The American Dream: An Ideal Conveyed Through "American" Films

            Shaping culture was an important part of the post War of 1812 era to legitimize America as an independent nation... independent from Europe and more specifically, independent from Great Britain. 

 But what is “American?”  The word “American” is used often as an adjective to describe something that is from America, to designate identity.  And identity as Americans works to help us understand who we are and where we came from. Identity is an important aspect in understanding who we are. Even if we are using hyphenated descriptions, such as Italian-American of African-American, we are all still connected as American.

 Pop culture cements these ideas of "American" by describing what we are ingesting culturally. More recent cultural forms, such as films, have used the word “American” within its title, designating it as something of American culture.   Films such as American Graffiti, The American President, and An American Crime all denote they are American in nature and thus have an “American” identity.  But what is that American identity that is common to all three of these films?  Remembering that America is the “land of opportunity,” we can more easily identify the common theme of these “American” films.  Each of these films has the theme of opportunity and the attempts to ensure a better future through that opportunity that only America offers.

            The film American Graffiti released in 1973 deals with the unknown future of four recent high school graduates and the opportunities that they may or may not decide to pursue.  The film follows the four teens as they spend the last night of summer together before one of them is scheduled to leave for college.  The four boys, each through their own adventure, ponder what the future may hold.  All four boys struggle with decisions regarding their prospects, especially Curt (Richard Dreyfus) and Steve (Ron Howard) who look back at their high school days throughout the night in an effort to see what may be ahead of them.  Curt opens the film discussing his reservations about leaving for college with his best friend Steve.  Steve, of course, sees the enrollment into a large out-of-town university as a way out of this “turkey town.”  He says to Curt, “Do you want to end up like John.  You just can’t stay seventeen forever.”  Steve is referring to John Milner (Paul LeMat), whose only future goal is to keep the title of the fastest drag-racer without getting himself killed.  Although this goal is not one most would set for themselves, this is what John sees as his chance for a better future for himself, being the best at what he does, and using that reputation to help establish himself as a good mechanic.  Terry (Charlie Martin Smith), the fourth of the friends, also only looks to his immediate goals in trying to better his future, especially since he lacks the self-confidence to push himself further.  Terry, nicknamed “Toad,” is the classic nerd and just wants to be popular with the girls, cruising in a cool car, and thinks his opportunities lie in becoming “cool.” Although each boy sees his path to a better future in a very different way, it is undeniably the theme of the film...  the pursuit of the American Dream, whatever that may be for each young adult.

            The obvious connection to America in our second film, The American President, released in 1995, is the fact that the President of the United States is the leader of the American democratic government; however, this film connects to the American identity similarly to American Graffiti because of the characters’ choices in trying to ensure a better future.  The President, Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), is facing an election year and must make a difficult decision in an attempt to secure his reelection, thus ensuring his own future.  At the beginning of the film, Shepherd’s popularity rating is at a positive 63%, but he engages in a relationship with liberal lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) which causes his rival (ironically also played by Richard Dreyfus)  to question his character and his family values in a mud-slinging campaign.  In an effort to ascertain the votes needed by Congress to pass the crime bill, which Shepherd is certain will ensure his Presidential victory, he hurts Wade both personally and professionally.  However, his true character overtakes him as he realizes being President is “entirely about character” and he lends his support to the environmental bill instead of the poorly put together crime bill which was not designed well enough to effectively prevent crime. His realization that he needs to fight the fights worth fighting as opposed to simply fighting the fights he can win shows that Shepherd has real honor.  The movie concludes before we know how this decision affects the election, but we know he ultimately does the right thing, and thus ensures his future as a man who has integrity and deserves respect, revealing that the American Dream can be pursued with virtue as the founding fathers intended.

            The third film, An American Crime, released in 2007, reveals the dark side which can appear in human nature when one attempts to secure a better future at all costs.  Gertrude Baniszewski (Catherine Keener) agrees to babysit Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page) and her sister while their parents are on a carnival circuit.   However, Gertrude is already spread too thin.  Gertrude is a single mother of six children ranging in age from sixteen to six months, struggles with money issues, and suffers with severe asthma which she attempts to self-medicate with Coricidin and Phenobarbital.  Unfortunately for Sylvia, Gertrude transfers her anger and frustration onto Sylvia and ultimately blames her for her own teenage daughter Paula’s pregnancy.  She even confesses to Sylvia as she tries to justify the abuse, “I am doing everything I can to keep my family together.  I want something better for Paula… I need to protect my children.”  Gertrude believes that punishing Sylvia will ultimately improve her own family’s situation and provide them with better opportunities.   The fact that this idea is completely unrealistic does not undermine the ultimate theme of American identity defined by the film’s title.

