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December 1994, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
Gene Stavis <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 6 Dec 1994 12:01:22 PST
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This past Sunday, the new Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, answered
Hillary Clinton's criticism of his "more orphanages" solution to
single-parent families. Ebenezer Newt's Yuletide solution ("Are there no
workhouses?") was called absurd by the First Lady. Mr. Gingrich suggested
that she go to Blockbuster Video and rent the film, "Boys Town". Aside from
the paid commercial announcement, this is a curious solution to 1994's social
problems.
 "Boys Town" was a hit film produced in 1938 by M-G-M. Supervising the
sentimental tale of a dedicated priest finding solutions for youths at risk,
was the radical right-wing Republican Louis B. Mayer, the highest paid
executive in the United States at the time and owner of a formidable stable
of thoroughbred horses. His daughters were married to other studio
executives. The co-author of the original screenplay (for which he won an
Oscar) was the studio's token New Dealer, Dore Schary. The film was among
Mayer's favorites as it promoted his fantasy vision of his adopted country as
a place where everyone looked alike and no child was too far gone to be won
over by a good-hearted Irish priest who practiced "tough love". Of course,
the story was no more accurate in 1938 than it is today. It was part of the
mythical U.S.A. imagined by the immigrant geniuses who created the studios as
a kind of wish fulfillment not so different from the new breed of G.O.P.
"revolutionaries" we have in control of our legislature beginning in January.
 Of course, the likes of Mickey Rooney (whose chief problems in the film were
smoking and playing pool) and Spencer Tracy, who were so susceptible to a
tear in the eye in 1938, would be beaten, robbed, gang-raped and burned on a
pyre by the grade of criminal we are faced with today. But nostalgic fantasy
is so much more acceptable to the electorate than reality. Ask any graduate
of a 1938 reformatory what relation it had to "Boys Town". In fact, today a
school for young boys run by clerics is much more suspect than it was in
1938, when incest and child molestation was no more part of the fantasy than
were single-parent families subsisting in sub-human conditions. The antipathy
of the Right towards non-standard "families" in favor of the traditional
religious-based nuclear family produces, in fact, the greater part of child
abuse that we know today. While there is nothing about religion or tradition
that encourage abuse, it is undeniable that it is far more common in such
contexts than anyone dreamed of (or were willing to speak of) in 1938.
 But all this brings up an interesting concept. It is certainly cheaper to
rent a video than to address a problem. So, in the interests of the
Reaganomics-mortgaged economy, let us make a modest proposal that all of our
current social problems could be solved by a similar Republican initiative.
Perhaps Senators Thurmond, Helms and Gramm could address the race question by
renting "The Birth of a Nation" or "Gone With the Wind". Newt could solve the
drug problem by urging everyone to rent "Reefer Madness". Urban blight and
ethical considerations could be solved by a mass viewing of "It's a Wonderful
Life". Senator D'Amato could stem governmental corruption by having C-SPAN
run "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
 However, my personal suggestion is right-wing Republican Cecil B. DeMille's
remarkably appropriate "This Day and Age" of 1933. In that pre-Miranda,
pre-defendants' rights epic, DeMille suggested that the Bill of Rights and
the Rules of Evidence be eliminated. The climax of the film had teen-agers
suspending some suspected criminals over a pit of hungry rats until they
confessed to their crimes. This timely epic could be sponsored by Justices
Scalia and Thomas in the hope that its moral might spread throughout the
land.
 In this way, the calumny that Hollywood promoted an unrealistic view of
society and its problems could be proved untrue. Or, perhaps, we could see
the new Washington as it truly is: The Dream Factory.
 
Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC

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