The American Dream and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
by Winn, J. EmmettFormat: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2007-09-26
Publisher(s): Bloomsbury Academic
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Summary
While the myth of a classless America endures in the American Dream, the very stratification that it denies unfairly affects the majority of Americans. Study after study shows that it's increasingly difficult for working class people to achieve upward mobility in the US - so how does the American Dream continue to thrive?J. Emmett Winn shows us that the American Dream's continued glorification in contemporary Hollywood cinema should not be ignored. Through his thoughtful analysis of films as diverse as Working Girl, Titanic, Pretty Woman, Flashdance, The Firm, Good Will Hunting, Saturday Night Fever, Wall Street and many others, Winn shows that contemporary Hollywood is very much in the business of keeping the Dream alive.
Author Biography
J. Emmett Winn is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Auburn University
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| The American Dream, Upward Mobility, and Hollywood Film | p. 1 |
| The American Language of Class | p. 5 |
| Understanding the Resiliency of the American Dream | p. 6 |
| Defining the American Dream | p. 6 |
| The American Dream, the Self, and Hollywood's Contemporary Era | p. 7 |
| Rhetorical Assessment of Filmic Value Systems | p. 9 |
| Rhetorical Analyses of the American Dream in Popular Culture | p. 11 |
| The Themes of Upward Mobility in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema | p. 12 |
| Moralizing Mobility | p. 14 |
| Working Girl | p. 14 |
| An Officer and a Gentleman | p. 24 |
| Flashdance | p. 31 |
| Saturday Night Fever | p. 36 |
| The Enduring Nature of the American Dream | p. 40 |
| Moralizing Mobility | p. 42 |
| Working-Class Heroes and the Working-Class Life | p. 43 |
| Moralizing Failure | p. 44 |
| Wall Street | p. 45 |
| The Firm | p. 50 |
| Someone to Watch Over Me | p. 53 |
| The Flamingo Kid | p. 57 |
| Breaking Away | p. 62 |
| Maid in Manhattan | p. 67 |
| Good Will Hunting | p. 77 |
| The Morality of Failed Mobility | p. 83 |
| Class Acceptance | p. 85 |
| Moralizing the Material | p. 87 |
| Pretty Woman | p. 89 |
| Mrs. Winterbourne | p. 98 |
| White Palace | p. 103 |
| Titanic | p. 106 |
| Passion Fish | p. 110 |
| The Fisher King | p. 115 |
| The Rhetoric of Cross-Class Relationships | p. 121 |
| The American Dream and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema | p. 126 |
| Analysis of Conclusions | p. 131 |
| The American Dream Is Sacrosanct | p. 132 |
| The Dominant Class Is Not Immoral or Exploitative | p. 133 |
| Working-Class Values Are Lauded | p. 135 |
| Class Is Not Social in America, It Is Individual | p. 138 |
| Social Justice | p. 139 |
| The Problem of Political Indifference | p. 144 |
| A Critical Media Pedagogy | p. 146 |
| A Final Movie | p. 150 |
| Bibliography | p. 152 |
| Index | p. 161 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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