Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War Against Traditional Values

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Why does our popular culture seem so consistently hostile to the values that most Americans hold dear? Why does the entertainment industry attack religion, glorify brutality, undermine the family, and deride patriotism? In this explosive book, one of the nation's best known film critics examines how Hollywood has broken faith with its public, creating movies, television, and popular music that exacerbate every serious social problem we face, from teenage pregnancies to violence in the streets. Michael Medved powerfully argues that the entertainment business follows its own dark obsessions, rather than giving the public what it wants: In fact, the audience for feature films and network television has demonstrated its profound disillusionment in recent years, with disastrous consequences for many entertainment companies. Meanwhile, overwhelming numbers of our fellow citizens complain about the wretched quality of our popular culture - describing the offerings of the mass media as the worst ever. Medved asserts that Hollywood ignores - and assaults - the values of ordinary American families, pursuing a self-destructive and alienated ideological agenda that is harmful to the nation at large and to the industry's own interests. In hard-hitting chapters on "The Attack on Religion," "The Addiction to Violence," "Promoting Promiscuity," "The Infatuation with Foul Language," "Kids Know Best," "Motivations for Madness," and other subjects, Medved outlines the underlying themes that turn up again and again in our popular culture. He also offers conclusive evidence of the frightening real-world impact of these messages on our society and our children. Finally, Medved shows where and how Hollywood took a disastrous wrong turn toward its current crisis, and he outlines promising efforts both in and outside the industry to restore a measure of sanity and restraint to our media of mass entertainment. Sure to elicit strong response, whether it takes the form of cheers of suppor

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In its glorification of violence and casual sex and in its disparagement of the family, Hollywood is profoundly out of touch with the values and lifestyles espoused by most Americans, charges Medved, a film critic and co-host of PBS's Sneak Previews. Movies and television, he argues, malign marriage and religion, encourage out-of-wedlock births and wallow in ugliness, gore and selfish hedonism--all with devastating social consequences. He also condemns pop music, especially rap, for its obscene lyrics, misogyny and promotion of promiscuity. Medved ( What Really Happened to the Class of '65 ) is frequently wrongheaded or heavy-handed in his criticism. Yet he is often on the mark, and one need not be a conservative or a religious fundamentalist to find much to ponder in his critique, which is chock full of examples of pop culture's gratuitous pandering to the public's worst instincts. Instead of censorship, Medved advocates boycotts and public shaming to force the entertainment conglomerates to act more responsibly. First serial to Forbes and Reader's Digest; author tour. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Film critic Medved, cohost of PBS's Sneak Previews , presents a scathing indictment of Hollywood that is sure to be controversial. Asserting that ``the dream factory has become the poison factory,'' he criticizes Hollywood movies for portraying religion unfavorably, glamorizing violence, and celebrating immorality. Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) is among the films censured at length, and there are many others whose objectionable scenes are singled out, from Total Recall (1990) to The Prince of Tides (1992). Those who lament America's loss of what lately have been generally called ``family values'' will agree with Medved, while others are likely to dismiss his impassioned text as a windy sermon. A marginal purchase for general collections.-- Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Everyone -- left, right and middle -- is perfectly aware that we are in a period of cul- tural and moral collapse. But some people don't want to concede that the popular media bear part of the responsibility. Michael Medved's book should convince them that it does."  — Harper Collins - New Media

"Michael Medved understands movies and the movie business better than anyone else in America. Here he puts the entertainment industry's stars and stooges on can- did camera and gives shocking proof that Hollywood is forfeiting both profits and paying customers in a crazy campaign to foist its own loony lifestyles and muddled world views on the American people."  — Harper Collins - New Media

"Michael Medved is not only the most perceptive and persuasive of the major American film critics, but he is also the most courageous. While his new book will not endear him to many studio executives, it is easily the most provocative study of the moral implications of film ever written,"  — Harper Collins - New Media