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This is an interesting discussion, but I think it's important to locate the term "American Dream" historically. The phrase was coined by James Truslow Adams in his _The Epic of America_ (1931). And with the Depression taking hold, the point of the phrase was not about getting rich, let alone getting rich quick, but having a sense of domestic security. The notion itself can be traced to much earlier times in American cultural history with similar emphasis on stability earned through one's hard work, enabled by a putatively horizontal society and open access to land through homesteading--see Crevecoeur or Franklin, for examples. I'm not suggesting that the idea is static, and that by the 1970s it no doubt had accreted new meanings. But too often the term seems to be offered as if there is firm consensus of what it means. For some it means extravagant wealth, for others it means being one's own boss, for others it means--or used to--home ownership, still for others it means freedom, whatever that might be. _Easy Rider_ , which just barely predates the 70s, works through some of the conflicts. Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda), and Billy seem to think that the American Dream will be theirs after the big score, allowing them to a life of leisurely retirement in Florida. Despite the glamorization of wanderlust in a film that inspired the genre of the music video, the poignant irony of the film comes when Wyatt admits they "blew it," because they have no sense of belonging. In numerous episodes on their journey, Wyatt has stopped to approve of the lives that people have carved out for themselves, whether an adobe ranch in New Mexico or a hippie commune in Texas. These people have attained what he comes to see as the American Dream. And his and Billy's efforts to avoid rootedness are the folly, turning nightmarish after the death of George and their subsequent execution in a redneck version of a drive-by. For all of its counter-culture veneer, and the bitter condemnation of intolerance in the climax, the film's primary ethos, as Wyatt expresses it, re-asserts the American dream as a conservative desire that seems rather in tune with Adams's coinage. --LH Larry Howe Professor of English Chair, Department of Literature and Languages Roosevelt University ________________________________________ From: Film-Philosophy [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Fair [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 4:03 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [FILM-PHILOSOPHY] FILM-PHILOSOPHY Digest - 7 Jan 2013 to 9 Jan 2013 - Special issue (#2013-5) Hello all, I'm sorry I have come to the debate about the American Dream late, i think I've looked at most of the posts and I would like to add a few thoughts as a non American (is that a category?). First someone states that the desire/dream to get rich is not a new one...I wonder, maybe it is. The idea that one might get rich, especially get rich quick is, I think, quite a new phenomenon, in fact there are many ways in which this dream is seen as a bad or a stupid thing. I anticipate that some of you might say that the critics of the desire are often motivated by the desire to put off others while enabling themselves. Anyway,,,,,two films that I see as offering us pointed critiques of the A.D. are 'Five Easy Pieces' a film that articulates a sense of aspiration that in many ways is at odds with the so called success of the "gettin rich" and posits instead dreams of happiness and freedom but of which in the case of this film are specifically gendered. The other, a more contemporary candidate and for my money one of the great movies of this century so far is 'Take Shelter' a film that renders this piece of ideology as quite literally a dream, or rather a nightmare.The allegorical construction of this film cannot have failed to move an audience who has fallen foul of this hopeless tendency in contemporary U.S. culture. The storm is coming and bourgeois ideology has managed to render it as a natural phenomenon. Consequently, just as the dream of boom itself was rendered real by the aesthetic/ideological machinations of the political class, so the bust is equally rendered as one that is 'Natural'. The thing is that when we are actually dreaming the illogical, strangeness is not apparent to our unconscious it is only when we awake that we are struck by the strange juxtapositions and lack of narrative. Nowadays the dream and the contrary reality are becoming blurred, strangeness has become the reality of consumer politics, think 'Grand Theft Auto', think Spielberg's 'Lincoln' peace alan -- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the Film-Philosophy list, please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html -- Film-Philosophy Journal: http://www.film-philosophy.com/ Film-Philosophy Conference 2013 (Amsterdam 10-12 July): http://www.film-philosophy.com/conference/ -- -- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the Film-Philosophy list, please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html -- Film-Philosophy Journal: http://www.film-philosophy.com/ Film-Philosophy Conference 2013 (Amsterdam 10-12 July): http://www.film-philosophy.com/conference/ --