Post on 07-Jan-2016
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Lecture 6: Lecture 6: To assimilate or not to To assimilate or not to
assimilate?assimilate?
Professor Daniel Bernardi /
Professor Michelle Martinez
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In the last lecture…In the last lecture…
• Stereotypes & Story
• Six Latino Stereotypes
• Resistance is Possible– Progressive Images– Latinos Playing Latinos
Dolores Del Rio
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In this lecture…In this lecture…
• Genre & the Social Problem Film
• Bordertown (1933) & Assimilation Narrative
• Salt of the Earth (1954) & Resistance
You can pause the lecture at any point, click on one of the hyperlinks (text that is underlined) to visit a site or view a clip , and then return to the same point in the lecture when you’re ready.
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Remember The Six TypesRemember The Six Types
• El Bandido
• Harlot
• Male Buffoon
• Female Clown
• Latin Lover
• Dark Lady
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Remember Key ConceptsRemember Key Concepts
• Denotative Features Change
• Connotative Feature Remain Consistent Across Hollywood Film History
– Visual Formula– Narrative Formula
Leo Carrillo in The Cisco Kid (1950)
Alfonso Arau in ¡Three Amigos! (1986)
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StereotypesStereotypes
• Specific Representations
• Entrenched Storytelling Conventions– Goal-Oriented Protagonist
• White, Handsome, Straight, Protestant
– Stereotypes and Minor Characters• Villains, Sidekicks, Temptresses• Provide Hero w/ Opportunities to Display Moral,
Physical and Intellectual Preeminence
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What is genre?What is genre?
• Collection of Visual Features– Motifs– Chronotopes– Iconography
• Recreation of Narrative Elements– Setting– Time and Space
• Facilitate Audience Expectations
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Basic DefinitionBasic Definition
“Stated simply, genre movies are those commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell
familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations. They
also encourage expectations and experiences similar to those of similar
films we have already seen.”
- Berry Keith Grant
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Sampling of Hollywood GenresSampling of Hollywood Genres• Key Genres We Consider
– Western– Science Fiction– Chicano/a Film
• Key Questions to Ask:– What are the visual features/motifs?– What are the narrative features/discourses?– What are audience expectations
• How are they triangled?
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Social ProblemSocial Problem
• Combines Social Analyses– Prejudice– Anti-Semitism– Alcoholism– Drug Addiction– War– Labor Unions
• Dramatic Conflict– Heroes and Villains– Families and Nations
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Chicano/a Social ProblemChicano/a Social Problem
• Bordertown (1935)• Right Cross (1950)• The Lawless (1950)• My Man and I (1952)• The Ring (1952)• Salt of the Earth (1954)• Trial (1955)• Giant (1956)
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The ProblemThe Problem
• Chicano Faces Poverty• Chicano Confronts Discrimination • Chicano Rejects Family to Fight for Rights• Chicano Stumbles in the Fight
– Whites Help Chicano
• Chicano Returns to Barrio– Family is More Important than Assimilation
• Chicano Cannot Assimilate, but Whites Shouldn’t Discriminate
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ThesisThesis“More often than not they endorse the very system
they set out to criticize. Their obligatory happy ending metaphorically or actually sends the
Chicano back to the barrio where he began, leaving him to cope with the negligible opportunity that
exists for him there. In an alternative ending, the Chicano overcomes the barriers to assimilation and mainstream success only after he purges himself of the (from the patriarchal WASP point of view) more
problematic aspects of his character.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg.
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BordertownBordertown (1933) & (1933) & Assimilation NarrativeAssimilation Narrative
Lecture 6: Part 2
John Ramirez (Paul Muni) in Bordertown (1935)
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CreditsCredits
• Released in 1935
• Directed by Archie Mayo
• Stars Paul Muni & Bette Davis
• Set on the Border
Shot from Bordertown (1935)
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Plot SummaryPlot Summary“Bordertown follows the standard rags-to-riches-to-
rags assimilation narrative. Johnny Ramírez, a tough kid from East Los Angeles, matures into a responsible adult and acquires ambition and dedication when, as
the judge who delivers his school commencement address puts it, ‘he realized his opportunities and
duties as an American citizen.’” He is betrayed by a white woman, eventually using the money he has earned to “endow a law school in the barrio, and
returns, in his words, ‘back where I belong… with my own people’.”
This film is difficult to secure for screening. Review Ramírez Berg’s synopsis (pg. 117-118). What’s important is that you understand his argument about the
film and the evidence from the film that supports that argument.
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EvidenceEvidence
• Stereotypical Inversion• Undiminished Stereotyping• Male Chicano Protagonist• Overprotective Mama• Absent Father• Absent Chicana• Alluring but Flawed Anglo Woman• Reductive Definition of Success
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Stereotypical InversionStereotypical Inversion
• Boost Ethnics by Denigrating Anglos– Oversexed Blondes / Materialistic Socialites– Harsh and Inflexible Authority Figures
• Conflict Bases of Narrative
• White Hero (Paternal) / Hero Mediates
“Naturally the Chicano protagonist makes the sound ethical choice when he recoils from such a
thoroughly venal Anglo universe and retires to the moral haven of the barrio.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg
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Undiminished StereotypingUndiminished Stereotyping
• Complicated Ethnic Type Mediated by Simplistic Stereotype of Other Ethnics
• Rationalizes Oppression Despite Sympathetic Plight of Ethnic Assimilation
• Dances with Wolves (1990)– Sioux – Pawnee
• Bordertown– Chinese Servant – Mexican Defense Lawyer Shot from Dances with Wolves (1990)
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Male Chicano ProtagonistMale Chicano Protagonist
• Palatable to Mainstream Audiences– Male Lead (Salt of the Earth is an exception)– Casting Anglo in Role (Touch of Evil)– Giving Character Upper-Class Status
“Since in Hollywood films, an ethnic woman can be only an overprotective matriarch, the ‘other woman,’
or a harlot, this practice automatically relegates Chicanas to stereotypical roles.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg.
