PROF.

SARA JADE WOODHOUSE

Movies That Inspire

Change
Lights! Camera! Social Issues!!
David James Hof

This has been an interesting semester, thats for sure. Even though we lost a
professor mid-semester, I still learned a lot of how films impact our culture. I
analyzed two films that we saw in class and explored how they showed me the
social issue that the director was trying to educate the public about while telling
the story at the same time.

This country has been through and is still going through a lot of oppression and change in
the last 100 years. What this course in film & culture has taught me is that movies have a unique
way of educating the public about societal problems (past or present) while entertaining them at
the same time. The first movie that we watched, 42(2013), brought this to my attention.
In the movie 42, Jackie Robinson is just a man who wants to do what he excels at:
baseball. Jackie Robinson is offered the opportunity that he has always dreamed of when the
manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers offers him a spot on the team in the spring of 1947 when the
world was a different place. In 1947 black men werent allowed to do almost anything alongside
of their white counterparts, including professional sports. At face value, this movie is about a
man who has to overcome obstacles to play baseball. But to the rest of the country and to the
history books that we have now, what he accomplished was considered the precursor to the Civil
Rights Movement.
For the United States of America, 1945 was the end of World War 2. There were many
black men who signed up to fight for their country. However, during the war, black service
members were given grunt jobs, by the end of the war, only 5% of the black men who enlisted
actually got to experience combat. Jackie Robinson himself was one of those brave black men to
serve our country in the war. During boot camp, Robinson was honorably discharged because he
refused to move to the back of the bus for a white soldier. That fact alone proves that Robinsons
actions were the precursor to the Civil Rights Movement because he did this act a whole decade
before Rosa Parks did. After the war ended, those brave men returned to the segregation that they
had left. Bathrooms, schools, restaurants, and even drinking fountains were segregated. In the
movie 42, Jackies wife, Rachel Robinson uses a womans restroom labeled Whites Only and
suffers discrimination from a desk clerk.

Later on in the movie, just the news alone that the Dodgers may be signing a black player to
be on their team is enough to stir up a whole bunch of trouble with fans, writers, and the players
themselves. Jackie Robinson experiences a lot in this movie, everything from members of the
crowd spitting on him, to his teammates treating him badly, all the way up to a threat of a
lynching. In some parts of the South, lynchings still posed a threat to the African American
community. Between the years of 1880 and 1930, so many black Southerners were lynched that
it averages out to about two lynched people a week.
Afterwards, Robinsons success on the Brooklyn Dodgers inspired more teams to hire
black ball players. Even further, Jackies success ultimately inspired the real career of Ed Charles
who is depicted in this movie as Robinsons biggest fan. During and after baseball, the real life
Jackie Robinson made great efforts to improve the lives of everyone in America, especially those
in the black community. As a matter of fact, he quit the Dodgers to become an executive in a
well known American company, further shattering the negative effects of segregation.
The director of 42 himself doesnt even have a fond spot for baseball at all. He has been
quoted to say that he played every sport in school besides baseball. In an interview with the
Writers Guild of America the director, Brian Helgeland said, I never thought of it as a baseball
movie. I mean, if I had thought of it as a baseball movie I probably wouldnt have done it. Later
in his interview Helgeland also said, Yeah baseball is a great metaphor for the United States.
Baseball is America, when we change; it changes too- not the rules of the game, but who is
allowed to play. For example, there was a professional womens league from 1943-1954 when
women werent thought of too highly.
In conclusion, 42 is a movie about a man fulfilling his dreams, having to overcome
obstacles put in front of him because of his race and changing the world to make the same dream

possible for other minorities in the future. Life in the 1940s was terrible for black men and
women and he knew it. He was a perfect model for change in this country and that is proven with
his actions before the Brooklyn Dodgers, his actions while on the Brooklyn Dodgers, and his
continued success after the Brooklyn Dodgers.
City Lights is another film that we saw in class showed me another problem that society
is dealing with. What is your reaction when you see a homeless person? Is it, Oh crap, hes
going to ask for money!, or how about Oh wow, how sad.? Today, homelessness is a large
problem, that doesnt seem to have gotten much better. In Charlie Chaplins City Lights (1931),
we see a homeless character for what he is, a human being.
On October 29th, 1929 the stock market crashed and started what came to be known as the
Great Depression throughout the world. However, while most of the population suffered, the
richest of the rich partied the 1930s away. In Charlie Chaplins lovable City Lights (1931), the
great disparity between the economic classes is highlighted when everyone ignores the tramp, a
homeless man. Except a millionaire who is too drunk to see him for what he is, and a blind girl
who literally cannot see him.
Near the beginning of the movie, the tramp is trying to get around the city and walks past
a pretty blind girl selling flowers on a street corner. He is instantly intrigued by this girl and tries
to flirt with her. He seems to pay so much attention to this girl because she treated him like a
human being because she couldnt see him for what he was. Everyone else in the city either
seems to sneer at the poor or ignore them completely.
When watching City Lights, it takes a moment to realize that this movie was made during
the Great Depression. There are those who are poor, and those who party until the next morning.
Despite the fact that most of the country was financially devastated, the wealthy showed off their

