Holywood goes to High School

Srinivas, Lakshmi
Hollywood Goes to High School (review)
Social Forces - Volume 84, Number 3, March 2006, pp. 1852-1853

Lakshmi Srinivas - Hollywood Goes to High School (review) - Social Forces 84:3 Social Forces 84.3 (2006) 1852-1853 Hollywood Goes to High School. By Robert C. Bulman. Worth Publishers, 2005. 191 pages. $23.95 (paper) Robert Bulman seeks to bring much-needed sociological sensibility to the study of the high school film. Observing that most studies treat the genre "monolithically," Bulman differentiates urban public, suburban public and private school films. The book argues that Hollywood's portrayal of adolescence and high school rests on social class distinctions and that the films reflect and reinforce a "middle-class cultural hegemony" that has to do with "individualism, self-sufficiency, free expression, hard work and fair play." (p. 7) Bulman insightfully unearths consistent differences in film subgenres, each with its distinctive view of adolescence and individualism. Urban public school films revolve around class struggle between the "morally-challenged urban poor" and their "virtuous...