MovieChat Forums > Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) Discussion > Stand Up and Cheer had and has a message

Stand Up and Cheer had and has a message

posted 19 years ago by indexed-savings
2 replies | jump to latest

I just watched Stand Up and Cheer on satellite TV (via tivo). It is a real American propaganda film--inspired in 1934 by Will Roger's imagination and the New Deal's slogan: We do our part. The slogan put emotion into programs to create jobs and raise prices--so that employers could pay wages (soon to include the hope that these would be union wages).

At the heart of of the film's original message is the song, We're out of the red. Red ink that is. We're out of debt! We're ready to work at the jobs we need. We're ready to shop like we did before the depression!

The message is up front and very American. We want to end the depression deliberately by having the President create, not a Department of Financial Reform (to comprehend and cure red ink) , but a Department of Entertainment (called amusement).

Seventy-one years later, red ink is all over the place--and we live in the National Entertainment State.

The movie has specific villains: not communists, fascists, or accountants. The villains are called blue noses who say they like the ldepression as it is -- because they're making money.

There were people who did well in the depression--and I knew a few of them. But none of them liked the depression--it was too scary. You might be doing well-- but you were likely to be worried that if the depression got worse, you too would be a victim.

Most of the movie is a series of samples of the entertainment that was being produced with the encouragement and some funding from the new Department. The boss of the Department insists that the entertainment be popular.

The productions are popular. They are American Pop--as vaudeville is ending and talking pictures are taking over. It includes Shirley Temple's first song and dance in the movies. She is six--and she becomes a star before your eyes.

Today we risk exporting enough factories and manufacturing skills to destroy our freedom and future. It's time to re-make the movie.

Only this time we better build it around a Department of Production, Money and Jobs--one that is responsible for keeping red ink where it belongs, not in charge of America.

John Gelles
http//www.tiea.us

[–] brucepantages-1 14 years ago

indexed-savings said:
"The movie has specific villains: not communists, fascists, or accountants. The villains are called blue noses who say they like the depression as it is -- because they're making money."

To which I have to add a response...a couple of nights ago there was nothing on TV (as usual) and I dragged out the old 16mm projector and an old print of this film. Everyone agreed that it was 1) A very weird movie and 2) It was a very entertaining movie. Things reached a peak, however, when the "villains" came on and were spouting off about how they were "satisfied with things just as they were," an elderly gentleman in our audience spoke up with "Oh look, can you believe that? It's the Republicans." Needless to say, his observation brought down the house! I'm still laughing.

[–] mightymo-2 12 years ago

Your post is even more correct here in 2011/12, and we have a Department of Amusement today. It's called the American Government. Too bad it's come to this, huh? If I was their boss(and in a Republic, I think I am), I'd fire them all. From the top down!