American Society and Politics in Film

Hannah Crouser  Work is something that everyone needs in order to survive and thrive in this world. Through the movie Norma Rae, we see how important and powerful the individual's labor is. Karl Marx would call this labor-power. When individuals give up their labor-power and give control to their bosses they become alienated. This was demonstrated when Norma Rae was given a promotion and no one in the factory talked to her. Even though she was slightly alienated before, she became even more alienated once she gave up more of her labor. In order to eliminate some of that alienation, and demand they be given a fair wage and rights, the workers formed a union. The workers in the film were fighting not only for better wages but for livable work conditions. They were tired of being treated as only their labor, and not as people. Marx would argue that in a capitalist society, it is best to create a large amount of unemployed workers so that the cost of labor can be lower. With COVID, we...

The film Inherit the Wind focused on a trial which touched on a important philosophical and jurisprudential concept mentioned throughout American history: the separation of Church and State. This ideology was at the forefront of this film as the trial showcased a school teacher who taught Darwinian evolution to his class, going against what is taught in the Bible. Although the separation of the Church and State was a clear issue on the surface of the trial, digging a little deeper we learn a lot more is at stake. If the teacher is found to be guilty, the court is suppressing his individual freedoms. In addition, when the knowledge taught in schools is suppressed, the freedom of thought is suppressed. In short, by limiting what is thought in the Hillsboro school system, its citizens aren't free to think about concepts other than those that are biblically justified.  If the school system won this trial, the coursework would remain biblical. Although society would be conformed to...

 I thought the film was mainly about whether religion should be associated with and taught in schools. The film originally discussed a specific teacher and problem, but quickly progressed into a political and religious war. Both sides were very explicit about what they stood for and it ended up being more about who was right rather than the person that was on trial for the so called crime. The small town showed a recurring theme which we've seen in the other films, a fear of change. The defense lawyer had said that the other lawyer was being left behind rather than him leaving him because of the overall progressive change of the world. Our society is always changing views and learning new things and ways to communicate with each other which this film shows clearly. The defense lawyer was religious and believed in God, but also believed in evolution. I think the purpose of the film was to discuss ways we can believe in both and teach both while maintaining relationships with others....

            Inherit the Wind takes place in the small town of Hillsboro in the 1920s. In the film, a teacher had to stand trial after teaching evolution in class. The real issue at the core of this film was how far we let freedom go. For example, the community of Hillsboro had “freedom” or a choice to want their children to be taught creationism. However, the teacher and students in the classroom still have the freedom and choice to learn another theory of creation, evolution. The conflict highlighted was freedom of individual thought versus freedom of choice by community.   I believe that the most important parts of this film are how it applies to our world today. For example, Florida has recently banned critical race theory from classrooms. This law states that you cannot teach that "a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously." Inte...

Inherit the Wind is based on a real-life court case which focuses on a law banning the teaching of evolution in the classroom, but in doing so peers into the role of religion in American political life, its influence over secular institutions, and the conflict of community values with dissenting voices. The teaching of evolution in schools is not a resolved issue, with creationism still having a noteworthy role in public education, though the role of government intervention has changed. The teaching of evolution is not just allowed, but in some way required in many states, and the question remains, to what extent can the government impartially decide on the curriculum? Modern conversations of the role of the government in religion have focused on a conflict between the rights of businesses and individuals to exercise their faith. The role of religion in the America portrayed in the film is as a social glue, giving honest people something to believe in and bringing certain people toget...

From what the movie portrayed, neither the government nor the market can be trusted to ensure the success of labor. The film portrayed an uneducated working class that is scared of losing their jobs. The textile factory they work at is actively harming the workers and the higher ups in the factory do not seem to care. Unionizing is their last option to improve their working conditions. In the film, and in real life, the market / industry only cares about making money, despite the health and well being of the worker, and the government will not take action until the people do. In the US, jobs, such as those shown in the textile mill, do not exist to the same capacity. Many of the factory jobs have been outsourced to nations with less government oversight and less regulation. Outsourcing allows companies to save money on safety precautions and their worker’s paychecks. 

In the film, Cates was supposedly on trial because he broke the state law by teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. That was the surface level issue—breaking the law, for which he was guilty—but the real issue was the conflict between the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. This contradiction between a person’s right to exercise their religious beliefs and a person’s right to think and say what they want has been written into the US Constitution. Because this conflict exists in the law governing the US, it is the basis for many conflicts between politics and religion that exist today.   For example, in the “Access Denied?” article, the Supreme Court decided on a case where the issue of religion being used to discriminate was on trial. On one hand, the Supreme Court has to uphold the 1st Amendment ’s protection of the freedom of religion—on the other hand, the Court also has to protect our civil rights (our right to not be discriminated against , our equal protecti...