money more than ever before, in order to keep up appearances. In fact, the world famous
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City opened in 1931. It cost about 42 million dollars, which
is about 600 million dollars in todays money. At this extravagant hotel, the best parties were
held throughout the thirties. There was even a famous hostess who invented the scavenger hunt
to further occupy her party guests. For the rich, the thirties had to be better than the twenties, so
the bigger the party, the better. An heiress by the name of Barbara Hutton of the Woolworth
family spared no expense for her coming out party to the socialite world. There were trees
imported from California for decoration and four orchestras hired to entertain the guests who
were all equally wealthy. This spectacular party cost $60,000 (approx. $1 million in todays
money.) The millionaire from City Lights is no different from these real life examples. He parties
his life away, only befriending the man who saved him when he is too drunk to realize that hes
talking to a homeless man.
At the conclusion of the story, the tramp has been released from jail after serving time for
ultimately stealing the money from the millionaire. He returns to the city in torn up clothes and
his tormented by the paperboys and then ignored by everyone else. On the other hand, the flower
girl can now see thanks to the generous gift given to her by the tramp. She has a successful
flower shop and constantly wonders when her suitor (who she believes to be a millionaire) will
return to her. A tall, young man who is obviously wealthy comes into the shop and for a moment;
she thinks that this man may be her missing suitor. When the tramp and the flower girl cross
paths once again, she has pity for him. Offering him a flower and touching his face, the flower
girl then realizes that this poor, short man is her missing suitor. The tramp then asks her if she
can see now, she responds yes, and seems disappointed. The last frame of the movie is the face
of the tramp; he seems heartbroken, maybe a little hopeful. We will never know if the flower girl

and the tramp end up together, it is a nice thought. For all of the trouble that the tramp went
through to get the money for her operation, it seems to be well deserved. However, that probably
isnt what happened; in this world the girl never falls for the tramp that cannot do anything
financially for her.
Charlie Chaplins City Lights is a story about a homeless man who is only trying to get by
in life and tries to help those who are in need. He saved the millionaire from committing suicide
and he saved the blind flower girl by giving her enough money for rent and her eye operation. It
seems as though he can only make friends with those who cannot see who he truly is. When the
tramps true identity is revealed, his friends seem much less interested in him, just like everyone
else in the city.
The title of this paper is Movies That Inspire Change, we can see that in our own
history that things have changed since the 1940s for the colored population. Theres definitely
some more work to be done, but things have changed for the better, which is what 42 reminds us
of. In City Lights, we see a lot of the same reactions that we do today towards the homeless
population. I am not trying to guilt trip anyone, I myself am guilty of treating the homeless as
less than humans, I am only here to say that its a problem our society faces and that City Lights
shows us from the perspective of the homeless man. From these two examples, I can now clearly
see that films can be used to shine the light and educate our society about problems we faced,
and the ones we still face.

Works Cited
42. Perf. Chadwick Boseman. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. :, 2013. DVD.
"Brian Helgeland." IMBd. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001338/?
ref_=tt_ov_dr>.
Callaghan, Dylan. "Fisherman's Blue." Writer's Guild Of America, West. 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 13
Feb. 2015. <http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=5224>.
"Jackie Robinson - The Official Site." Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.jackierobinson.com/>.
"Daily Life of the Avergage African American in the 1940's." Societal Roles and Expectations
through the 1940's-50's. 20 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://americanhistory194050.blogspot.com/p/daily-life-of-avergage-african-american.html>.
Goldstein, Richard. "Jackie Robinson: Brooklyn Dodgers Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer." 13
Apr. 2007. The New York Times. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/timestopics/topic-robinson.html?_r=5&>.
"Lynching." Digital History. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3178>.
"City Lights (1931)." Internet Movie Database. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021749/?ref_=nv_sr_1>.
Giddins, Gary. "City Lights: The Immortal Tramp." The Criterion Collection. 11 Nov. 2013.
Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2957-city-lights-theimmortal-tramp>.
Relations of Class in the Great Depression. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
< http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/newyorker/class.html>.
"1930s High Society." History Detectives: Special Investigations. PBS. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/1930s-high-society/>.