FILM CHRONICLE
THE GANGSTER AS TRAGIC HERO
America, as a social and political organization, is committed
to a cheerful view of life. It could not be otherwise. The sense of tragedy
is a luxury of aristocratic societies, where the fate of the individual is
not conceived of as having a direct and legitimate political importance,
being determined by a fixed and supra-political-that is, non-contro–
versial-moral order or fate. Modern equalitarian societies, however,
whether democratic or authoritarian in their political forms, always base
themselves on the claim that they are making life happier; the avowed
function of the modern state, at least in its ultimate terms, is not only
to regulate social relations, but also to determine the quality and the
possibilities of human life in general. Happiness thus becomes the chief
political issue-in a sense, the only political issue--and for that reason
it can never be treated as an issue at all.
If
an American or a Russian
is unhappy, it implies a certain reprobation of his society, and therefore,
by a logic of which we can all recognize the necessity, it becomes an
obligation of citizenship to be cheerful;
if
the authorities find it neces–
sary, the citizen may even be compelled to make a public display of his
cheerfulness on important occasions, just as he may be conscripted into
the army in time of war.
Naturally, this civic responsibility rests most strongly upon the
organs of mass culture. The individual citizen may still be permitted
his private unhappiness so long as it does not take on political signifi–
cance, the extent of this tolerance being determined by how large an
area of private life the society can accommodate. But every production
of mass culture is a public act and must conform with accepted notions
of the public good. Nobody seriously questions the principle that it is
the function of mass culture to maintain public morale, and certainly
nobody in the mass audience objects to having his morale maintained.
1
1
In her testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities,
Mrs. Leila Rogers said that the movie
None But the Lonely Heart
was un-
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