Research (How do mainstream films challenge right wing American ideologies)

Source 1: Field of American dreams:
individualist ideology in the U.S. baseball movie

Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 

Jump Cut, No. 52, summer 2010

"The years 1930 to 1945, often referred to as the Studio Years, were ones in which Hollywood codified its presentation and production styles, solidifying its method for making movies. It also represented a severely trying time for the country at large. From the Depression in 1929 to the end of World War II in 1945, the nation was confronted with unprecedented historical challenges. In such an uncertain time, Hollywood stepped to the plate, literally and figuratively, to provide moral support. Beyond entertainment, the film industry assumed the sociopolitical task of making Americans feel good about the United States. Put simply, the film industry invested in American mythology.

As Robert Sklar writes of this process,"

“In ordinary language, myths and dreams are falsehoods—fantasies, fictions, imaginary tales” (195).

"As Sklar tells us, the Depression caused countless Americans to question the validity of the American Dream. Long-held notions about the value of hard work and the virtue of delayed gratification clashed with the reality of an economic system in total collapse and millions out of work. Facing the rising threat of fascist Europe, especially Hitler and the Nazis, this doubt in the strength of the American way posed a dangerous threat to the nation. Sklar indicates the task set for culture in these times:

“In politics, industry and the media there were men and women, as often of liberal as of conservative persuasion, who saw the necessity, almost as a patriotic duty, to revitalize and refashion a cultural mythology” (196).

Robert Ray takes Sklar a step further, describing this constructed mythology as

“deliberately traditional, a reassertion of the most fundamental beliefs in individualism, ad hoc solutions, and the impermanence of political problems” (31)

The baseball film proved a perfect way to navigate this terrain, as the game of baseball itself had served a very similar purpose in the late-19th Century. Coming out of the Civil War, as the United States transitioned from an agrarian nation to an industrial one, baseball served as a unifying element in national identity. Those uncertain about what this shift in national cultural priorities portended found comfort and stability in this game that seemed to embody most of the basic values of the nation. As Samuel Octavio Regalado writes,

"Liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-fair, in one manner or another, fit the chemistry of baseball” (299).