher degree of popular consciousness in racial comments and in their attitude towards theSouth.The one category that both the PCA and the reviewers seemed to share was the one relatingto values. However the PCA saw these as moral, while the reviewers saw them as moreAmerican, values. The PCA would probably assert that the two are indistinguishable andthat they did not need to comment on them as they were shared beliefs and that their rolewas to ensure that non-American or non-moral values were not shown or glorified in anyway. These shared values emerge in the 'plea for tolerance among neighbours' and the'honest toil, neighbourly love and thrift' in The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947); thetriumph of 'good over evil' in The Sun Shines Bright (1953); the 'touching display of thenobility of man' and the 'ordered happy lives of simple morality and genuine love' inFriendly Persuasion (1956); the indication that the Union soldiers would be hanged - butthis is to take place 'off camera' - in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956); the show of'loyalty, devotion and courage' in The Proud Rebel (1958); and the display of 'gallantry'in The Horse Soldiers (1959). 40Just under half of the categories of comments had sufficient numbers to give an indicationof reception. What might be called 'conservative,' status quo categories - Americanvalues, myth, pro-South and racist comments - fell dramatically and consistently after1956. Those categories that were more 'progressive' or 'liberal' and in touch with changes173
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Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
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REEL WARS: COLD WAR, CIVIL RIGHTSAN
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ABSTRACTThis study is an examinatio
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ABBREVIATIONSAMPASAHRBirthCommissio
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Historians using film as a resource
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dominated America's foreign policy
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Mary L. Dudziak explores this relat
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pure and simple' and were therefore
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historical texts. Hayden White comp
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Historians, history films and film
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How have sympathetic film historian
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Therefore historians can, with over
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identity and these were taken as th
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21 George F. Custen, 'Hollywood and
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63 Rosenstone, The Historical Film,
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of Honor dedicated to, and listing,
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War.....[it] defined us as to what
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The Civil War and popular cultureJu
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memory,53 the place where Union and
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Despite being a new medium Hollywoo
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From the late 1940s Hollywood was u
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1 William Faulkner, Requiem for a N
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36 Blight, Race and Reunion, 77, 81
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mainly composed of members of the w
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there was cowardice, it was either
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This was another Lost Cause myth -
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stuff with plenty of clothes, rich
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women into or within slavery. 47 Th
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departure when, in the discussion o
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1 William Dean Howells, Los Angeles
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37 Melvyn Stokes, The Civil War in
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All races and religions, that's Ame
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Hollywood almost abandoned Civil Wa
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charged with disloyalty and silence
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ecover from the HUAC investigations
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a living. The daughters grow up to
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Gettysburg. 'You know,' says Henry,
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combining two great myths, which co
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(1948), Tom Dunson's style of autoc
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Patriotism became a white attribute
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In the absence of African Americans
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(Horizons West) and businessmen (An
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year later, and there was no lead f
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20 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War, Civil
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56 Richard White, 'Western History'
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7 have seen the promised land.' 'Th
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those between whites and African Am
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change, to forget what made him, he
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eported that the film had 'already
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campaigning for Lincoln. John's rea
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lack/white relationships, in Civil
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McCarthy discredited and a more rel
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dispute which once divided our nati
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pressure, continued to hold. The me
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discrimination, attempts at univers
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talks about Lincoln pleading that '
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creativity. The Confederates use a
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police in Birmingham and Kennedy's
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1 Martin Luther King Jr.'s, speech,
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44 Blight, Race and Reunion, 8-11,
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- self-belief, reasons for fighting
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Sexploitation - which reversed the
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would surely recognise the Mexicans
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Page 131 and 132: on working class whites nor receive
Page 133 and 134: The conflict between civil rights a
Page 135 and 136: e trusted from the wiles of the mis
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Page 141 and 142: McBurney, even though he is wounded
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Page 145 and 146: conservatism,' as a natural ally fo
Page 147 and 148: By the early 1970s, Hollywood's opt
Page 149 and 150: 20 Enoch, in Friendly Persuasion (1
Page 151 and 152: 62 Johnson called what happened the
Page 153 and 154: The world is white no longer; and i
Page 155 and 156: proceed with civil rights legislati
Page 157 and 158: would have been counter to the poli
Page 159 and 160: mid-1990s was rejected as the compa
Page 161 and 162: those historians who were contestin
Page 163 and 164: 1 James Baldwin, Stranger in the Vi
Page 165 and 166: 39 Robert Brent Toplin, Reel Histor
Page 167 and 168: 1210mmmto3sCT>The number of America
Page 169 and 170: There is a third problem - that of
Page 171 and 172: the Library of Congress and the Uni
Page 173 and 174: mainly contain copies of correspond
Page 175 and 176: killing. There were two other areas
Page 177 and 178: are 'no compensating moral values a
Page 179: epresented.' 32 However, this was t
Page 183 and 184: It is in the final period that anti
Page 185 and 186: 22 Letter from Shurlock to William
Page 187 and 188: Year Director Company190819091910Ba
Page 189 and 190: 191119121912Grant and LincolnHe Fou
Page 191 and 192: 19131913Call to Arms, TheCarpenter,
Page 193 and 194: 1915 Birth of a Nation, TheColonel
Page 195 and 196: 19341935193619371938193919401941194
Page 197 and 198: Searchers, TheShowdown at AbileneTh
Page 199 and 200: Alien, Robert C., and Douglas Gomer
Page 201 and 202: Cassidy, John M., Civil War Cinema:
Page 203 and 204: Foner, Eric, Who Owns History, (New
Page 205 and 206: Landy, Marcia, (ed.), The Historica
Page 207 and 208: Prince, Stephen, A New Pot of Gold:
Page 209 and 210: Sternsher, Bernard, Consensus, Conf
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