Alan Casty

Robert Rossen

The Films and Politics of a Blacklisted Idealist

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This book calls for a re-evaluation of the films of Robert Rossen. Over a 30-year period, he was the most accomplished writer and director who was also a longtime member of the Communist Party, but his achievement has not been recognized, his films have been belittled or ignored, his legacy denied. Rossen's films reflected his times and the American scene with a dramatic intensity and personal expression unmatched by any other filmmaker of the period. The stages of his political journey, from idealism about Communism to his rebellion against the Party's betrayal of those ideals, influenced the rendering of his concerns and themes--the flaws of human nature, the complexities of motives, the paradoxes of betrayal, personal and political. Yet Rossen testified against his fellow filmmakers, and so his morals and character have been denounced, his work diminished as fatally marred by his moral flaws. The opposite is true. Here is a thorough analysis of each of his 22 films and their place in the developing themes of his body of work. It integrates this study of the films with a documented narrative of his relationship to the Party, its history and conflicts, its duplicities--especially the relations of the Party and its followers to the oppressions of the Soviet Union. And so it challenges the validity of the conventional wisdom about the moral issues of the blacklist period.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 286
• Erscheinungstermin: 25. März 2013
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 254mm x 178mm x 16mm
• Gewicht: 543g
• ISBN-13: 9780786469819
• ISBN-10: 0786469811
• Artikelnr.: 35937725

Autorenporträt

Professor emeritus in cinema studies and English, Alan Casty divides his time between Pisa, Italy, Pacific Grove, California, and La Paz, Mexico.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents Preface Introduction: The Films of Robert Rossen-A Legacy Lost Part One: The Writer-Craft, Idealism and Ideology
1.
A Matter of Experience-From the Lower East Side to Hollywood and the Party
2.
Stretching the Boundaries of Genre-The First Two Screenplays
3.
Warner Bros. and the Party-Five Films, Three Years
4.
Ode to an Era-The Roaring Twenties
5.
The Party Line and the Writer-Two Warner Films in a Shifting Poitical World
6.
The War and Post-War Worlds on Film-Three with Lewis Milestone Part Two: The Director-Success, Doubt and Disillusion
7.
The Writer Becomes Director-Johnny O'Clock
8.
The Battle and the Myth, Personal and Political-Body and Soul
9.
Con
icts and Consequences-The First Hearings, 1947 10.
Power and Betrayal, Personal and Public-All the King's Men 11.
A Time of Tests, Trials and Fear-The Brave Bulls 12.
The Political and Moral Turmoil of the Blacklist Era-The Hearings, 1951 Part Three: The Director-Blacklisting, Rebellion and Isolation 13.
What Is Behaving Decently?-Testifying and Silence 14.
Starting Anew in Europe-Mambo 15.
Seeking the Power and the Glory-Alexander the Great 16.
The Road Back-Island in the Sun and They Came to Cordura 17.
At the Top of His Game-The Hustler 18.
The Forgotten Masterwork and Enigma-Lilith 19.
An Unfortunate Epilogue-The Legacy Denied Chapter Notes Bibliography Index