J. E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617039645
- eISBN:
- 9781626740136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617039645.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Though his films remain some of the most popular and critically acclaimed of the twentieth century, Fred Zinnemann is a shadowy presence in Hollywood lore. Yet this fresh look at Zinnemann's work, ...
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Though his films remain some of the most popular and critically acclaimed of the twentieth century, Fred Zinnemann is a shadowy presence in Hollywood lore. Yet this fresh look at Zinnemann's work, based upon extensive research in his personal papers, reveals the filmmaker's lifelong interest in twentieth-century resistance to fascism. Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance reveals a director of resistant women and unknown, courageous men; a man who preserved the voices of child Holocaust victims; a Hollywood filmmaker who pushed Hollywood's commitment to Europe and international filmmaking to its breaking point; a politically engaged mind so complex he isolated himself from his generation; a staunch professional who collaborated and fought with the Hollywood system for five decades; and above all, a master director whose consistency was in his resistance.Less
Though his films remain some of the most popular and critically acclaimed of the twentieth century, Fred Zinnemann is a shadowy presence in Hollywood lore. Yet this fresh look at Zinnemann's work, based upon extensive research in his personal papers, reveals the filmmaker's lifelong interest in twentieth-century resistance to fascism. Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance reveals a director of resistant women and unknown, courageous men; a man who preserved the voices of child Holocaust victims; a Hollywood filmmaker who pushed Hollywood's commitment to Europe and international filmmaking to its breaking point; a politically engaged mind so complex he isolated himself from his generation; a staunch professional who collaborated and fought with the Hollywood system for five decades; and above all, a master director whose consistency was in his resistance.
Kirsten Day
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474402460
- eISBN:
- 9781474422055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402460.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on what is often considered the paradigmatic Western, Fred Zinnemann’s 1952 High Noon, beginning with its complicated reception, its varied allegorical readings, its political ...
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This chapter focuses on what is often considered the paradigmatic Western, Fred Zinnemann’s 1952 High Noon, beginning with its complicated reception, its varied allegorical readings, its political uses, and its profound influence. The discussion then turns to parallels with Homer’s Iliad: in both, the hero’s initial faith in the justice of the social system gives way to radical isolation when the men who should provide the backbone of this system fail them, and in both, the final showdown functions as a psychological confrontation as much as a physical one. Next, like Homer’s Odyssey, High Noon centers on the threat the hero’s wife poses to his identity through her uncertain fidelity; in the end, however, her loyalty is confirmed, thereby validating masculine goals and values. Finally, like the protagonist of Virgil’s Aeneid, Gary Cooper’s Will Kane is a reluctant hero compelled to defend the community; though both are temporarily distracted by personal desires, they are ultimately moved to resume the heroic mantle by a strong sense of duty anchored to notions of a higher purpose. And like the Aeneid, High Noon is shown to contain a de-mythologizing strain that complicates national identity even as it celebrates it.Less
This chapter focuses on what is often considered the paradigmatic Western, Fred Zinnemann’s 1952 High Noon, beginning with its complicated reception, its varied allegorical readings, its political uses, and its profound influence. The discussion then turns to parallels with Homer’s Iliad: in both, the hero’s initial faith in the justice of the social system gives way to radical isolation when the men who should provide the backbone of this system fail them, and in both, the final showdown functions as a psychological confrontation as much as a physical one. Next, like Homer’s Odyssey, High Noon centers on the threat the hero’s wife poses to his identity through her uncertain fidelity; in the end, however, her loyalty is confirmed, thereby validating masculine goals and values. Finally, like the protagonist of Virgil’s Aeneid, Gary Cooper’s Will Kane is a reluctant hero compelled to defend the community; though both are temporarily distracted by personal desires, they are ultimately moved to resume the heroic mantle by a strong sense of duty anchored to notions of a higher purpose. And like the Aeneid, High Noon is shown to contain a de-mythologizing strain that complicates national identity even as it celebrates it.
J.E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617039645
- eISBN:
- 9781626740136
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617039645.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Between 1944 and 1977, director Fred Zinnemann made a surprising number of historical films about the rise and resistance to fascism, the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, the Cold War, and the ...
