Generations of Jewish Directors and the Struggle for America’s Soul: Wyler, Lumet, and Spielberg

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From generation to generation, three outstanding American Jewish directors―William Wyler, Sidney Lumet, and Steven Spielberg--advance a tradition of Jewish writers, artists, and leaders who propagate the ethical basis of the American Idea and Creed. They strive to renew the American spirit by insisting that America must live up to its values and ideals. These directors accentuate the ethical responsibility for the other as a basis of the American soul and a source for strengthening American liberal democracy. In the manner of the jeremiad, their films challenge America to achieve a liberal democratic culture for all people by becoming more inclusive and by modernizing the American Idea. Following an introduction that relates aspects of modern ethical thought to the search for America’s soul, the book divides into three sections. The Wyler section focuses on the director’s social vision of a changing America. The Lumet section views his films as dramatizing Lumet’s dynamic and aggressive social and ethical conscience. The Spielberg section tracks his films as a movement toward American redemption and renewal that aspires to realize Lincoln’s vision of America as the hope of the world. The directors, among many others, perpetuate a “New Covenant” that advocates change and renewal in the American experience.  Acknowledgments Praise for Generations of Jewish Directors and the Struggle for America’s Soul Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: Jewish Directors and the “New Covenant”—Wyler, Lumet, and Spielberg The New Covenant, the American Jeremiad, and the American Soul Jewish Modernism and the American Story: A Shared “Mission” to the World Levinas, Ethical Transcendence, and the New Covenant William Wyler Sidney Lumet Steven Spielberg The New Covenant Today: David Brooks Part I: William Wyler’s America Chapter 2: Bogart to Bogart: A Changing America from Dead End to The Desperate Hours Escape from the Past: Prejudice, Persecution, and Pogroms Wyler’s Two Bogarts: American Gangsters Location Location Dead End and The Bridge “Baby Face” and Big Brother: The American Family in Crisis Chapter 3: Wyler: Surveying the Changing American Scene The War Years: Fighting for Liberal Democracy Love, Gender, and Sexuality Ben-Hur in the Time of Trump: A Brief Note The Liberal Challenge: African-Americans and the American Soul Part II: Sidney Lumet: Conscience and Democracy Chapter 4: Jew Grit: The New York Frontier and the Making of a Moralist The Lower East Side Conscience of the City: Serpico Martyrdom Hippie Cop of the Counter Culture Chapter 5: Filming “The Crisis of American Civic Liberalism” The Virulence of Mediated Madness: Network Daniel I: A New York Epic from the Lower East Side to the Bronx Daniel 2: The Existential and Ethical Imperative: Love and Death in America Part III: Steven Spielberg: Reform, Redemption, and Films of American Renewal Chapter 6: Spielberg, America’s Soul, and the New Covenant Seeker: The Journey of Steven Spielberg Schindler’s List I: The Holocaust and Democracy at Home Schindler’s List II: The Face of Redemption: A Moral and Ethical Awakening Chapter 7: American Renewal and Democracy: Battling Slavery, Racism, and Fascism Amistad and Lincoln Saving Private Ryan Coda: The Post Chapter 8: Epilogue: The Jeremiad, the Myth of America, and the New Covenant Rebuilding the City on a Hill The Ethical and Existential Imperative Index