Gabriel Bahena
Q1. How does the
film relate to Chapter 21 in Foner?
Two
main themes from the film are on jobs and freedom. Jobs were very scarce during
the Great Depression and in the film it explores how the main characters all
struggled for a job. Barney Hopkins, who was the producer in the film, was
looking to restart his shows and make money so that he could be well off during
these times. He himself had an idea that he wanted to make a show about the
Great Depression and was looking for people that were willing to be in it. Brad
Roberts, who was a songwriter and singer in the film, made music and was trying
to start a new career during this time. Him along many people in the film is
trying to get a job. One specific scene in the film is when the three main
actresses are introduced in the film and they are all seen lying down and
talking about getting up and trying to get a job. One of the main characters
makes a comment about how she’s rather get up than sleep and starve. This is an
example of the difficulty that Foner talks about in the book, in the sense that
many people struggle really hard just so that they could find a way to get
their daily bread and also to help us understand the harshness that many
Americans at that time faced. Freedom was another theme in the film and Foner.
Americans throughout the whole cultured believed that they had the right to
economic security. In the film the comedienne Trixie Lorraine tries to explain
to the producer how the show wont go on since the money isn’t coming in and
they need it in order to pay all the actors. Charity, Faith and Hope is brought
up when Trixie explains how the actresses have hopes as the producer has faith
in the songwriter for his charity. This makes us think of the freedom that
these people had. They all were looking for a stable income and wanting to make
enough where they didn’t just have to barely get by, but enough to where they
could live off well and have some luxuries. The songwriter has his freedom when
he decided to leave and confront his brother in the middle of the film. He is
trying throughout the film to help the people that are unemployed reach that
level of freedom and income stability by helping produce the show.
Q2. How are
gender roles and sexuality represented in the film?
Sexuality
is clearly represented in this film with the three main actresses Polly, Carol,
and Trixie. A great example of this is throughout the film in which Trixie
begins to seduce Fanuel H. Peabody into buying her all of these fancy luxurious
gifts. This is done throughout the second half of the film. Peabody along with Lawrence
Bradford, are put to the extent of their money when they have to keep buying things
in order to convince, who they think is Polly, to leave the songwriter alone
since she comes from a low class life. One great example of the sexuality is when
Peabody is explaining to Bradford how all showgirls are all “Parasites”, “gold
diggers”, and “chiselers”. This type of person is brought in through the
character of Eunice, who used to be a former lover of Peabody. These two men do
not believe that the showgirls are worth their time and money. In the film they
try to avoid them but keep easily being seduced and falling in love with them.
It shows how women are just seen as objects and a body that one can use for
entertainment, which is why they work in the show business. Gender roles in the
film are seen as the women entertaining while the men are in control and are
being entertained. When the three main actresses are looking for a job they have
to pick one of them to dress provocatively in order to get jobs. The men are
the ones with the money and need to be entertained. During their final show we
see their silhouettes and them getting naked and changing are able to see a
child trying to sneak a peek a the women. To me this represents men acting as
children trying to get women and to entertain them by their dancing and
dressing.
Q3.
The
song from the film that I chose was the final number; “My Forgotten Man”. In
the whole musical number we are able to see a woman walking up and down the
street. The story tells of a woman weeping about her husband not having a job
and being a bum on the streets peddling for money. We are able to see some
women in the window singing the same chorus: “Once he loved me, I was happy,
took care of me…Bring him back.” Then we see a shot of a man about to get
arrested by a cop for peddling and the man shows what appears to be a soldier
badge and is let go. This lets us know that it is a veteran of the war that is
left with nothing. The message that this song brings is a social critique of
the great depression and the government not taking care of World War I veterans
and the Bonus marchers during the great depression. We are able to see soldiers
marching and walking all proud and then standing to the flashy truth of them
bleeding and being traumatized and carrying dead bodies with them. This is to
show the truth of what really happened to them when they came home. They show
in the number soup kitchens and many of them without homes as the women are
looking through the window weeping and wailing with their children for their
husbands and sons to come home. The main singer in the number mentions how if
you (referring to the government), forgot about the soldiers than you also
forgot about the women and families they left behind and depended on them. The
song ends on a sad note with the idea that many people were not taken car of by
the government and this last song helped solidify that idea that people had in
their minds.
Q4. What does
this film reveal about American society during the height of the Great
Depression?
Ideals were a big theme in the film.
American society was battling through the Great Depression and many people had
ideals of what they wanted to do and have. In the film we are able to see how
Trixie wants to have limos, fur, and luxuries. In the film she is seducing
Peabody and wants him to buy her things as a way for her to escape the
depression, hence why she was called a gold digger. Many people wanted to
become gold diggers in order to explain how the times were tough and that many
people were looking to get out of the suffrage. Another thing that the film
reveals is false ideals about how money can come at any moment and that people
should bask in what they have. The beginning musical number “We’re in the money”,
to give people hopes that the depression will not last and that hopefully there
will be more money coming in. The false ideals was in the beginning with the
ideals that money was everywhere and the women were putting on this show to
entertain and get people to thing positively about the great depression and
then throughout the film we see that everyone is actually struggling and at the
end of the film we see the real ideals of people and what they really think
about the government and society.
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