324
PARTISAN REVIEW
they portray and hint at subtle ironies most of the other productions are
lacking.
If we are to learn from these movies which according to the
Voice
have replaced books, what are we learning? That philosophy is hopeless?
That a life of crime is inevitable? That money alone makes the world go
'round? What else are we to believe, to judge by the hype and hoopla, by
the mega publicity and the applause by movie critics at the end of each
performance?
Morris Dickstein has pointed out that 1930s moviegoers wanted to be
entertained in order to escape from the Depression - either by laughing at
slapstick comics, by reliving the individualist, macho idealization of the
American Wild West, or by lapsing into spoken or sung romantic nostal–
gia. But it was fairly clear to them, I believe, that the subjects of these
movies were purely escapist. The current crop, however, tends to draw
the audience into the worst - and often exaggerated - phenomena in our
culture, and to depict these as inescapable. And as filmmakers are teaching
and sensitizing us to existing horrors with the aid of psychedelic effects,
their box office take gets larger, as does the praise heaped upon them. To
overdraw my point, killing, death, rape, and so on, accompanied by deaf–
ening crescendoes, pays off in money and prestige.
Many "conservative" educators have bemoaned this trend for some
time and have argued that it contributes to the fact that fewer and fewer
Johnnys can or like to read anymore. They have been attacked by their
"liberal" colleagues who choose to use film rather than, or in addition to,
books in their classrooms. "At least the students pay attention," or "I get
them to comment and think about the issues" are these teachers' credible
justifications. (The publishing industry gets on the bandwagon by pro–
moting tie-ins.) Thereby, "conservatives" are undermining the movie
industry, which has become a considerable component of our GNP,
while "liberals" are boosting Hollywood by promoting its products. In
this topsy-turvy world, the depiction of crime and war as entertainment is
replacing textbooks; film studies are supplanting the study of history; and
liberal credos and anti-Americanism ensure commercial success. In the
process the country is going to hell on an express train.