This film and the trial that it was based on represents freedoms in jeopardy: freedom of thought and freedom of religion.  Everyone deserves to be able to practice their religion freely but it is also just as important for everyone to have the right to explore new ideas.  The citizens of Hillsboro felt that their religion was being invalidated by the teaching of evolution.  However, in defending their religion, they took away another individual's freedom of thought.  How is that establishing one freedom limits the freedom of another?  At the root of this issue, it does not seem like it was the intent of either side to restrict the other's freedom.  The ideal outcome is that we can respect both religion and Darwinism and recognize the scientific process without questioning the power of God.  In a setting where there are no strict views on either of these topics, it is easier to achieve this compromise.  It gets interesting when a town, such as Hill...

  After analyzing the movie, it is made known that the issue was not necessarily religion vs no religion. It was more so focused on the idea of right to think vs no right to think. Though religion was used as the main focus, the piggybacking  idea here was the ability to choose what one thinks about the situation. This idea of God creating the world vs. evolution has and will continue being a very controversial idea. The movie brings out the fact that even if you may have opposing views, you must follow the crowd. To that point, Mr. Drummond fights for the freedom of thought and “the right to be wrong”. The freedom of thought was the victory for the defense and the keeping of God fearing doctrine was the victory for the other side. Not having those victories meant defeat.  Understanding that politics and religion were heavily involved in this movie, the same can be said for politics today. As mentioned in class, we see a relatively good amount of religion involved in the ...

Hannah Crouser  One of the many questions explored in the film “Inherit the Wind” is the concept of community, and who has the right to disturb the community and change what they believe. The film follows a high school teacher’s trial as he fights for the right to teach evolution in a very religious town. The townspeople are opposed to his teaching methods and claim he is trying to disrupt the community. This community has values and beliefs they don’t want to be disturbed. The question here is does a person have a right to go against those values in a place like a school? This question was also explored in the reading we had, where a school football coach would pray after every game out on the field. Sometimes this prayer would end up involving multiple people, and players felt forced to take part. The question here is if a person has the right to believe what they want, even if it disrupts others?  In the United States we believe in a separation of church and the state, yet ...

  Maddie D  One of the many questions explored by the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind” asks how religious freedom impacts civil discourse. There’s no doubt the film was created in favor of thinking beyond the confines of religion. Those opposing the teaching of evolution were framed as blind followers who didn’t think through their actions while those in favor were shown to gain power through knowledge. I see similar themes today in the media I consume where individuals’ perceived lack of critical thinking skills is used to discredit and dismiss arguments that are brought up. At times I believe there is truth to this due to logical fallacies or improper arguments, but I also believe that there are times when disregarding or devaluing people’s thoughts is harmful to thoughtful discourse. I think that lack of discourse and respect on many political issues brings about greater polarization. In the film, it can be seen that the plaintiff and defense cannot truly listen to one another,...

  I think this film really drove home the debate around this topic for the time and what the real trial was about. They hit home the point that the trial was really all about a person's freedom to think. The prosecution does not think that thinking, is on trial but once he goes on the stand the defense lawyer gets him to say that if a god wanted a sponge to think then a sponge would think, and the defense is asking that his client get the same rights as a sponge. Big ideas especially in science have often been contested in politics throughout history. The main debate was fundamentalism versus freedom of thought. If the prosecution won it would mean they could continue to keep evolution out of schools. If the defense won it would allow for separation from religion and education. That poses a threat to Brady because the power he has gained is founded on religion. They use fear tactics to keep people in line and reject new ideas.  Just as this trial and politics of the time revo...

  I can agree that America was founded on big radical ideas and was built with the idea of freedom at the forefront of the founding father's minds.  As portrayed in the film, liberty, individualism, and populism are the values as saw on display most. The idea that any ol person can become a government leader and make it in this country is a part of the “American Dream.” The reading touches on how the original settlers brought with them a lot of these values we hold strong today, especially liberty. These cultures all came here and brought new ideas to the table on what it means to be an American. The film also attempted to reveal some of the issues within the American government, as Mr. Smith stands up to fight against a powerful corrupt government. The other strong theme in the film is patriotism. The readings mention how unity and patriotism are harder to come by these days, but in 1939 as World War II was starting creating a movie that promotes some blind patriotism was nee...

