America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies 2. Edition

"America on Film is different kind of film studies textbook. It's an invaluable resource for classes examining the politics of Hollywood."
Ted Friedman, Georgia State University

"The authors do a remarkable job at presenting contexts for identifying and tracking the historical constructions of race, gender, class, and sexuality &; They successfully present a rich history, with references to hundreds of films."
Scope Journal

"America on Film provides a clear and expansive examination of the complexities of representation and identity in America cinema. I currently use Benshoff and Griffin's book in my introductory film class on multiculturalism, and I look forward to using this new edition."
Vici Callahan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

"In this era of diversity, American on Film is a great resource that clarifies critical concepts of inequality and illustrates how film representations can frame groups, thus providing tools for thinking critically about the media we consume."
Elizabeth Higginbotham, University of Delawarwe

"America on Film does what no other film textbook does: it takes its investigations of film beyond a study of form, production and exhibition, exposing how film functions as a powerful cultural agent for shaping American perceptions of race, gender, class, and ability."
Alison Landsberg, Georgia Mason University

America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies is a lively introduction to issues of diversity as represented within the American cinema. The first synthetic and historical text of its kind, America on Film provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial, socio-cultural, and aesthetic factors that contribute to cinematic representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The volume chronicles the cinematic history of various cultural groups, examines forces and institutions of bias, and stimulates discussion about the relationship between film and American national culture.

The book is organized within a broad historical framework, with specific theoretical concepts - including film genre, auteurism, cultural studies, Orientalism, the "male gaze," feminism, and queer theory - integrated throughout. Each individual chapter features a concise overview of the topic at hand, a discussion of representative films, figures, and movements, and an in-depth analysis of a single film, including The Lion King, The Jazz Singer, Smoke Signals, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Celluloid Closet.

This new edition is fully revised and updated. It includes a new chapter on the representation of disability in American film, and a new collection of updated case studies, including discussions of Erin Brockovich, 8 Mile, Crash, and Brokeback Mountain, among others.

Harry M. Benshoff is Associate Professor of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of North Texas.

Sean Griffin is Associate Professor of Cinema and Television at Southern Methodist University.