American Popular Culture During the Post War Era - Research Paper Example

Introduction If one is to study the influence of the most romantic-melodrama of Hollywood set against the turmoil of the war-stricken world on American society and life style, it would be essential to understand the trend of popular culture prevailing during the time of post war era and throughout the period of Cold War. If the trajectory of the American Popular Culture is studied thoroughly during this period then it would be contended easily that the lifestyle of the Yankees and the popular culture of the period was definitely guided by some particular nationalist ethos of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, with proper co-relation with the concept concerned with American Dream. Precisely, at the outset if one is supposed to study the influence of the great film Casablanca, on the American Popular culture, it is important to understand the mind set guiding the major traits of the American Popular Culture during the post war era. The society embraced a typical antagonistic mind set during the period and the Cold War era expressions highlighted by the media in general was the discrimination or the difference of the living standards in American society. Consequently, American Popular Culture started inhibiting and displaying the ideas in songs, films and artefacts that irrespective of the socio-economic background, an individual can raise his or her standard of living through hard work and immense talent possessed generally. Hard work and natural ability will enable to ripe the benefit in a competitive market; and all this circumstances was believed to foster the talent individually and re-enforce their interest on entrepreneurship. The controversial and widely criticised and descriptive film Casablanca was not emancipated from the influence of the socio-political milieu of the period and somewhere envisages a same kind of thought paradigm which in turn helped fixing back the thought process into the society enabling it to kindle the ideas for a longer time frame. Casablanca: The Film Casablanca was first shown in Los Angeles in 1943 but for its premiere showcases, the movie is regarded as a 1941-42 film. Directed by extremely talented Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henrid, Casablanca set out to be one of the flawless films of Hollywood. Casted against the chaotic backdrop of war, the apparent love triangle encapsulates serious dichotomy between honour, love, duty and sacrifice. At the same plane, the film also displays a conflict between democracy and totalitarianism produced during war. The film had unforgettable casts and dialogues and characters from almost more than thirty four nationalities. The superb musical score by Max Steiner with building suspense and anti-Nazi propaganda along with memorable lines and saga of the impassioned lost love, indeed leaves a very strong and long lasting impression on the minds of its readers. Therefore, it is quite evident that if such a film upholds some social or political agendas then it has to have some strong influence on the culture and lifestyle of its audience. In fact the film not only left its imprints on the mind of the contemporary society, audience or creative persons but also enchants whoever watches the film till date. Woody Allen paid homage to the film by producing another unforgettable movie “Play It Again Sam” in the year 1972 and the influence of the film on the contemporary cinema is just needless to mention. The influence of Casablanca on the contemporary cinema was great and far reaching. The powerful dialogues of the film like “Play it again Sam” or “We’ll always have Paris” left a serious mark on the minds of the audience watching it or creative mind making it. As a consequence, even the line “Play it again Sam” made its appearance in the Max brothers, “A Night in Casablanca” in the year 1946. The most exulted and talked about Hollywood’s fairy-tale was actually filmed during the wartime crisis. The period was during the time when US went into an alliance with Vichy France during President Roosevelt’s equivocation and vacillation between pro-Vichy and pro-Gaullist support. Quite hurriedly and strategically, the film was released almost after three weeks of Allied landing at the Axis occupied area of North Africa and its city Casablanca was under the marching of the Eisenhower's forces. Because of this military action, Warner Brothers could utilize the opportunity of capitalizing the scope of free publicity to its optimum extent by familiarizing the name of the city of Casablanca to the nation in particular and world in general. All these events and Roosevelt’s strategic action to screen the film at White house on the last day of the year 1942, earned a major political name to the film which intertwined it not only to the history of post war era and post war history of America but also raised the inquisitiveness and enchantment of the film to a great extent. Influence of the Film on American Popular Culture There is least point of debate pertaining to the enormous influence of the film Casablanca on the mass and mind of America. Judgement of the impact of this film would remain incomplete if the crucial historical backdrop of the film is not taken into consideration right at the outset of the criticism. The film greatly influenced the American society regarding the perception of the Second World War. And it is evident that from this film only a legacy of war movies started being produced in Hollywood and the tradition even continued till the post gulf war era. Casablanca is the film that first sets