Many films have portrayed social and cultural change. Some examples include Come See the Paradise, Milk, Adam's Rib, Heat Wave, and Crash. The current discussion will examine three different examples of attempts at social and cultural change as depicted through selected films.
In the film, Come See the Paradise the main character is a projectionist who harasses theatres in New York City that are non-union. Jack, the main character must decide what to do when one of his associates takes things too far and starts a fire. After moving to Los Angeles, he falls in love with Lily, a Japanese-American. They are unable to marry due to California law, so they move to Seattle and give birth to a daughter. After World War II starts, Lily and their daughter are sent to Manzanar while Jack is away on a trip and drafted into the Army. In this story efforts to create change in the area of racism is not successful. Jack is sent to prison for the old arson charges and is unable to save his wife and child from the internment camp. One notable change is that Lily's father finally believes Jack's love for his daughter after Jack went AWOL to seek out his wife.
Adam's Rib is a battle of the sexes comedy that was inspired by a real-world legal case. Although the film was made in 1949, it examined many themes that were ahead of it's time. In this film a husband and wife find themselves on opposing sides of an attempted murder case. The attempted murder involved a wife who shot but did not kill her husband. In the film, Adam Bonner is the prosecutor, while Amanda Bonner is the defender. The film examines stereotyping and sex-roles. It makes a solid statement, for the time it was made, on unequal justice and gender role double standards.
The film Milk examines the life of politician Harvey Milk, who became California's first openly gay elected official. Milk started out by opening a camera shop in San Francisco and eventually fough...