Description:
Movie marquee for "Home of the Brave" with silhouettes of three figures to left, electric billboards and cars to right
Label Text:
In Times Square, USA, 1950, a marquee advertises Stanley Kramer’s Home of the Brave, a film about an African American World War II veteran whose acknowledgment of prejudice allows him to overcome a psychologically correlated physical paralysis. The movie title not only identifies a story involving one man plumbing his subconscious—a common theme in Surrealism—but is also derived from “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The viewer of this photograph can interpret this found patriotic text as tapping into the subconscious of the nation, commenting on the essence of a country emerging victorious from war. In the context of the psychological dissonance of the postwar period, this phrase can be read with skepticism. Are the horrific experiences of soldiers in war adequately described as “brave”? Can a country be characterized as “brave” abroad when it is unjust at home?
MD, PHOTOdocument exhibition, March 30, 2012-July 22, 2012
Subjects:
Photographic gelatin Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1986.111 |