the American mind ready for the acceptance of the fact that America should intervene in hard world situations. Holding the hands of this quintessential film, American culture got adept to the fact that America overtakes all that is evil under its mighty democratic regime and incorporates the same despite standing idly and watching the disasters. The opening of the film was timely to set the minds on fire. The film released on the Thanksgiving Day in the year 1942. This day fell just eighteen days after the Allied Forces landed on the city of Casablanca and the situation gained its optimum coherence when the general release of the film occurred on January 23rd 1943, the same day when the world witnessed Casablanca Conference at its peak. The timely release of the film coincident or intentional would remain subjected to eternal criticism but no one can deny the fact that this collision of the release date with the actual historical events would always add extra glory to the entire scenario. The greatest contemporary influence on the popular culture of America was the influence of a precise thought process pertaining to war. The most common belief of the time was centred round the thought of personal commitment. In political plane, this feeling corresponded with the idea of America’s participation and commitment to the global politics. The film was released at the prime time when clarity of the idea becoming cliché, was increasingly evident. The mood of the film trapped the essence of the time, thereby agitating the demand of participation in war and changing the mass perception towards it. Casablanca tells the saga of a making of personal commitments as a consequence to the initiation of the politics into individual life. The characters in the Casablanca confront the same dilemma and idea with which the contemporary American society was dealing or toying with during the cold war era in the year 1942-43. Humphrey Bogart in one of his famous lines in the film echoed the same idea which re-envisaged and hammered the prevailing thought influencing the mass from a bigger platform, “I bet they're asleep in New York--I bet they're asleep all over America”. This dialogue almost attained the place of a slogan and received immense attention in the year 1943. Casablanca indeed served as key phenomena in terms of awakening the confused and idle America. It would be quite an injustice to the great influence of the film if the influence of this great creation gets limited to the political plane only. At an individual plane too it prepared the Americans to accept the advantages of international intervention but it also prepared the American society to embrace a new era which from the perception of Robert B. Ray, is a platform for the acceptance and adaptability of the fact that intervention of America in world politics is going to be an accepted norm in the coming decades (Dirks, “Casablanca”). The fruitful combat of time, war and love helped Casablanca to win the battle in its own terms too. At Academy Awards, Casablanca got nomination in eight categories and earned the awards for the best picture, the best director and the best screenplay. Apart from the political influence that guided the popular culture to a great extent, the film also gave birth to myriad novice legacies. One of the poignant phenomena amid that is the new kind of hero that this influential film created. The post-war disillusion compelled Earnest Hemingway to create his code-hero; and 1970s witnessed the phenomenal concept of the “angry young man” in face of Jimmy Porter by Osborne. Similarly, 1950s was moved by the hero and its concept that Casablanca displayed. Bogart played the role of Rick and consequently Hollywood got it first rebel hero. Completely coherent with the need and idea of time, Rick comes out of a normal life but evolves out to be a liberating figure. This deviation of the concept of a hero adhered to the ideals that America was envisaging regarding the natural talent and potential. To make extraordinary out of ordinary, it was portrayed almost in a larger than life fashion by Bogart through the character of Rick. Rick in Casablanca represented a set of ideals that every American likes to follow and somewhere it also became easy for Rick to find a place in the heart of his audience and their American Dreams because of this representation. Rick became extremely popular amid the American audience because he was the first of his own legacy and represented not only a prototype modern Hollywood hero but also a prototype of new kind of American man. The heroine of the Casablanca and her influence on the culture cannot be undermined at all. She became the archetypal mystique society lady who consistently confront between chastity and love and successfully hide their large drops of tears on their cheeks under their big hat. Not only Ingrid Bergman’s apparel became a fashion statement but also her character started finding place amid every mind of American women who fight everyday at the cost of their self-sacrifice to save their honour and sense of duty. The characters of the film represented American youth and influenced the young members of the nation to participate in many spear-headed movements. These characters guided the contemporary youth to launch themselves into the realm of a new concept of “real Americans” and Casablanca became the avatar, a fundamental American film which became the road map of many counter-culture movements in America. The opening of reality in an unfriendly and unknown locale and sacrifice for the sake of a commitment with a consistent hammering for the risqué of love became