            The ideal of American identity follows that America is the country of opportunity, and all have that opportunity to pursue the "American dream."  All Americans have that opportunity to improve their lives and ensure a better future.  These films, with the word “American” in their title, follow that theme by stressing the chances of improving one’s life and pondering the future opportunities afforded them as Americans, whether it is through a look back at one’s life in an effort to foresee what may come, whether through self-discovery and integrity, or through any means necessary regardless of who is hurt in the process.  This quest for the American Dream has been a recurring theme throughout American history, from the early days of the Republic right through to today as proven through these Hollywood offerings.

The Night He Came Home: An Examination of "Halloween"

Credit: New York Times

It’s October! Time for crisp autumn nights, fiery fall colors, jack-o-lanterns, and Halloween! And, of course, it’s horror movie season. One of the most enduring is Halloween. It was such a simple concept - a madman stalks and kills babysitters in a small suburban town on Halloween night - and, yet, it has a whopping eleven movies in the franchise, with two more in production with expected release dates in October of 2020 and 2021. So, what is it about Halloween that is able to capture audiences from the original in 1978 all the way through today? 

The original Halloween’s success has much to do with the time period in which it was created. It was released in 1978 amid the successes of disaster movies such as Airport (1970)....which also had three sequels in Airport 1975, Airport ‘77, and The Concorde (1979)..., and Towering Inferno (1974), in an era of airline hijackings and terrorism on the world stage. In fact, airline hijackings had become somewhat of an epidemic in the 1970s. It’s so hard to imagine in today’s age of TSA screenings, but in 1970s, airport security was non-existent and it was relatively easy to bring weapons on board. And, in fact, Cuba was a hot destination for sjkyjackers amidst the Cold War and the travel ban to Castro’s country post the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. In 1968 alone, there were 30 attempts to hijack and divert planes to Cuba. But, Cuba wasn’t the only destination for skyjackers. The turbulent Middle East also saw an increase of skyjackers looking for locations such as Beirut as a  final destination. In fact, the conflicts in the Middle East were making headlines through the 1970s with the rise of Palestinian nationalists pushing back against Israel’s continued expansions with the 1972 Munich Olympics becoming a watershed moment in the perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With a decade of conflict and chaos as the Vietnam War closed out, it would make perfect sense for the horror movie to come into its own. 

But why Michael Meyers? What was it about this killer that was so interesting? Again, we need to look at the time frame when the first Halloween was released. Halloween was a low budget creation, filmed in two weeks, with a limited release. What made it so popular? Timing is everything…. Serial killers have always been a subject of interest to the American public. It seems that the public needs answers in order to understand the killer, likely so that it alleviates some of the terror that comes with random acts of violence. So what was going on in the 1970s? The Son of Sam killing spree occurred between the summers of 1976 and 1977, coming to an end a mere year before the release of Halloween. David Berkowitz terrorized New York City with his random killings beginning on July 19, 1976 when he walked up to a car parked on a city street and shot the two occupants, eighteen-year-old Donna Lauria and nineteen-year-old Jody Valenti, with no clear motivation. After his sixth shooting incident, police found a handwritten letter signed the “Son of Sam” which expressed his desire to continue his killing spree. After his arrest in August 1977, a full year after the first incident, Berkowitz could offer no explanation other than his former neighbor, Sam Carr, had a dog possessed by a demon. This most certainly feeds into the psychotic mindset of a character like Michael Meyers who has no clear motivation for killing babysitters, starting with his sister when he was a mere six years old. 

Ted Bundy, also a recognizable name when we mention serial killers, was active in the 1970s, feeding the fears of random and unexplainable acts of violence. These random killings of young women began in the Pacific Northwest in the spring and summer of 1974 where six women had been abducted and murdered in a six month span. By the time Bundy was caught, Bundy had killed over 30 women across six states, again, with no clear motivation. He was arrested, tried, and convicted in 1976, but escaped in 1977 after being extradited from Colorado to Utah to face trial for his murders there. While on the run, he fled to Florida, killing two girls and beating another two at a Florida State University sorority house in January of 1978. Again, timing is everything as Bundy’s next arrest came in February 1978, just a mere six months before Halloween was filmed and released in October of that same year. And, Bundy’s own lawyer described Bundy as “the very definition of heartless evil.” Lest we remember that Dr. Samuel Loomis, played by Donald Pleasence, describes Michael Myers as “evil.” Loomis describes Myers to the sheriff of Haddonfield:

 I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this... six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and... the blackest eyes - the Devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

Then… let’s think about the film in terms of its other characters as a gauge for Halloween’s success.  It is also an age where the young female protagonist brought in movie audiences - think Carrie (1976) and the Exorcist (1973) in the horror genre. But even comedies and dramas produced strong female leads in the 1970s in movies such as Annie Hall (1977) that help propel Diane Keaton into the spotlight. It would make sense that Laurie Strode would be an ideal character to add to the mix in the later 1970s. 

