Have you ever wondered what kind of people also watch your favorite shows? The Hollywood Reporter has recently displayed a study of political leanings and television interest. Among top shows for Republicans are Modern Family and American Idol while Democrats appear to love Dexter and Mad Men (two of my favorites, actually). To no one’s surprise Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann’s shows top the list for the Right and Left respectively. Regardless, what stands is that high ratings mean catering to the conservatives since most of the top shows are favored higher by the Right.
More information is found in the print version of THR where we are shown which cable networks are preferred by each party. Number one on the right goes to Fox News and number one on the Left goes to BET, which could lead one to some curious conclusions about each group’s priorities. Nevertheless, what struck me the most was the Right’s admiration for Turner Classic Movies (number six) where it did not even make the Left’s top ten. This is most likely because the Hollywood of yesteryear offers a balance rarely found in today’s movies.
In my experience most classic film buffs are liberal. Of course, as a film studies grad student most people I know who enjoy Hollywood’s Golden Age are my professors (who are usually liberals). However, politics have never gotten in the way of my relationships with them because we always have a common ground to stand on, our love of movies. This is why if there is a big conservative fan base for TCM there should also be a strong liberal fan base. One would think there would be bipartisan support for greats like Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn.
Either way that doesn’t seem to be the case in THR’s study, but why is that? Without question there were conservative and liberal films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. However, one difference is that during the Studio Era some production companies were cranking out films by the week, such is not the case today. With so many films rolling out in theaters there was a larger number of every kind of film, including many fairly respectable B-film productions (especially in the noir and horror genres).
The political climate at the time was different, there was far more balance in the political slant of productions released. In fact, while the Hollywood blacklist and nationwide Red Scare in the 1940s and 1950s casts a dark shadow over Hollywood, it fails to tell the larger story. Even though the staunchest Communists had problems with the studios, many filmmakers such as immigrant Fritz Lang (who was no Right-winger) found a way to keep his own political leanings and align with America at the same time. This meant showing how the Left and Right can join forces in the fight against Fascism, which was seen in Lang’s film Man Hunt.
Another element is Joseph Breen and the Hays Office that was the industry watchdog for “acceptable” content during the film industry’s Golden Age. Of course this meant such things as kissing on screen only allotted a small amount of time, the bad guy could never win, violence could not be glorified, etc. The problem was that “acceptable content” was defined differently by everyone, so it was difficult to implement their rules. The end result was that the writers and filmmakers had to be more creative when producing content they knew would cause friction with the Hays Office.
Maybe conservatives enjoy TCM programming because their films, regardless of politics, usually find a common ground for audiences of all political persuasions. Today, much of Hollywood is generally afraid to stand against evil and would rather tell the world how horrible America is. Many classic movies stand the test of time because their politics are often buried in metaphor, which provide for multiple interpretations (leaving scholars foaming at the mouth). If the Hollywood Golden Age taught us anything, it is that an artist can provide content for a wide audience and still implement his or her worldview into a project without hindering the final product.
By watching TCM we can see great films from Casablanca, Citizen Kane and Notorious, to The Wild Bunch, Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate. Each of these films has a political slant but it is only one small piece of the historical relevance of the work. Conservatives likely enjoy classic movies not just because the liberalism is watered down, but more so because the politics are not what the film is ultimately about. For example, Casablanca and Notorious are love stories, Citizen Kane is about a lost childhood and The Wild Bunch and Bonnie and Clyde are about the nature of violence. The reality is the less upfront the politics are, the more pleasant the movie. At least that is the view from the armchair of this long time TCM viewer.
