Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American

Few people doubt the influence that Hollywood cinema has had on American culture, but to what extent has the city of illusions forged the American identity? In this rather dry examination, cinema studies professor Decherney posits that ""museums, universities, and government agencies embraced film and the film industry to maintain their hold on American art, education, and the idea of American identity itself."" Further, the film industry's leaders welcomed the relationship with these ""elite"" organizations so that they could retain their ""new and tenuous hold"" on the popular culture. Thus, with the support of New York City's MoMA and the National Endowment for the Arts, film became ""a weapon of the cultural cold war"" in the 1930s, '40s and early '50s. Decherney's prose perks up as he explores how the MoMA film library served as ""the nucleus of the U.S. film propaganda machine"" and how the museum's film curator, Iris Barry, a Brit who formerly decried the influence of American culture on the world, became one of American film's biggest proponents. It is in the author's discussion of these Cold War happenings that the narrative becomes almost cloak-and-dagger funny. As Decherney points out, some anti-Soviet efforts included CIA funding of avante-garde art to underscore freedom of expression in the U.S., even while the FBI was investigating the artists' alleged ties to communism. Though these details will interest history buffs, the bulk of this book is best suited for serious cinema scholars. 17 illustrations.