From generation to generation, three outstanding American Jewish directors―William Wyler, Sidney Lumet, and Steven Spielberg--advance a tradition of Jewish writers, artists, and leaders who propagate the ethical basis of the American Idea and Creed. They strive to renew the American spirit by insisting that America must live up to its values and ideals. These directors accentuate the ethical responsibility for the other as a basis of the American soul and a source for strengthening American liberal democracy. In the manner of the jeremiad, their films challenge America to achieve a liberal democratic culture for all people by becoming more inclusive and by modernizing the American Idea. Following an introduction that relates aspects of modern ethical thought to the search for America’s soul, the book divides into three sections. The Wyler section focuses on the director’s social vision of a changing America. The Lumet section views his films as dramatizing Lumet’s dynamic and aggressive social and ethical conscience. The Spielberg section tracks his films as a movement toward American redemption and renewal that aspires to realize Lincoln’s vision of America as the hope of the world. The directors, among many others, perpetuate a “New Covenant” that advocates change and renewal in the American experience.
Author(s): Sam B. Girgus
Series: Renewing the American Narrative
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 287
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Praise for Generations of Jewish Directors and the Struggle for America’s Soul
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction: Jewish Directors and the “New Covenant”—Wyler, Lumet, and Spielberg
The New Covenant, the American Jeremiad, and the American Soul
Jewish Modernism and the American Story: A Shared “Mission” to the World
Levinas, Ethical Transcendence, and the New Covenant
William Wyler
Sidney Lumet
Steven Spielberg
The New Covenant Today: David Brooks
Part I: William Wyler’s America
Chapter 2: Bogart to Bogart: A Changing America from Dead End to The Desperate Hours
Escape from the Past: Prejudice, Persecution, and Pogroms
Wyler’s Two Bogarts: American Gangsters
Location Location
Dead End and The Bridge
“Baby Face” and Big Brother: The American Family in Crisis
Chapter 3: Wyler: Surveying the Changing American Scene
The War Years: Fighting for Liberal Democracy
Love, Gender, and Sexuality
Ben-Hur in the Time of Trump: A Brief Note
The Liberal Challenge: African-Americans and the American Soul
Part II: Sidney Lumet: Conscience and Democracy
Chapter 4: Jew Grit: The New York Frontier and the Making of a Moralist
The Lower East Side
Conscience of the City: Serpico
Martyrdom
Hippie Cop of the Counter Culture
Chapter 5: Filming “The Crisis of American Civic Liberalism”
The Virulence of Mediated Madness: Network
Daniel I: A New York Epic from the Lower East Side to the Bronx
Daniel 2: The Existential and Ethical Imperative: Love and Death in America
Part III: Steven Spielberg: Reform, Redemption, and Films of American Renewal
Chapter 6: Spielberg, America’s Soul, and the New Covenant
Seeker: The Journey of Steven Spielberg
Schindler’s List I: The Holocaust and Democracy at Home
Schindler’s List II: The Face of Redemption: A Moral and Ethical Awakening
Chapter 7: American Renewal and Democracy: Battling Slavery, Racism, and Fascism
Amistad and Lincoln
Saving Private Ryan
Coda: The Post
Chapter 8: Epilogue: The Jeremiad, the Myth of America, and the New Covenant
Rebuilding the City on a Hill
The Ethical and Existential Imperative
Index
