Juvenile delinquency (1955)

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 87 This argument implicitly claims that movies in which American working peoi)le are shown driving elegant, late-model autos, living in comfortably mod- ern-equipped homes, wearing good clothes, enjoying the best services of beau- ticians, medical doctors, dentists, etc., and indulging freely in an endless variety of sports and recreations, create throughout the world a powerful impression of a nation, economicall.v prosperous and socially idealistic. Allowing that many films take dramatic license to exaggerate the ease with which, for instance, a working girl acquires an enviable wardrobe or a laboring man sports an expensive car, it appears true that Hollywood's motion pictures have helped to create abroad some impressions of American well-being, self- reliance, and general knowledgability. If this be true—and I tirndy believe it is—then the power of constructive suggestion wielded by the motion picture is officially acknowledged and proudly claimed by American film producers. It cannot reasonably be argued that this suggestibility in motion pictures ends there. We must recognize its destructive potentialities also. Motion pictures dealing with social disorders within the American system (instance. The Blackboard Jungle. On the Waterfront, The Wild One) or with l>revalent American crime patterns (instance. Big House, U. S. A., Black Tues- day, Cell 2455, Death Row, Riot in Cell Block 11) must be said likewise to im- press the minds of spectators wherever the.v are seen. Indeed, since evil has for many persons a stronger fascination than good, the impact of films featuring criminal violence, brutality and sexual immorality must be said to exercise correspondingly greater influence upon human behavior. For youths especially, the personal element in pictures calls for considera- tion. A film projecting violence and antisocial rebellion among youthful char- acters may present greater dangers of exciting imitative behavior among the young when it is i)layed out by a movie at'tor whom youths widely accept as a popular hero. (Instance, Wild One, starring Marlon Brando as the arrogant leader of a belligerent, antisocial gang of youthful motorcyclists who terrorized peaceful communities.) During the public run of this film, I visited several theaters showing it. In each in.stance youths were predominant in the audience. Some were in motorcycle parties; wore leather jackets like those shown in the film. Either during or after performances, many affected the postures of Brando and his gang. This film was shown at many matinees given especially for children and youths. Youths have predominated at many of the more recent showings of the Black- lioard Jungle. I have the assurance of one police investigator that at one Los Angeles suburban theater, where the management claimed the behavior of .voungsters was usually good, this film was accompanied by noisy misbehavior. Youths left the theater affecting the swagger and diction of the hoodlum actors and disturbances among them followed on the streets and i>arkinii- lots. It is not suggested that this impression had taken permanent or even deep TOots among the boys, but there appears no reason to doubt that the emotional effect of the film was strong. In this district there have been many recent instances of vandalism in the schools: a situation directly corresponding to some in the film. If the effect of the film is not to increase such vandalism, at least it is arguable that it cannot be expected to decrease it. For obvious reasons it is more difficult to observe any direct effect of a situa- tion in the Blackboard Jungle, wherein an incorrigible, teen-age schoolboy was shown to attempt rape against a teacher (who offered some provocation). How- ever, sex situations of this type, when the.y occur in a context of crime and vio- lence, may strike the emotions of youthful spectators with momentous force while at a high pitch of excitement. I do not suggest that films entertaining a spirit of inquiry or criticism toward our public institutions (schools, prisons, hospitals, et cetera) should not be made. Nor that producers who make such films are lacking in a sense of social responsibility. I do suggest that, allowing, for example, that the Blackboard Jungle was a powerfully dramatic and technically excellent example of screencraft (thus sharp- ening its potentiality as a conditioner of collective opinion or individual thought and behavior), it should have reached constructive conclusions commensurate