  In this film, there are many internal divisions highlighted. We see segregation within the women’s suffrage movement with the confrontation of Ida B. Wells and Alice Taylor. While black women led civil rights and women’s suffrage organizations, they often did not receive the same amount of credit as white women and black men. They were often pushed to the side or considered an afterthought. In the modern day, we see that black women are still very underrepresented. Black women are less than 5% of office holders in the United States legislatures, no Black woman has ever been elected governor, and only two black women have ever served in the U.S. Senate.                Alice Taylor also interacts with working-class women. Although the working-class women first shut down Alice Taylor, by hearing about how their labor conditions could improve by having a right to vote, they changed her mind. In or...

 Maddie D Our culture seems to like putting labels on individuals so that we can make assumptions about them. Even within the gender label of woman there are so many different sub-labels that come with a certain connotation. For example, a single woman and a married mother are two different ways we describe women that come with different reactions. We can see this in the movie “Iron Jawed Angels” in the struggle Alice Paul had when deciding to pursue a relationship while fighting for women’s right to vote. Alice didn’t want to lose her freedom by being in a relationship because once people saw her as a mother or married she would be ostracized for putting herself at risk when she had others to take care of. In addition, married women can be seen putting their husband’s reputation in jeopardy when they stand up for what they believe in. This can be seen in Emily Leighton’s story throughout the movie; her beliefs and actions directly contradicted what her husband’s party believed, wh...

Iron Jawed Angels follows Alice Paul in her role in the movement for women’s suffrage in the United States. The film rightly praises the sacrifice involved in participating in and organizing the movement, and through the hardships presented we eventually get to see the Nineteenth Amendment be passed. The struggle for female political equality has indeed continued beyond the end of the film and continues to this day. With the considerable advance of allowing the right for women to vote, and growing female membership of congress, women have more direct influence over politics than the events of the film. Modern political equality focuses on the role of women in politics, as the female membership of congress remains below representative of the country. A constant between the struggles today and in the 1900s is, as stated in the film, the goals of including women in the democratic process, thereby getting the government to address women’s issues and more importantly for women to be treated...

     I think the movie did a good job showing what the trial was really about. Overall, the trial was about the Modernists rejecting fundamentalist religious thinking. The movie made this message abundantly clear as Brady states that he is a fundamentalist and his entire character revolves around his faith. Victory for the fundamentalists meant that evolution would not be taught in school and eventually no sciences would be taught. Victory for the Modernists would mean a greater separation of religion and education.       There were a few lines from the movie that caught my attention because of how they relate to modern issues. During the dinner party scene Brady claims his opposition is a small minority that happens to control the press. We have seen this sort of rhetoric in the modern day as the press has been demonized by some political candidates. We have recently seen politicians shrug off counter arguments and bad press by claiming the press is c...

In the film and in the women’s suffrage movement, the overarching goal was to win women the right to vote. The goal, for both NAWSA and the NWP, was to achieve women’s suffrage, whether through the states or th rough a constitutional amendment. After Alice Paul helped get the 19th amendment passed, she also fought to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, but it never happened. Alice Paul and the NWP had a vision that within a century all Americans would be equal regardless of sex. The very end of the film, with all the women celebrating the 19th amendment, was happy because it was such a mo mentous accomplishment, but it was also a bit depressing, knowing that their hope for full equal rights for women would not be achieved with the 19th amendment, as they believed. The ideas present ed in the articles prove how in many ways the  lack of equality in politics for women has not changed from the 1900s to now .   As girls grow up, they learn that politics is still a male-dominated pr...

  The film Iron Jawed Angeles highlights some important moments of the women's suffrage movement of the early 1900s. The film sets clear divisions within the category of being a woman but brushes on these in some subtle ways. One of the first scenes we see looks at the division between college-educated women and women working in the factories. At first, the factory women see Alice as a snooty college grad spreading big ideas that could never apply to them. An immigrant woman shuts her down initially and then hears her point that a vote means a fire escape for their building and for better working conditions. This also demonstrated some differences in class, but they wanted the uneducated, lower-class white women to support their cause. However, the same is not as true for black women. They show a brief scene with Ida B. Wells arguing for her right to join their movement and walk with them at the front of the march, but Alice Paul shuts her down saying she needs to wait her turn. Al...