Even knowing the history and atmosphere  in which the film was created, Halloween still endures deserving of the classic status it has earned. On the eve of Halloween, 41 years after its release, it’s still my go to Halloween movie as I know it is for many. It has endured, even thrived, with its multitude of sequels and, more recently, remakes, making it a must-see classic. I’ll be spending my Halloween eve with Michael Myers. Happy Haunting!

The Illusion of Freedom

What is American? When we think American, we think freedom. After all, the basis of our founding fathers was the idea of freedom. The Declaration of Independence states, “That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” Therefore, freedom is an important basis for the American identity. We can even see this connection to freedom in the canon of American literature. Walt Whitman, in his preface to “Leaves of Grass,” acknowledges the inhabitants of the United States have a “deathless attachment to freedom.” However, this freedom was not always attainable to everyone, especially those of the “other” gender or race. This theme of freedom, or lack of it, actually connects the works of many literary artists, especially those who wrote in the 19th century when America was trying to find its identity as a newly formed nation, but was denying freedom to certain Americans based merely on gender and race. These authors saw the irony of the country that boasted freedom as its foundation and yet reduced or eliminated freedom to some based solely on gender or race, or the intersection of both. 

Slavery especially denied freedom to people based on race, but slavery further placed African American women on a lower scale than white women, or even black men. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, although a fictitious novel- and two film versions in 1927 and 1987, gives us a clear picture of what it was like for a black female slave in the Chapter entitled, “The Quadroon’s Story.” Cassy explained how her status was even lower than Tom’s: “’Don’t call me Missis! I’m a miserable slave, like yourself, - a lower one than you can ever be!’” Cassy described her miserable life as a slave to a cruel plantation owner; and gave details on how slaves are not protected by any laws and can be beaten or even murdered with no consequences to the offenders. Just the fact that Cassy could be bought and sold as property displayed the lack of freedom afforded to African American slaves; however, she further identified herself as a lower class slave because she was a woman. Slave women were also subjected to sexual abuses because they were thought of as property and, thus, did not retain the rights to their own bodies, making them feel less human than men slaves.

Looking at earlier first-hand accounts of the enslaved, we can see that the fictitious character of Cassy wasn't far off in her characterization of a female slave. Harriet Jacobs  confirmed this idea that slaves were no more than property in her “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” as she explained “These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend. Jacobs described the life of a slave as subservient humans, “to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.” Because this was written as an autobiographical account, Jacobs is excellent at conveying the dehumanization she felt in the hands of slave owners, especially Dr. Flint who not only treated her as property, but wished to use her as a concubine for his own sexual satisfaction. Jacobs was chaste, and an unwilling sexual partner, which only caused Dr. Flint to see Jacobs as an insubordinate slave who needed to be punished for her outspoken and uncooperative nature.

Jacobs was subjugated to the lowest position on the scale, but her spirit was never broken. She believed, appropriately, that every person, male or female, black or white, was entitled to freedom, especially in a country that touted freedom as its foundation. When Jacobs was offered the purchase of her freedom through her friends in New York, Mrs. Dodge responded, “I have heard her say she would go to the ends of the earth, rather than pay any man or woman for her freedom, because she thinks she has a right to it.” Jacobs further highlighted that “women were articles of traffic in New York…. [and this fact should be used] to measure the progress of civilization in the United States.” These United States could not be flaunted as the land of the free and, at the same time, keep people as property under the false sense of justifiable enslavement.

These issues rooted in the intersection of gender and race were addressed in the literature of the 19th century and can be best understood through the works of these women who lived through these times of repression. All of these women related stories of oppression, slavery, and subjugation because this is how it was for African American women in 19th Century America. This certainly does not portray a country that boasts its ideals of freedom and equality and raises questions about the foundation of America. 

This intersection of gender and race complicates the ideal of freedom on which America was founded. Freedom and liberty were not afforded to everyone who lived in America, but were only given based on gender and race, which was clearly highlighted in the literature of the 19th century women. It is now the 21st century and we are closer to Whitman’s ideal America “when those in all parts of these states … realize the true American character” of freedom for all. However, that “true American character” was slow in coming even after the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Women’s Rights Movements and is still not completely realized even today. Unfortunately, even with laws to protect against discrimination based on gender and race, prejudices exist in our country which boasts the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” making the ideal of freedom truly an illusion.