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Sociology on Film
Chris Cagle
€ 207.21
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Description for Sociology on Film
Hardback. Num Pages: 168 pages, 15 photographs, 6 tables. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JJPG; APFA; APFN; JFD. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 13. Weight in Grams: 413.
After World War II, Hollywood’s “social problem films”—tackling topical issues that included racism, crime, mental illness, and drug abuse—were hits with critics and general moviegoers alike. In an era of film famed for its reliance on pop psychology, these movies were a form of popular sociology, bringing the academic discipline’s concerns to a much broader audience. Sociology on Film examines how the postwar “problem film” translated contemporary policy debates and intellectual discussions into cinematic form in order to become one of the preeminent genres of prestige drama. Chris Cagle chronicles how these movies were often politically fractious, the work of progressive directors and screenwriters who drew scrutiny from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Yet he also proposes that the genre helped to construct an abstract discourse of “society” that served to unify a middlebrow American audience. As he considers the many forms of print media that served to inspire social problem films, including journalism, realist novels, and sociological texts, Cagle also explores their distinctive cinematic aesthetics. Through a close analysis of films like Gentleman’s Agreement, The Lost Weekend, and Intruder in the Dust, he presents a compelling case that the visual style of these films was intimately connected to their more expressly political and sociological aspirations. Sociology on Film demonstrates how the social problem picture both shaped and reflected the middle-class viewer’s national self-image, making a lasting impact on Hollywood’s aesthetic direction.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2016
Publisher
Rutgers University Press United States
Number of pages
168
Condition
New
Number of Pages
194
Place of Publication
New Brunswick NJ, United States
ISBN
9780813576947
SKU
V9780813576947
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Chris Cagle
CHRIS CAGLE is an associate professor of film and media arts at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Reviews for Sociology on Film
"Sociology on Film delivers intriguing new insights on the operations of Hollywood in the postwar years and its complex, muted engagement with the problems of social and industrial modernity."
Lee Grieveson
University College London
"Brims with fresh insights and penetrating sociological analysis, smoothly moving from one film to the next, highlighting unexpected linkages along the way… Highly recommended."
Choice
"Sociology on Film delivers intriguing new insights on the operations of Hollywood in the postwar years and its complex, muted engagement with the problems of social and industrial modernity."
Lee Grieveson
University College London
"Brims with fresh insights and penetrating sociological analysis, smoothly moving from one film to the next, highlighting unexpected linkages along the way… Highly recommended."
Choice
"Cagle makes a powerful case for the importance of the social problem film as a prestige genre that conscientiously popularized developments in 20th-century sociology as it both formed and gratified Hollywood's aspirational 'middlebrow' audience."
Jerome Christensen
author of America's Corporate Art: Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures
"Cagle makes a powerful case for the importance of the social problem film as a prestige genre that conscientiously popularized developments in 20th-century sociology as it both formed and gratified Hollywood's aspirational 'middlebrow' audience."
Jerome Christensen
author of America's Corporate Art: Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures
Lee Grieveson
University College London
"Brims with fresh insights and penetrating sociological analysis, smoothly moving from one film to the next, highlighting unexpected linkages along the way… Highly recommended."
Choice
"Sociology on Film delivers intriguing new insights on the operations of Hollywood in the postwar years and its complex, muted engagement with the problems of social and industrial modernity."
Lee Grieveson
University College London
"Brims with fresh insights and penetrating sociological analysis, smoothly moving from one film to the next, highlighting unexpected linkages along the way… Highly recommended."
Choice
"Cagle makes a powerful case for the importance of the social problem film as a prestige genre that conscientiously popularized developments in 20th-century sociology as it both formed and gratified Hollywood's aspirational 'middlebrow' audience."
Jerome Christensen
author of America's Corporate Art: Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures
"Cagle makes a powerful case for the importance of the social problem film as a prestige genre that conscientiously popularized developments in 20th-century sociology as it both formed and gratified Hollywood's aspirational 'middlebrow' audience."
Jerome Christensen
author of America's Corporate Art: Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures