Getting Reel: A Social Science Perspective on Film
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Getting Reel: A Social Science Perspective on Film By Michael D. ...

Chapter 1:  Introduction
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“Whether we like it or not, cinema assumes a pedagogical role in the lives of many people. It may not be the intent of a filmmaker to teach audiences anything, but that does not mean that lessons are not learned. It has only been in the last ten years or so that I began to realize that my students learned more about race, sex, and class from movies than from all the theoretical literature I was urging them to read. Movies not only provide a narrative for specific discourses on race, sex, and class, they provide a shared experience, a common starting point from which diverse audiences can dialogue about these charged issues.” (hooks, 1996:3)

3. Is / Was This Film Good For Me?

I’m not looking for a facile answer here. Some disturbing films may have been very thought provoking. Sometimes a film that probably has no truly social redeeming value may have escapist value. A Simple Plan is a disturbing film, but to my mind provides a telling parable about what Hannah Arendt calls the “banality of evil.” Looked at in that way, it becomes a thought provoking film. On the other hand, as a college student I looked forward to the probability of a James Bond film coming out during Fall Semester finals. That is pure escapism.

I don’t think we need to resolve the conflict about entertainment that has been around at least since the time of Plato and Aristotle. Plato thought that a “good” story should have social worth. Aristotle was more tolerant of the story that merely entertained. This book emphasizes looking for the worth in given films, but hopes never to lose sight of the expectation that film provide a variety of ways of engrossing and entertaining their audience.