Contesting Identities: Sports in American FilmSince the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacle of sports and their compelling narratives of conflict, triumph, and individual achievement. In Contesting Identities Aaron Baker examines how these cinematic representations of sports and athletes have evolved over time--from The Pinch Hitter and Buster Keaton's College to White Men Can't Jump, Jerry Maguire, and Girlfight. He focuses on how identities have been constructed and transcended in American society since the early twentieth century. Whether depicting team or individual sports, these films return to that most American of themes, the master narrative of self-reliance. Baker shows that even as sports films tackle socially constructed identities like class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, they ultimately underscore transcendence of these identities through self-reliance. Looking at films from almost every sporting genre--with a particular focus on movies about boxing, baseball, basketball, and football--Contesting Identities maps the complex cultural landscape depicted in American sports films and the ways in which stories about "subaltern" groups winning acceptance by the mainstream majority can serve to reinforce the values of that majority. In addition to discussing the genre's recurring dramatic tropes, from the populist prizefighter to the hot-headed rebel to the "manly" female athlete, Baker also looks at the social and cinematic impacts of real-life sports figures from Jackie Robinson and Babe Didrikson Zaharias to Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
achievement African American American society American Sports appear athletes audience baseball biopics Body and Soul bodybuilding boxer boxing films Champ champion Charley Chicago coach competition contest critique Didrikson dominant economic edited ethnic exploitation female femininity fight fighter film's football gambler gangsta gender Girlfight Given Sunday Harder They Fall heavyweight History Hoop Dreams Horse Feathers Ibid ideological Illinois Press improvisational Indian individual Italian American Jackie Robinson Story Knute Kyle League lesbian Louis Love and Basketball male Michael Jordan middle-class narrative nonwhite offer opportunity Pat and Mike Personal Best physical play players political portray prizefighting professional protagonists race racial representation represented response ring Robert Rockne Rocky role Routledge scene self-reliance sexual shot social identity Space Jam sports films sports movies star Strongheart style success television tion Todd Boyd University of Illinois University Press urban utopian women working-class York young