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Between 1944 and 1977, director Fred Zinnemann made a surprising number of historical films about the rise and resistance to fascism, the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, the Cold War, and the post-war impact on Europe and America. Yet in contrast with many European and American filmmakers, Zinnemann's documentation of the Resistance was completely at odds with Charles de Gaulle's view of an elite, French-dominated, nationwide movement against Nazi oppression born in 1940, and the prevailing conservative historiography which excluded the roles of women and communists. While his film narratives often explored the contexts and histories of “resistance,” Zinnemann's career in Hollywood and its critical legacy followed a similar creative trajectory, and this book explores his confrontations with Hollywood genre conventions, the studio system, and critics. Based on extensive archival research in the director's papers, Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance engages Zinnemann's self-conscious visual and textual interventions in the wider historiography of the Resistance and its post-war aftermath. In particular, the book will explore his research, script and editing notes for The Seventh Cross (1944), The Search (1948), High Noon (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Nun's Story (1959), Behold a Pale Horse (1964), Day of the Jackal (1973), and Julia (1977), and will make a case for Zinnemann as a significant historian of the anti-fascist resistance and the defining conflicts of the twentieth century.Less
Between 1944 and 1977, director Fred Zinnemann made a surprising number of historical films about the rise and resistance to fascism, the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, the Cold War, and the post-war impact on Europe and America. Yet in contrast with many European and American filmmakers, Zinnemann's documentation of the Resistance was completely at odds with Charles de Gaulle's view of an elite, French-dominated, nationwide movement against Nazi oppression born in 1940, and the prevailing conservative historiography which excluded the roles of women and communists. While his film narratives often explored the contexts and histories of “resistance,” Zinnemann's career in Hollywood and its critical legacy followed a similar creative trajectory, and this book explores his confrontations with Hollywood genre conventions, the studio system, and critics. Based on extensive archival research in the director's papers, Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance engages Zinnemann's self-conscious visual and textual interventions in the wider historiography of the Resistance and its post-war aftermath. In particular, the book will explore his research, script and editing notes for The Seventh Cross (1944), The Search (1948), High Noon (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Nun's Story (1959), Behold a Pale Horse (1964), Day of the Jackal (1973), and Julia (1977), and will make a case for Zinnemann as a significant historian of the anti-fascist resistance and the defining conflicts of the twentieth century.
Tim Carter
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106190
- eISBN:
- 9780300134872
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106190.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter examines the history of the film adaption of the musical Oklahoma!. It explains that the Theater Guild has set a price of $500,000 for the musical in May 1943 and analyzes the reasons ...
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This chapter examines the history of the film adaption of the musical Oklahoma!. It explains that the Theater Guild has set a price of $500,000 for the musical in May 1943 and analyzes the reasons behind the guild's decision to hold on to Oklahoma. The chapter suggests that the theatrical sale of Oklahoma! was triggered by the collapse in the number of first-class performances in 1952, and also considers director Fred Zinnemann's work on the film version of the musical.Less
This chapter examines the history of the film adaption of the musical Oklahoma!. It explains that the Theater Guild has set a price of $500,000 for the musical in May 1943 and analyzes the reasons behind the guild's decision to hold on to Oklahoma. The chapter suggests that the theatrical sale of Oklahoma! was triggered by the collapse in the number of first-class performances in 1952, and also considers director Fred Zinnemann's work on the film version of the musical.
Michal Ben-Naftali
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823265794
- eISBN:
- 9780823266944
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823265794.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers Fred Zinnemann's film Julia (1977), which is based on Pentimento and An Unfinished Woman, two parts of the autobiographical works of the Jewish American playwright Lillian ...
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This chapter considers Fred Zinnemann's film Julia (1977), which is based on Pentimento and An Unfinished Woman, two parts of the autobiographical works of the Jewish American playwright Lillian Hellman. It argues that Lillian's very own nostalgia, her events as they are registered in and deleted from her memory and her writing, expose her to the blessed curse of writing (and the cinema). They add to the complication of the problem of faithfulness both regarding her friend Julia and herself. They reveal how her journey through time stays within the frame of the possible, her possibilities, and they give us the crippling power to judge their friendship. In documenting her life from the start, Lillian subverts her own expectations as well as ours of memory's praxis and dynamic, exactly because with regard to Julia her memory is so fixated, exactly because of her refusal to renew anything. Inventing something new about her friend is wholly outside the range of her possibilities. The economics of invention—which, in this case, is her métier—cannot, and must not, break her spirit. From this angle, Julia is her poetics, a story about the limits and limitations of the author who invents the possible on the basis of the possible, nothing more. No other information whatsoever penetrates, or indeed can penetrate, the idealistic plot she forges.Less
This chapter considers Fred Zinnemann's film Julia (1977), which is based on Pentimento and An Unfinished Woman, two parts of the autobiographical works of the Jewish American playwright Lillian Hellman. It argues that Lillian's very own nostalgia, her events as they are registered in and deleted from her memory and her writing, expose her to the blessed curse of writing (and the cinema). They add to the complication of the problem of faithfulness both regarding her friend Julia and herself. They reveal how her journey through time stays within the frame of the possible, her possibilities, and they give us the crippling power to judge their friendship. In documenting her life from the start, Lillian subverts her own expectations as well as ours of memory's praxis and dynamic, exactly because with regard to Julia her memory is so fixated, exactly because of her refusal to renew anything. Inventing something new about her friend is wholly outside the range of her possibilities. The economics of invention—which, in this case, is her métier—cannot, and must not, break her spirit. From this angle, Julia is her poetics, a story about the limits and limitations of the author who invents the possible on the basis of the possible, nothing more. No other information whatsoever penetrates, or indeed can penetrate, the idealistic plot she forges.