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Overprotective Mama &Overprotective Mama &Absent FatherAbsent Father
• Naïve, Good-Natured, Long-Suffering Mom– The Jazz Singer (1927)– The Godfather (1972)
• Anglo Family Complete/Ethnic Family Dysfunctional Often due to Absent Dad
– Bordertown– La Bamba (1987)
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Absent Father as CatalyticAbsent Father as Catalytic
“From the patriarchal perspective, the missing father is indicative of abnormal Oedipal
development. Never able to identify fully with the father, the Chicano male cannot symbolically
become like him, nor can he take his productive, ‘masculine’ place in society. This interrupted
transition for pleasure principle to reality principle, from the familial order to the social one, helps
explain his antisocial behavior.” – Charles Ramírez Berg
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Absent ChicanaAbsent Chicana
• Except for Mother, Chicana is Almost Non-Existent (she is background color)
– Note Chicano Love Interest
• When Present, Chicana is a Helper
• Often a Love Interest of Anglo Male (remnants of the Dark Lady stereotype)
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Alluring but Flawed Anglo WomanAlluring but Flawed Anglo Woman
• Chicano Male’s Only Option for Romance
• As Love Interest, “Anglo Woman” Must Be Flawed
– Emotional Problems– Psychological Problems– Moral Problems
“By the use of an insidiously controlled self-preserving logic, Anglo patriarchy maintains its
genetic ‘purity’ in part by negatively stereotyping Anglo women as childish miscreants.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg
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Reductive Definition of SuccessReductive Definition of Success
“Hollywood’s providing Mexican American protagonists in the Chicano-centered social
problem film (save for Salt of the Earth) does not really improve the situation. A principle reason is that the heroes in these movies do not enjoy the
sort of unbridled success available to Anglo protagonists. They get greatly scaled-down
versions of Anglo success or they get failure.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg
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The Big PointThe Big Point
“Given the constraints of the ideological patterns just described, it is obvious that the deck is stacked in significant ways against Chicanos in these films. Add to this the structure of the Hollywood formula,
which demands that an accessible hero find a happy resolution to the conflicts animated by these
narratives, and we can appreciate why many of these social problem films deprecate the group they
mean to celebrate.”
– Charles Ramírez Berg
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Salt of the EarthSalt of the Earth (1954) & (1954) & ResistanceResistance
Lecture 6: Part 3
Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacón) in Salt of the Earth (1954)
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CreditsCredits
• Released in 1954
• Directed by Herbert Biberman
• Stars Rosaura Revueltas
• Set in New Mexico
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Plot SummaryPlot Summary“Against a backdrop of social injustice, a riveting family drama is played out by the
characters of Ramon and Esperanza Quintero, a Mexican-American miner and his wife. In the
course of the strike, Ramon and Esperanza find their roles reversed: an injunction against the
male strikers moves the women to take over the picket line, leaving the men to domestic duties. The women evolve from men's subordinates
into their allies and equals.”
http://www.organa.com/salt.html
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Real StoryReal Story“The Salt project was born when the filmmakers were
told of a strike by Mexican-American mine workers against the Empire Zinc Corporation in Bayard, New
Mexico. The issues at stake included racist "dual wage rates" that allotted higher pay to Anglo workers over Mexican-Americans, and Empire Zinc’s ‘policy of hiring only Mexican-Americans for underground work’. The film was scripted and shot on location in Bayard within months of the strike’s settlement. Workers and wives who had walked the picket lines took prominent
roles in the movie and helped to shape Michael Wilson’s screenplay.”
- Bob Wake
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Conditions of ProductionConditions of Production
• Written, Directed and Produced by Members of the “Hollywood Ten”
– Declined to Testify Before the House Un-American Activities Committee
– Biberman Spent 6 Months in Jail– Worked Independently to Beat the Blacklist
• Cast Included Actors and “Real” Folks– Mexican Star, Rosaura Revueltas – Miners and Wives
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Harassment & CensorshipHarassment & Censorship
• Hollywood Reporter = “Commie Film”
• International Alliance of Theatrical Employees Made it Difficult to Hire Union Crews (one reported to be FBI Informant)
• Labs Refused to Process Film
• Exhibitors Refused to Screen It
• Rosaura Revueltas’s Visa Revoked
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Confluence of OppressionConfluence of Oppression
• Oppression of Workers
• Oppression of Mexicans and Chicanos
• Chicano Oppression of Women
Click Here to See Scene from Salt of the Earth (1954)
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Reinforces SolidarityReinforces Solidarity
• Rich and Poor
• White and Brown
• Men and Women– Female Heroine Played by
Mexican Actress– Chicano Lead Played by
Real Miner
Click Here to See Scene from Salt of the Earth (1954)
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ThesisThesis
• Chicano & Chicana Protagonists
• No Stereotypical Inversion
• No Undiminished Stereotyping
• No Overprotective Mama
• Father is Present
• Chicana is Present
• No Alluring but Flawed Anglo Woman
• No Reductive Definition of Success
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Why?Why?• Political Film
– Directed to Entertain – Directed to Make Viewer Think Critically
• Engages Complexity of Political Situation– Critique of Red Scare Ideology– Class Warfare (strike)– Race Oppression (Chicanos)– Gender Oppression (lead is a woman)
• Explanations Are NOT Reductive– Whites are Not Stereotyped– Men are Not Stereotyped