pt. I. Culture and American film
1. Introduction to the study of film form and representation
Film form
American ideologies : discrimination and resistance
Culture and cultural studies
Case study : The Lion King (1994)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
2. The structure and history of Hollywood filmmaking
Hollywood vs. independent film
The style of Hollywood cinema
The business of Hollywood
The history of Hollywood : the movies begin
The classical Hollywood cinema
World War II and postwar film
"New" Hollywood and the blockbuster mentality
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening


pt. II. Race and ethnicity and American film
Introduction to part II : what is race?
3. The concept of whiteness and American film
Seeing white
Bleaching the green : the Irish in American cinema
Looking for respect : the Italian in American cinema
A special case : Jews and Hollywood
Case study : The Jazz Singer (1927)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
4. African Americans and American film
African Americans in early film
Blacks in classical Hollywood cinema
World War II and the postwar social problem film
The rise and fall of blaxploitation filmmaking
Box : Blacks on TV
Hollywood in the 1980s and the arrival of Spike Lee
Black independent film vs. "neo-blaxploitation" today
Case study : Bamboozled (2000)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
5. Native Americans and American film
The American "Indian" before film
Ethnographic films and the rise of the Hollywood western
The evolving western
A kinder, gentler America?
Case study : Smoke Signals (1998)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
6. Asian Americans and American film
Silent film and Asian images
Asians in classical Hollywood cinema
World War II and after : war films, miscegenation melodramas, and kung fu
Asian American actors and filmmakers today
Case study : Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
7. Latinos and American film
The greaser and the Latin lover : alternating stereotypes
World War II and after : the good neighbor policy
The 1950s to the 1970s : back to business as usual?
Expanding opportunities in recent decades
Case study : My Family/Mi Familia (1995)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening


pt. III. Class and American film
Introduction to part III : what is class?
8. Classical Hollywood cinema and class
Setting the stage : the Industrial Revolution
Early cinema : the rise of the Horatio Alger myth
Hollywood and unionization
Class in the classical Hollywood cinema
Case study : The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Conclusion : recloaking class consciousness
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
9. Cinematic class struggle after the depression
From World War II to the Red Scare
From opulence to counterculture
New Hollywood and the resurrection of the Horatio Alger myth
Case study : Bulworth (1998)
Conclusion : corporate Hollywood and labor today
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening


pt. IV. Gender and American film
Introduction to part IV : what is gender?
10. Women in classical Hollywood filmmaking
Images of women in early cinema
Early female filmmakers
Images of women in 1930s classical Hollywood
World War II and after
Case study : All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
11. Exploring the visual parameters of women in film
Ways of seeing
"Visual pleasure and narrative cinema"
Case study : Gilda (1946)
Conclusion : complicating Mulvey's arguments
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
12. Masculinity in classical Hollywood filmmaking
Masculinity and early cinema
Masculinity and the male movie star
World War II and film noir
Case study : Dead Reckoning (1947)
Conclusion : masculinity in 1950s American film
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
13. Gender in American film since the 1960s
Second wave feminism and Hollywood
Into the 1980s : a backlash against women?
A new generation of female filmmakers
Case study : The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
Conclusion : gender at the turn of the millennium
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening


pt. V. Sexuality and American film
Introduction to part IV : what is sexuality?
14. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and classical Hollywood
(Hetero)sexuality on screen
(Homo)sexuality in early film
Censoring sexuality during the classical Hollywood era
Postwar sexualities and the weakening of the production code
Camp and the underground cinema
Case study : The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
15. Sexualities on film since the sexual revolution
Hollywood and the sexual revolution
Film and gay culture from Stonewall to AIDS
The AIDS crisis
Queer theory and new queer cinema
Case study : Go Fish (1995)
Conclusions : Hollywood today
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Further screening
Glossary.