Tragedy or Hope
Tragedy or Hope is a short film from 1972 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
The film is structured as a narrative in which John Smith's ancestors educate him about "what's right with America" in hopes of leading him away from "the road to anarchy and self-destruction." There are many bits of archival footage in this film. It begins with a brief discussion of (accompanied by a montage) those "radical speakers who are subsidized by communists" (Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and others are pictured). We move from these scenes of "mass hysteria" to extnded montages which depict all the womders of American capitalist society
| Tragedy or Hope | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions |
Production company | Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions |
| Distributed by | Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions |
Release date | 1972 |
Running time | 24:03 |
| Language | English |
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Lots of good stock shots here: appliances lipsticks being made fields being farmed barbershop quartets footage from Ford Motor Company (accompanied by a brief discussion of Henry Ford as a citizen with "strong" values. The film ends as John Smith and his ancestors decide to face the protestors and educate them on "what's right with America." The final title card reads: "Will you let this time of our lives be Tragedy or Hope?".
21:00:55:00 Tragedy or Hope 20780
bizarre prologue in which Revolutionary war soldier hits football-playing-college student (wielding bat) over the head while history professor is held hostage and an angry mob is outside the door
21:01:23:00 med wide shot John Hancock hits Joe College with butt of rifle (21:00:25:00)
21:01:44:00 CU of unconscious college student on ground VO - 'This is John Smith, honor student, football star and Vietnam veteran, yet somewhere along the way he chose the road to anarchy and self-destruction.' (21:01:55:00)
21:02:42:00 med shot of college guy with short hair climbing in window of dark building with bat (21:02:46:00)
21:03:10:00 med wide shot of guy in letterman jacket in library -turns down lights, checks doors, then sits down, opens book and starts to study VO - 'Now why should a normally intelligent, normally decent young person like John Smith choose the road to Communism over America and freedom? For one thing, our youth of today are the object of the most extensive intensive diabolical campaign ever conceived.' (21:03:29:00) 21:03:30:00 wide shot of rally - camera zooms in on black man and white man in front of microphones VO - 'organized by our and their...' 21:03:34:00 med shot of rally - white man speaking fervently into microphone VO - '...worst enemies. On many of our nation's...' 21:03:37:00 med shot of rally - another man - young,long-haired -speaking fervently into microphone VO - '...platforms, radical speakers make a well-paid living...' 21:03:40:00 med shot of another rally - guy with glasses, TIE and white shirt, and crazy-scientist hair speaking VO - 'going around, many of them...' 21:03:42:00 med pan of rallying students in front of columned building VO - '...subsidized by the Communists, telling our young people what's wrong with America.' (21:03:46:00) 21:03:47:00 med shot of two black men with Afros speaking into microphone 'On such a platform, we have seen many ...' 21:03:53:00 med shot of multi-racial group of rally speakers VO - '...self-proclaimed Communists and revolutionaries...' 21:03:55:00 MCU pan of shaking fists, tops of heads of crowd VO - '...radical spokesmen for various groups and professions...' 21:03:59:00 med shot of speaker platform with bearded white man, black man in white outfit and white cowboy hat hugging another man VO - '...and sometimes, prominent political figures, all joining in a movement, with which...' 21:04:05:00 med shot of fist-shaking 60s student crowd VO - '...the subversives Communists plan to destroy America.' (21:04:08:00) 21:04:09:00 - another med wide shot of crowd near speaker platform pan to pointing speaker VO - 'And why do so many of our young people...' 21:04:17:00 - freeze frame - MCU of gesticulating speaker in SUIT VO - '...fall for it? Some of it, of course is...' 21:04:20:00 med shot of fist-shaking crowd [freeze-frame VO - '...mass hysteria...' 21:04:21:00 wide shot of crowd, pyramid-like group of protesters on platform [freeze-frame] VO - '...not ...' 21:04:22:00 med shot of crowd [freeze-frame] VO - '...stopping...' 21:04:23:00 MCU of suit-speaker [freeze-frame] VO - '...to think things through...' 21:04:24:00 blurry med shot of raised group of protesters [freeze-frame] 21:04:25:00 med wide shot of crowd, gesticulating [freeze-frame] VO - '...not stopping...' 21:04:26:00 med shot of fist-waving crowd [freeze-frame] VO - '...to analyze...' 21:04:27:00 MCU of same old suit-speaker [freeze-frame] VO - '...the character...' 21:04:28:00 CU [blurry] of fists [freeze-frame] VO - '...or the motives...' 21:04:29:00 MCU of same old suit-speaker [freeze-frame-then starts to move VO - '...of whose doing the talking.' 21:04:31:00 med shot of fist-shaking student crowd VO - 'A typical line from such ...' 21:04:34:00 med wide shot of protest leaders on platform VO - '...rabble-rousers: ...If America don't come 'round, America should be...' 21:04:38:00 med wide pan of crowd - raised group of protesters, university buildings in background VO - '...break down...' 21:04:41:00 MCU of long-haired guys walking past huge crowd in back ground VO - '...Why do they swallow a line ...' 21:04:43:00 MCU of hippie kids - smoking joints for the camera VO - '...like this? Well they think they wanna be different, they wanna do their own thing...' 21:04:49:00 CU of bag (of drugs?) camera zooms out showing hippies/students holding it VO - '...lead their own life...' 21:04:51:00 MCU of hippies/students - camera moves down to focus on hands preparing several different types of drugs VO - '...which too often means: wreck their own life. It is true there are things wrong in this country, there are social and economic inequities. They are being leveled off more and more all the time. But not by scenes like these.' (21:05:07:00)
21:05:08:00 med shot of letter-jacketed college student studying in library 21:05:17:00 same shot - student hears noises, grabs bat and turns in his seat, then slowly turns back to books VO - '...He's a victim of irresponsible parenting. He's has missed the stabilizing influence of a good home and religious upbringing. He has been listening to the wrong people. He has gone in for drugs, loose morals, and wanton destruction. He blames it on what's wrong with America.' lights goes out (21:05:38:00) 21:05:39:00 MCU of college boy, lights go on, then out again (21:05:49:00) return of silly Revolutionary guy 21:07:48:00 medium shot of college boy with Professor Professor - 'Maybe we ought to start with the number of people who want to move here, compared to the number of people who want to get away.' 21:07:53:00 newsreel-style sequence of borders, border police professor VO - 'There are no wall or barbed wire to keep people here who don't want to stay. I've notice that even those who complain the loudest don't want to leave.' 21:08:07:00 med wide shot of man trying to cross barbed-wire border - captured by police VO - 'Compare them with the millions who want to get in. Every year, people risk their lives escaping other countries, hoping to reach America. Many die trying.' (21:08:19:00) 21:08:21:00 med shot of professor and college boy Professor - 'and why do they think it's worth risking their life to get here?' (21:08:22:00) 21:08:23:00 CU of Revolutionary guy Professor - 'Freedom, that's the answer!...' 21:08:25:00 med shot of professor and college student Professor - '...and the highest living standard in the world!' College guy - 'Not for everybody. Not in the slums and the ghettos.' Professor - 'On the contrary, it's one of the harsh realities that every country has its different levels of subsistence' (21:08:36:00) 21:08:37:00 MCU of professor Professor - 'But bracket for bracket, even the poorest here live much better than their counterparts anywhere else in the world.' Professor walks over to revolutionary guy Professor - 'To have good living conditions you have to have good working conditions, both in and outside the home. We have the best working conditions both places.' (21:08:56:00) 21:08:57:00 - CU of vacuum cleaner Professor - 'An infinite variety of home appliances...' 21:08:59:00 - CU of hand picking up telephone Professor - 'furnishings and services...' 21:0(:01:00 - CU of washing machine - hand adding detergent, closing lid Professor - 'To make house work immeasurably easier.' (21:09:04:00) 21:09:05:00 med shot of tractor Professor - 'On the farm and in the factory... 21:09:08:00 MCU of tubes of lipstick coming toward camera on assembly line Professor - '...the number and variety of ...' 21:09:09:00 med shot of lipstick factory machine Professor - '...power tools, ingenious machines, and...' 21:09:12:00 MCU of reel to reel tapes - looks like early computer Professor - '...labor-saving techniques make the job...' 21:09:14:00 MCU of some sort of factory machine Professor - '...so much easier for the working man.' 21:09:17:00 MCU of Professor Professor - 'Now, what does all this add up to?' turns and spins globe on desk 21:09:20:00 CU of spinning globe hand points to US on globe Professor - 'We make up six percent of the world population' (21:09:25:00) 21:09:26:00 MCU of college guy listening Professor - 'and yet we produce more than 50% of its manufactured goods.' (21:09:30:00) 21:09:38:00 MCU of college guy Professor - 'The average American... 21:09:40:00 MCU of professor with globe next to him Professor - '...citizen's living standard, measured in wealth and purchasing power...' (21:09:43:00) 21:09:44:00 MCU of Revolutionary war guy Professor - '...is twice that of the average citizen of other countries...' 21:09:47:00 MCU of professor Professor - '...three times more than that of most countries, and four times better than Russia. Now doesn't that begin to tell you something?' (21:09:52:00) 21:09:53:00 MCU of college student college guy - 'Sure, if you want to measure greatness by purely selfish materialism.' (21:09:57:00) 21:09:58:00 MCU professor Professor - 'Alright then, how do you want to measure it?' 21:10:00:00 MCU college student College Guy - 'Well, there are other values, you know.' 21:10:02:00 MCU professor Professor - 'Now wait a minute, what's wrong with this type of materialism? I mean its the difference... 21:10:08:00 CU of African mask Professor - '...between life in the jungle...' 21:10:10:00 med shot of dancing natives Professor - '...and life in civilization.' (21:10:12:00) 21:10:13:00 MCU of Professor with Revolutionary guy in background Professor - 'And what are the values that you're talking about anyway? Cultural? Ethical?' (21:10:15:00) 21:10:16:00 MCU of college student College student - 'Yeah, among others.' 21:10:18:00 MCU of Professor Professor - 'Well it's materialism that fosters those values, among others.' (21:10:21:00) 21:10:22:00 med wide shot (newsreel-style) of high school students in science lab Professor - 'Materialism provide the money with which we can build...' 21:10:25:00 med shot of high school students in science lab Professor - '...and equip the most schools...' 21:10:27:00 MCU of church steeple Professor - '...the most churches...' 21:10:29:00 MCU of small black child in hospital Professor - '...the most hospitals...' 21:10:31:00 med shot of men studying in library Professor - '...the most libraries...' 21:10:32:00 MCU of man working in laboratory Professor - '...and the most research centers.' (21:10:33:00) 21:10:34:00 MCU professor Professor - 'And as for being purely selfish...' (21:10:39:00) 21:10:43:00 MCU - Professor standing over college kid Professor - '...You know that the Communist line is based on the Big Lie! They pull off some fiendish indefensible act against some helpless nation or individual, and then they shout down international criticism by pointing at us and calling us capitalistic aggressors!' (21:10:54:00) 21:10:55:00 wide shot of tank - newsreel style footage of invasion of Hungary Professor - '...For example, they suddenly attack Hungary. America protests. Whereupon, they accuse us of imperialistic provocation.' 21:11:06:00 news-reel style footage of earthquake aftermath, refugees Professor - 'There's an earthquake, or other catastrophe, perhaps in a Communist country. Because Americans believe the cry of a child is as pitiful in a Communist country as anywhere else,...' 21:11:18:00 newsreel-style footage of US planes bringing aid, unloading of boxes by men in Muslim dress Professor - '...we rush great stores of food, medicine, and warm blankets to the stricken area. What do the Commies do? They remove all US identification, and replace with Communist labels before distributing them. Then, set up the hull that America is selfish for not helping more. When the plain fact is that America is the most generous country on earth.' 21:11:44:00 wide aerial pan of field hospitals in desert Professor - '...Through our churches, American Red Cross, care packages and the government itself, we have provided foreign aid...' 21:11:51:0O med pan of refugees? Professor - '...to more than a hundred countries, running into countless billions. The United States...' (21:11:56:00) 21:11:57:00 CU of Professor's face Professor - '...has given more to needy nations, including Communist countries, than all the Communist countries have given to other nations throughout all time!' (21:12:03:00) 21:12:04:00 MCU of Professor, college student Professor - 'Now sure, of course their going to say we're selfish, that's the way they operate. And other just parrot the Communist line.' (21:12:11:00) 21:12:12:00 MCU of college student, Professor's back Professor - 'ON the other hand, outright gifts are only one way America aids other nations.' (21:12:15:00) 21:12:16:00 MCU of Revolutionary guy Professor - 'As we constantly raise our standard of living... 21:12:18:00 MCU of college guy, Professor's back Professor - '...the spin-offs raise standards of other countries.' (21:12:20:00) 21:12:21:00 - CU of Professor's face Professor - 'America is the world's greatest inventor and perfecter.' (21:12:24:00) 21:12:35:00 med shot of college student, Revolutionary War guy, and professor Professor - 'I said that we were inventors and perfectors. Now we didn't invent electricity. The basic facts of electricity were known for thousands of years, before there was an America. By scientists, in Greece, and in England, and in Germany.' 21:12:48:00 MCU of college student Professor - '...And for two thousand years, nobody knew what to do with it.' 21:12:52:00 MCU of Revolutionary war guy, Professor walks over to him Professor - '...It remained for Benjamin Franklin to harness it. And his inventions were the basis from which later Americans invented and developed...' 21:13:02:00 CU of light bulb Professor - '...the electric light...' 21:13:03:00 CU of hand picking up telephone Professor - '...and the telephone,...' 21:13:05:00 med wide shot of satellite dish Professor - '...intercontinental radio...' 21:13:07:00 MCU of three guys with silly mustaches Professor - '...the motion pictures, television, and so on.' 21:13:10:00 med shot of four dancing and singing guys with silly mustaches (21:13:17:00) Professor - '...other Americans have given the world...' 21:13:18:00 med shot of car speeding down palm tree lined street Professor - '...the automobile,...' 21:13:20:00 wide aerial shot of ship Professor - '...the steam ship...' 21:13:21:00 med shot of train Professor - '...trains...' 21:13:22:00 wide shot of jet taking off Professor - '...planes...' 21:31:24:00 wide shot of huge warehouse with sides of beef Professor - '...refrigeration...' 21:13:25:00 med shot of farm equipment Professor - '...and a mechanized home, factory, and farm.' 21:13:29:00 med shot of two black doctors giving injection to small boy in field hospital Professor - '...and most of the medicine used around the world. And again, some of these were known,...' (21:13:33:00) 21:13:34:00 MCU of professor and Revolutionary War guy Professor - '... or at least suspected in rudimentary form, but it remain for America to really develop them...' 21:13:39:00 MCU of college guy Professor - '... and give them to the rest of the world to enjoy.' (21:13:42:00) 21:13:43:00 med shot of Professor walking toward college student Professor - '... America is only three hundred years old, really only two hundred years old as a country. And yet, these two hundred years, largely due to America, have seen the development of mankind as a whole, increased astronomically over all the thousands of years before that put together. (21:13:59:00) 21:14:00:00 MCU of college student 21:14:31:00 nostalgic music - med wide shot of trees in autumn with small stream (21:14:35:00) sequence of nature shots 21:14:59:00 scenes of mechanized farming red-headed fake Irish captain arrives 21:16:14:00 CU of fake Irish captain - 'Except for me Irish mother, who gave me this red hair' 21:17:09:00 MCU of professor and awful Irish captain together Captain - 'You see Johnny, in America, people have always been free to dream. And to work to make their dreams come true. ' (21:17:16:00)
21:17:53:00 pan of drawing of 1st steam boat (21:18:06:00)
21:18:22:00 med wide shot of mountains 21:18:25:00 wide shot of trees, river, mountains in background 21:18:30:00 wide shot of river, trees along banks 21:18:36:00 wide shot of river at sunset 21:19:05:00 MCU of Irish 'Captain Jack' walking toward college student Captain - 'So you see, Johnny, America was still young, not much older than you are now...' 21:19:07:00 MCU of Irish captain, college student Captain - '...before she was helping other countries, and she's been doing it ever since.' (21:19:10:00) 21:19:21:00 wide shot of ship in ocean Professor - '... water...' 21:19:22:00 wide shot of massive freeway Professor - '... land...' 21:19:24:00 wide shot of jet in the sky Professor - '... and air: all this is little more than a century.' (21:19:28:00) 21:21:36:00 shots of model T driven on snowy street, doctor gets out 21:21:41:00 med shot of doctor going into house 21:21:44:00 med wide shot of early assembly line in Ford plant Professor - '...He also developed the moving assembly line, another American invention...' (21:21:49:00) 21:21:50:00 CU of professor Professor - '... Assembly lines not only made the work easier...' 21:21:54:00 MCU of college student Professor - '... they increased efficiency, raised wages...' 21:22:18:00 med wide shot of professor, auto mechanic/hick Revolutionary guy Professor - '... It's the greatest economic system known to man. It allows you to take the greatest good...' 21:22:24:00 MCU of Captain Jack Professor - '... and bring it to the greatest number' (21:22:25:00) 21:22:27:00 MCU of professor standing over college student Professor - 'Our enemies say that we're materialistic. We are. We provide material benefits that make life better, and longer. And not just for America, but all over the world.' (21:22:38:00)
21:22:43:00 MCU of back of professor, seated college student Professor - '... We are the least selfish nation on earth.'(21:22:46:00) 21:22:50:00 Professor - '... Our enemies say that we're capitalistic. We are. But you need capital to build schools and hospitals and industrial plants, to lighten labor...' (21:23:00:00) 21:23:06:00 wide shot of auto plant assembly line (21:23:11:00) more scenes of auto plant 21:23:14:00 med shot of man working on fender machine 21:23:17:00 CU of black auto worker 21:23:20:00 MCU of machine, worker's arm (21:23:23:00) more auto plant scenes - very short 21:23:32:00 MCU professor and student Professor - '...But in all of American industry, nationwide, the average cost of power tools, machines, and inventories,was more than $35,000 per worker...' 21:23:41:00 MCU of student looking up at professor Professor - '...Now American industry has put up that capital, so that they can produce more and better goods, less laboriously, and in a competitive market, so that more people can enjoy more and better products.' 21:23:56:00 MCU of student-professor standing with back to camera Professor - 'Now that is the American capitalist system. Is that wrong?' College Student - 'No!' Professor - 'Then what is wrong?' sounds of glass breaking, yelling College student - 'That's wrong!' (21:24:05:00) 21:24:07:00 - College guy, Revolutionary war guy, Irish captain, and hick in overalls decide to take on mob Professor looks scared
21:24:58:00 wide shot of group in library - camera zoom on college student
College guy - 'When detractors start on what's wrong, we're going to counter with what's right with America! May make the difference you know. (21:25:04:00)