Social Class in America (1957)

★★★★★ · America is a Class Society... · NG · 2003-05-26

...but it's rarely talked about. Krugman wrote a piece in the New York Times Magazine (Sept. or Oct. 2002) noting that income inequality is growing again in the U.S., in a big way. We are entering a new guilded age like we had in the early decades of the 1900s. This movie was filmed when our nation enjoyed comparative equality, but you just have to look at CEO compensation to know we're moving further and further away from that. I'm no communist, but I feel that democracy is undermined when a tiny number of people wield vast power. All of the current administration's cabinet are millionaires.…

★★★★ · @ donwert -- Right, the whole theme of 'Social Class in America', '57, is relentlessly grim. · Graham W · 2010-02-02

You're right, the whole theme of this film, 'Social Class in America'(1957), is relentlessly grim, also it's depressing and fatalistic. Moreover, you point to your family as having successfully broken out of a not so acceptable social class for a better one, thus implying the film doesn’t really reflect reality. You're correct, but in 1957 things were very different and the picture the film paints of the mid 1950s is reasonably factual although for emphasis its case is somewhat overstated. As a '48 baby-boomer, you will have graduated from high school about 1966. The mid to late 1960s were…

★★★★ · Identifying places in this movie · explainer · 2010-09-18

As mentioned in the shot list, the rail station is in Convent Station, NJ, where I grew up. Also, I believe I can recognize Madison High School, stores around the Green in Morristown, including Bambergers, and the the hospital where the boys are born is Morristown Memorial. I was born one year before this was made. I think the world depicted in the film matched the world around me. I knew people very much like the ones shown.

★★★★ · In a rich man's world · Spuzz · 2005-06-09

Very odd-in-stomach movie about 3 boys and how their social class will lead them for the rest of their lives, The rich baby will always be rich, the poor one will always be poor, the middle-class baby though, in his twenties, moves up in the world, but is treated as middle class at home. Pshaw at that I say! Impress the middle class people at home! And watch out for rich kids, they'll steal your woman away! Very odd and strange actually. While some of it may be true, this film I believe is of the minority and not the majority (but I could be wrong).

★★★ · Class War not Race War!! · MediaWhore · 2004-06-07

Poor Ted Eastwood. He is born into a middle class society and Mary, the hot stuck up rich girl, will have nothing to do with him because he is below her. Ted has dreams of pursuing a career in art. His father talks him out of it saying that "security lies in business and white collar work". So good ol Ted becomes a book keeper alongside his dad at the local corporate slave office. Unhappy with the life he is stuck with he goes out on a limb by moving to NY and eventually he improves his social status by becoming a successfull art director. Now when he goes home he'll be able to get with Mary.…

★★★ · Some Missing Rungs On The Old Ladder · Dr-Pretorious · 2024-06-10

Ok.. lets play " Initial Identity Status " The fun game for the whole family. Roll the dice and see which birth canal you will be coming down. Second roll... did you get loving, rational, intelligent, involved, empathetic, non selfish adults surrounding you? Now...work your way thru the board maze.. good luck! The middle status seems to be the vehicle to move upwards suggested in the film....but of course see the second roll rule..it applies again.