The film shows how people who tried to bring change like McMurphy were often punished, just like how real-life movements for civil rights and freedom faced backlash during that time. McMurphy’s fun activities with the patients, like basketball and a fishing trip, represent efforts to bring freedom and joy, but they’re shut down by the system.

One analysis explains that Nurse Ratched stays in power because people are too afraid to speak up. She represents leaders who use control and the fear of change to keep power, even when reform is needed.

It shows the conflict between growing demands for equality and the strong resistance from those in power during this period in American history.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/narrcult.2.1.0071

The Western film genre rose to its "Golden Age" during the mid-20th century. Films like Buffalo Bill (1944) and High Noon" (1952) were not only entertainment but also ideological reflections of America's shifting self-perception, specifically during World War II and its emergence as a global superpower.

Buffalo Bill is an excellent example of the way that postwar Westerns mythologized American history. What the American Film Institute calls a nostalgic, "mythic" West, and a "nostalgia-laden simulacrum of the 'Wild West". This means the Westerns of this era referenced real people and places but stripped them of their historical problematic parts. While the films portray heroic, romanticized frontier life, for example Buffalo Bill, showing the life of this famous cowboy, it omits any reference to the capitalist expansionism underlying the era, including the Eastern-controlled corporate enterprises that were shaping the consumerist America emerging in the 1940s. It portrays the social mobility of the cowboy Cody, which hunted buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad work crews, and then earned his nickname “Buffalo Bill” and his reputation as an expert killer. The next year, he was employed by the U.S. Army as a civilian scout and guide for the Fifth Cavalry. Not only is this a clear reflection of American patriotism and opportunism, but also a continuation of older values of the nation.

This myth-making is both a reflection of the continuation of wartime American values like heroism, freedom, individualism, while also expressing the cultural force of aspiration, which was present since Manifest Destiny era, which also fueled American exceptionalism. As one JSTOR critic says, "the narrative acts out Manifest Destiny," and the cowboy is a symbolic resource "through which the body politic could renew, replenish, and reenergize." Cowboy westerns belong to what the article refers to as "bourgeois myth," in which "the silent and ongoing incursion of the present into what should be an inviolate past" fabricates the past in terms of present ideological American needs.

Notes:

• During the early 1980s, American businesses faced recession, inflation, and growing international competition. This led to bankruptcies among many businesses, including mega-corporations.

• Businesses had less freedom of action due to increased government regulations and unionized worker involvement. These changes stemmed from widespread criticism of capitalism in the previous decade.

• The steel industry declined as alternative materials and increased imports surged. The automobile industry also suffered due to high interest rates and gas prices.

• Companies slashed managerial and white-collar jobs and relocated south to avoid worker unions.

• Corporate raiders, who would take over companies and reorganize them, caused businesses to be viewed as commodities.

• Companies like Walmart grew by leveraging their size to pressure wholesale suppliers into lowering prices, then passing these savings to consumers.

• Reagan became the pinnacle of conservatism in America, increasingly mixing his Christian beliefs with his government strategies. White opposition to civil rights was one of the key supports for the conservative movement that helped Reagan win.

• Reaganism opposed Carter's austere governmental policy, with Reagan's inaugural celebration being an unashamed display of wealth. His economic policy, Reaganomics, focused on tax cuts for the rich. Government deregulation also led to greater benefits for corporations and the upper class.

• Reagan helped shape the ideological sphere in the USA, with his ideas of freedom carrying a subtle hostile undertone toward the poor. He celebrated the possibility of economic and social mobility only for those who could achieve it, and changed people's attitudes about the government rather than the other way around.

Connection to Movie Lens: REFER TO

• BACK TO THE FUTURE AUDIO

• WOLF OF WALL STREET VIDEO AND EXPLANATION

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv65sxh2.9

Notes:

• The U.S. produced 67.9% of global blockbusters (2000s–2010s)

• Non-Western films (Bollywood) rarely achieved global reach outside their country.

• "Seven Sisters" studios (Disney, Warner, Paramount, etc.) dominated, leveraging commercial strategies: Tested films on U.S. audiences before release.

• Prioritized special effects over storytelling.

• Hollywood blockbusters often reproduced Western-centric narratives, rooted in colonial-era stories

• Films like Avatar (2009) recycled "imperial adventure" clichés:

• "Virgin land" exploration: Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves.

• Primitive natives: Blue-skinned Na’vi mirrored stereotypical portrayals of Indigenous peoples. (Avatar). Additionally, focus on ethnocentric casting: White protagonists as "saviors" --> Jake Sully in Avatar.

• Intercultural Encounter Films: Religious epics (The Passion of the Christ) reinforced Judeo-Christian values.

Colonial adventures (Pirates of the Caribbean) romanticized expansionism values.

• Sci-fi/fantasy (Star Wars, Avatar) projected U.S. militarism and "white savior" tropes onto alien worlds.

• Post-9/11 Movies: War films (Black Hawk Down) and spy thrillers (James Bond) showed U.S. foreign policy anxieties.

• Technology: 3D and CGI innovations (Avatar, Transformers) became Hollywood’s best feature.

• Franchises and Sequels: Safe bets for global markets (Harry Potter, Marvel).

• Scholars noted Hollywood’s reliance on Orientalism: Exoticizing Asia (Mulan, Kung Fu Panda).

  
  

• Case Study: Avatar (2009)

• Plot: Marines exploit Pandora’s resources, paralleling historical colonialism.

• Tropes Recycled: "Noble savage" Na’vi: Native American and African tribal stereotypes.

• Ecological utopia

• Reflected post-Iraq War distrust of corporations.

• Used familiar clichés to ensure cross-cultural resonance.

For Connection to Movie Lens, REFER TO:

• Video Explanation: I Married a Communist and the Red Menace

On the other hand, To Kill a Mockingbird shows a more realistic and emotional kind of heroism. Instead of action, it focuses on moral courage and fairness. The character of Atticus Finch fights racism and defends an innocent man, even when most of his town is against him. Rollin explains that “the epic hero’s moral code may become problematic in a world of shifting values.” This fits with how Atticus doesn’t fit the usual idea of a hero, but he still stands up for what’s right. The film shows that American values were changing: people started thinking more about justice, equality, and personal responsibility. Together, these two films show how movies from the 1960s reflected different sides of American culture, helping the country deal with change and imagine a better future.

During this time, civil rights and labor movements pushed to expand democracy and equality. These efforts led to important reforms, like the Great Society programs, which tried to fight poverty and racial injustice. However, not everyone supported these changes. As social movements grew stronger, political divisions widened. Freeman writes about the “profound tragedy that has shaped the path of American civic life,” noting that “the civil rights and labor movements worked for decades to enlarge the rights of millions of Americans, only to watch power ultimately slip from individual citizens to private corporations.” This shows how the hopes for a more equal democracy were often blocked by the growing influence of corporate power.

In the end, the postwar era was a time of both progress and backlash. Economic changes supported national growth, but they also helped spark political realignments that weakened unions and led to conservative victories. The tension between the promise of democracy and the reality of economic control continues to shape American life today.

Movies that develop this lens

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Bonnie and Clyde