#479 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Tuesday October 11)
Good morning,
MOVIES THAT EVOKE AN ERA
A couple of weeks ago I offered up a list of movies that are evocative of an era—not just set in an era but ones in which we feel we are part of, almost living in, these time periods for the duration of the film. A number of people appreciated this list of great films that are, in their way, art forms in their mix of cinematography, language, costume, lighting, and scenery. And there are some great (and even disturbing—see below) movies they propose:
Peter Bain proposes two:
Hester Street: 1975: Not very well known, but an intimate, black-and-white study of the turn-of-the-century Jewish, Eastern European immigrant experience in Manhattan’s lower east side (yes, on Heater Street). A young Carol Kane arrives in America and sets about trying to navigate an entirely new world, encountering a neighborhood of new people and having to make any number of decisions about how (and whether) her prior life and culture can be reconciled with her new country. You feel like you are watching Jacob Riis’s pictures brought to life.
Ragtime: The 1981 adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s extraordinary historical novel. This is early-20th century America, the emerging, vigorous empire of Teddy Roosevelt. The New York of Stanford White’s architecture. Anarchists struggling with the robber barons. Black Americans continuing to suffer under the weight of racism. Patriotism creeping towards jingoism. All set to a ragtime rhythm. Compelling!
As to Ragtime, Peter points out one of the fabulous authors of our time. E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, World’s Fair, The March, Homer & Langley, Billy Bathgate and other novels immerse the reader in seminal eras and events, mostly in New York.
Paul Kanin suggests two movies by Marcel Pagnol, both set in France “in the good old days”: My Mother’s Castle and My Father’s Glory.
Diane Cairns has a whole list of great recommendations:
Das Boot (I’ll never get on a submarine again)
The Age of Innocence (the gilded age somewhat unvarnished)
The Revenant (the west as it probably was)
Dangerous Liaisons (how royal courts probably did amuse themselves)
City of God (life in the slums)
Hamburger Hill (the pointlessness of (the Vietnam) war.
And maybe not-so-immersive, but shout-outs to Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and (drumroll) The Great Race.
Great suggestions! To play off of Diane’s suggestiojns: I’d add The Hunt For Red October to the scary underwater theme, Emma for gilded age, Slumdog Millionaire for life in the slums, Platoon and The Hurt Locker, for the pointlessness of war, and Nicholas & Alexandra for Russia.
Bradley Tabach-Bank proposes two interesting films for their evocation of eras, but not because they are particularly appropriate:
“While both are decidedly racist, when listing historical dramas, one cannot ignore two American blockbusters: Gone with the Wind (1939) for its sympathetic depiction of the travails of an idealized aristocratic Southern family during and after the Civil War, and Birth of a Nation (1915) primarily for its second half recounting of the failure of Reconstruction and its heroic depiction of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (which sadly led to the Klan’s resurgence in the early 20th century). You probably know Birth of a Nation was the first film shown at the White House by President Wilson - probably the most openly racist 20th century president.”
Bradley’s choices are excellent. I would argue that their study, despite the former’s sympathetic perspective on the South and open racism of the latter, tell us as much a story and evocation of the era in which the films were made.
THE RACISM OF BIRTH OF A NATION
As I’ve pointed out in prior Musings, the construction of public statues of Confederate heroes and the naming of military bases after Confederate officers did not arise from the immediate generation after the war, but arose from a resurgence of racism of the early 20th century (the teens and 20s). Food for thought.
On a personal note, I will never forget watching and then studying Birth of a Nation, which in some respects retains some of its horror by virtue of being a silent film. It was in a college class and was an eye-opening experience for me to see how racism was so generally accepted in 1915 (enough for a movie to have been made and to have garnered such success at the box office).
I have come to believe that the study of this film shouldn’t be limited or restricted because of its open racism. To the contrary. I feel the film should be nearly mandatory viewing for all college students. While we’re at it, Merchant of Venice, with its openly antisemitic perspective, also offers a critical learning opportunity.
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives: