The evolution of pop culture’s response in the wake of a key national event often depends on whether that event was a national tragedy, a scandal or an outrage.
World War II (1939-45)
“Casablanca” (1942): A noble romance in which Humphrey Bogart must choose between his love for a woman and continuing the fight against the Nazis.
“South Pacific” (1949): Racial prejudice is seriously explored in this Broadway musical peppered with songs like “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair.”
“Schindler’s List” (1993): A German saves more than 1,000 Jews from the Holocaust.
Conclusion: The war was patriotic, so any anger is directed at stories of Nazi persecution. It’s ancient history now, so presenting it with anything from show tunes to pathos is appropriate.
Korean War (1950-53)
“Pork Chop Hill” (1959): Gregory Peck’s heroic re-enactment of a bitterly fierce battle.
“The Manchurian Candidate” (1962): Thriller about brainwashed U.S. Army POWs made into unknowing political assassins.
“M*A*S*H” (1972-83): The novel-turned-film-turned- TV series evolved from situation comedy into moralizing anti-Vietnam allegory.
Conclusion: “M*A*S*H” changed how TV looks at war, but the war was an old enough wound to generate as many chuckles as it did tears.
John F. Kennedy assassination (1963)
“JFK” (1991): Mixing fact with fiction, Oliver Stone calls the FBI’s official story into question.
“Love Field” (1991): Nostalgic look at a Texas housewife who feels Jackie Kennedy is a kindred soul and is determined to meet her on Nov. 22, 1963.
Conclusion: JFK films tend to center either on the enduring mystery of his killing or how the end of Camelot played out in American living rooms. As long as the mystery surrounding it is kept alive, dramatists will feed off of it in creative ways.
Vietnam (1959-75)
“The Deer Hunter” (1978): A damning, epic look at how the Vietnam war affected everyone in a small American industrial town.
“Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987): An irreverent deejay shakes things up when he is assigned to the Army radio station in Vietnam.
Conclusion: The arc from, say, “Apocalypse Now” (1979) to “Tropic Thunder” (2008) shows just how far we’ve come in terms of the gravitas we apply to Vietnam.
Watergate
“All the President’s Men” (1976): Serious thriller recounting how two journalists brought down a president.
“Dick” (1999): Comedy about two high school girls who wander off during a class trip to the White House, meet President Richard Nixon and become his secret advisors during the Watergate scandal.
Conclusion: In short order, Americans went from a need to know to a need to mock.
AIDS crisis (1980s-present)
“The Normal Heart” (1985): The first, fierce look at the rise of AIDS, 1981-84; it “starts off angry, soon gets furious and then skyrockets into sheer rage,” Frank Rich wrote of Larry Kramer’s play.
“Rent” (1996): The plight of impoverished artists struggling to survive in New York under the shadow of AIDS is turned into a joyous, cult-hit rock musical.
Conclusion: AIDS plays tend to be righteously angry while championing victims who also happen to be fabulous.
Matthew Shepard murder (1998)
The Laramie Project (1999): Just five weeks after the killing, New York’s Tectonic theater company began compiling interviews exploring the climate of Laramie, Wyo. A new look at long-term effects of the murder and how Laramie has changed will be performed in more than 140 theaters in all 50 states in October.
Conclusion: The killing both polarized and mobilized America. It remains too much of a political football for art to twist about.
Columbine (1999)
“Bowling for Columbine” (2003): Michael Moore uses the tragedy to go after the gun lobby with righteous and sometimes funny vengeance.
Elephant (2003): Film taking dangerous liberties re-enacting Columbine as if it happened in a Portland, Ore., high school.
Conclusion: Columbine will always be a source for those hoping, mostly fruitlessly, to explore the nature of evil — an eternal subject that dramatists will mine eternally.
Sept. 11 (2001)
“Omnium Gatherum” (2003): First major 9/11 play is a comic dinner party where guests tackle the war on terrorism, American imperialism and the Middle East as they dine somewhere between heaven and hell.
“United 93” (2006): Speculative look at what might have happened on board the only 9/11 target that did not reach its destination.
“24” (2001-present): Real-time terrorism series that debuted two months after 9/11 fueled Americans’ newfound fear of impending attack.
Conclusion: The response to 9/11 quickly morphed into anger at George Bush for the subsequent war with Iraq. But the subject remains an open wound — and dangerous territory for anyone who wants to turn it into pop culture.
