Working-Class Cinema

Working-class history on film in the United States begins in the early 20th century in silent films and continues to this day in Hollywood blockbusters. There are specific characterizations of the working class, and discernable representations often mimicking the periodic political interests of American capitalism, in particular, in this long history. For instance, during the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations, the working class was apparently afflicted by threatening infiltrators, corrupt leaders, and communist agitators set on destroying the American Dream. And when union leaders weren't depicted as communist-friendly, they were characterized as greedy, getting rich on the back of workers' union dues. More problematic in films of this genre was the implicit tone that corruption was endemic to working-class organizations (that is, unions), and that their undemocratic structures made them susceptible to Mafia control. Rarely has American cinema assigned agency to the working class in the form of organic leaders or otherwise. (But see Martin Ritt's Norma Rae [1979] for an exception.) The following two practices are a more common portrayal. In one practice, “leaders” of the working class are frequently parachuted in to give it strength, direction, and resolve. In Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (2000), for instance, a corporate polluter is court-ordered to financially compensate working-class families for inflicting serious health problems as a result of careless waste management. Certainly, the bringing to account of a reckless corporate giant is worth noting, as is the working-class background of the main character—Erin Brockovich. But Erin and her family haven't been affected by the toxins that diseased the working-class families in the film. Instead, the movie tells the story of Erin's feistiness and perseverance in getting justice for the afflicted families. In this telling of the tale, working-class agency is muted by Brockovich's personality and individual determination in pursuing the cause. The second practice is to depict working-class members as solely interested in escaping their class position. The evidence of this is overwhelming, but let us point out two examples. In Taylor Hackford's An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), the two female leads are factory workers in a small rural American town. Both wish to escape working-class life and will seek to do so the old-fashioned way—by attaching themselves to a male social climber. One of the women succeeds in her pursuit when her knight in shining armor (who has just graduated to officer status in the military) strolls onto the factory floor and literally sweeps her off her feet and carries her out of the factory. The other lead rejects her boyfriend when he announces that he no longer intends to pursue a military career, thereby rejecting the class ascendancy this would entail. John Badham's Saturday Night Fever (1977) has Tony Manero and his Italian American buddies driving to the Brooklyn Bridge to dream of life in Manhattan and the whiteness and middle-classness it represents. By the end of the film, and after a personal tragedy, Tony succeeds in leaving his Italian family, friends, and neighborhood by crossing the bridge into Manhattan.

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