Hollywood Genres and Post-war America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir (Cinema and Society)

This is a clear and engrossing account of how popular films in America just after the close of the Second World War played out America’s mood at that crucial time. It is also a revisionist challenge to received scholarly understanding of this mood, which has tended to be seen as characterized by an abiding pessimism most clearly manifested in the films noir of the period. Chopra-Gant makes here an important contribution to film genre, which proposes that the ‘noir and Zeitgeist’ reading is based on the retrospective promotion of selected movies. He turns to the top box office successes of the period, including “Best Years of our Lives”, “The Jolson Story” and “Two Years Before the Mast”, finding that these films emphasise rather the triumph of American beliefs in democracy, classlessness and individualism. They deploy positive, performative masculinities and the pleasures of male friendships and celebrate the traditional American family, while recognising the problems of ‘momism’ and absent fathers. American culture after the end of World War II has been characterized by an abiding pessimism most clearly manifested in the film noirs of the period. The author challenges this "noir and Zeitgeist" reading and proposes that the view of American cinema and society it develops relies on a retrospective re-imagining of the era, based on the erroneous promotion of selected movies. His vigorous revisionist account of the films and culture of the period also challenges traditional approaches to genre, to masculinity and the family, by focusing on key themes in the most popular films in terms of box office revenues, including Best Years of Our Lives, Night and Day, Scarlet Street and Gilda Movies, genre and zeitgeist Re-invigorating the nation: popular films and American national identity The troubled postwar family: "moms" and absent fathers Performing postwar masculinities Military service and male companionship Popular films and "tough" movies Genre and history. This book is concerned with American popular films and culture in the period immediately following the end of the Second World War. Mike Chopra-gant. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [194]-214) And Index.