the archetypal plot elements for films coming up in preceding decades. The eccentricity of the characters and their enduring appeal, casted a great influence on the mindset and culture of America as well. The thematic elements of the film also had a far-reaching effect on the popular culture of America. The portrayal of themes like sexual awakening, emphasis on individual potentials, escapade to exotic places and vent out through drug usages, a drama of new kind of politics, and abundant use of new kind of wit and humour that was quite critical and smart deviating from the older American traditions paving the right kind of way to a newer world and simplified idealism, marked the onset of a great forth coming trend of Hippie culture or culture pertaining to bohemianism. The moving dialogue and memorable lines of the film enabled it to gain the third position in the all time memorable films in America. The survey was conducted by the American Film Institute. But the memorable lines from the film also became an integrated part in the language of the Americans incorporating into the culture of the Americans as well. This influence became permanent. The great combination of sentimentality with the crude macho appeal of the language is the true essence of the Casablanca’s dialogues which incorporated into the American culture slowly. The language appealed and supported the secret stamp of approval for various rebellious movements amid the youth of America. The collective consciousness hidden somewhere in a fragmented mode in American History instigates the rebellious zeal which began to find its approval in American culture mostly after the release of this great movie. For example, the famous line from the film “Play it again, Sam” might seem apparently like a group of words but it encapsulates the spirit of Casablanca and forms the microcosm of American macho paradigm. Final appeal of Bogart to Bergman leaves an everlasting mark on the culture of America in terms of its language and theme operating behind it. The lines, “We'll always have Paris. The problems of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world” started displaying through tight lipped sentimentalism, the true essence of life style and strength to get through the chaotic world. The lines like “Round up the usual suspects” and “Here’s looking at you kid” almost found the place of phrase in American language and incorporated into the American Popular culture. There is hardly any element of the great film, Casablanca left that has not contributed in the transition of perspectives of Americans and their popular culture. Even the songs of the film have greatly influenced the popular culture in America. The song “As Time Goes By” found a special place in the American culture and history (Tanc, “Casablanca”). Casablanca was also able to initiate the legacy of “film noir” genre or “black film” series in Hollywood successfully. With the release of Maltese Falcon in the year 1941, American culture got acquainted with the concept of film noir but the actual shape and its acceptance came along with the release of Casablanca. Opening the map of the Dark Continent to the whiter portion of the world with its exuberant appeal was new and fresh in the film Casablanca. The taste of the greatness of American democracy in comparison to the fascist Europe was the crux of the film. Casablanca was the first film in the history of American films which was able to display “Diasporic Purgatory” on silver screen successfully which is why this concept was able to reach larger audience and incorporate into many layers of the society directly influencing the collective popular culture of the nation (Pontuso, “Political philosophy comes to Rick’s: Casablanca and American civic culture”). Conclusion The film Casablanca shall always leave an ever-lasting impression on the minds of its audience. Indeed there are also many such contemporary popular film like Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane but the influence which Casablanca casted on the politics, society and culture of America really placed it outside the queue. The immediate impact of the film was undoubtedly great but its magic was so grand that it could percolate through ages and influence the culture, society and politics of the generation. Starting from the aesthetic to technical and thematic elements of the film, every aspect of the film was so attuned with the need of time that the film could make space easily into the hearts and minds of the American youth. Enduring feelings, exotic exploration in terms of setting, desperation and desire to break through conventions with the help of rebellious zeal were the key theme captivated within the great script of this grand film and these elements were enough spirited to become the route map of the future counter-culture movement in America. The impassioned love and self-belief with complete faith on individual potential became the crux of the film which never allowed the flame of Casablanca’s popularity to get extinguished. The film is eternal and universal which will continue enchant and influence its audience with enduring passion irrespective of age, sex and language barriers. References Dirks, Tim “Casablanca (1942)”. November 19, 2010. Film Site Movie Review. 2010. Pontuso, James F. Political philosophy comes to Rick’s: Casablanca and American civic culture. Lexington Books, 2005. Tunc, Tranfer Emin “Casablanca” November 19, 2010. Bright Lights Film Journal. 2007. Bibliography IMDb “Casablanca” November 19, 2010. Overview. 2010. Mager, William “Casablanca” November 19, 2010. BBC. December 04, 2000. Read More