TY  - BOOK
AU  - Field,Amanda J.
TI  - Evading the Issue: Hollywood and the Social Problem Film
T2  - Short Takes Film Studies
SN  - 9781909183780
AV  - PN1995 -- .F54 2015eb 
U1  - 791.4301 
PY  - 2015///
CY  - Luton, Bedfordshire
PB  - Andrews UK Ltd.
KW  - Motion picture plays, American -- History and criticism
KW  - Motion pictures -- Social aspects -- United States
KW  - Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- History
KW  - Electronic books
N1  - Cover -- Contents -- Front Matter -- Title Page -- Publisher Information -- Evading the Issue -- Hollywood and the Social Problem Film -- Additional Media -- Illustrations -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Filmography -- Also Available
N2  - Tino Balio, in his book The American Film Industry, said that the Production Code meant that American films could not deal with political or social issues 'in an honest and truthful fashion'. This incisive essay tests out the legitimacy of Balio's claims, using The Lost Weekend (directed by Billy Wilder, 1945) as an example of the Hollywood 'problem film'. Rather than treating the film as being an entity with a single, unchanging meaning, it is put into its historical and social context, in particular the commercial context within which the studios were working. The commercial imperatives hardly sat well with the reality of a social problem such as alcoholism and this essay reminds us that the prime aim of the industry was to entertain: many of these 'problem films', therefore, were as honest and truthful within these confines as it was possible to be
UR  - https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/orpp/detail.action?docID=2030502
ER  -