Hollywood Vs America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values [Hardcover]

Michael Medved (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

This critique of the anti-religious, pro-violence, unpatriotic and amoral entertainment industry examines, with facts and statistics, how Hollywood bigwigs have broken faith with the public. They are creating movies, television and popular music that exacerbate every serious social problem, from teenage pregnancy to violence in the streets. Despite dwindling audiences and financial loss, Hollywood refuses to reflect - or even respect - the values of ordinary American families. Medved asserts that Hollywood's alienated ideological agenda is harmful not just to the industry's own interests, but to the USA at large.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In its glorification of violence and casual sex and in its disparagement of the family, Hollywood is profoundly out of touch with the values and lifestyles espoused by most Americans, charges Medved, a film critic and co-host of PBS's Sneak Previews. Movies and television, he argues, malign marriage and religion, encourage out-of-wedlock births and wallow in ugliness, gore and selfish hedonism--all with devastating social consequences. He also condemns pop music, especially rap, for its obscene lyrics, misogyny and promotion of promiscuity. Medved ( What Really Happened to the Class of '65 ) is frequently wrongheaded or heavy-handed in his criticism. Yet he is often on the mark, and one need not be a conservative or a religious fundamentalist to find much to ponder in his critique, which is chock full of examples of pop culture's gratuitous pandering to the public's worst instincts. Instead of censorship, Medved advocates boycotts and public shaming to force the entertainment conglomerates to act more responsibly. First serial to Forbes and Reader's Digest; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Film critic Medved, cohost of PBS's Sneak Previews , presents a scathing indictment of Hollywood that is sure to be controversial. Asserting that "the dream factory has become the poison factory," he criticizes Hollywood movies for portraying religion unfavorably, glamorizing violence, and celebrating immorality. Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) is among the films censured at length, and there are many others whose objectionable scenes are singled out, from Total Recall (1990) to The Prince of Tides (1992). Those who lament America's loss of what lately have been generally called "family values" will agree with Medved, while others are likely to dismiss his impassioned text as a windy sermon. A marginal purchase for general collections.
- Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006016882X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060168827
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author and veteran film critic. His daily three-hour program, emphasizing the intersection of politics and pop culture, reaches close to 5 million listeners in over 200 markets, coast to coast. For twelve consecutive years, he's been listed by Talkers Magazine as one of their "Heavy Hundred" most important American talk show hosts, and for seven of those years his show has also been listed as one of the ratings top ten.

Born in Philadelphia, raised in San Diego, Mr. Medved graduated with honors from Yale and then attended Yale Law School-where his classmates included Bill and Hillary Clinton. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he reviewed movies for CNN, and later as chief film critic for the New York Post. He also served for twelve years as co-host of "Sneak Previews," the nationally televised weekly movie review show on PBS-TV.

Mr. Medved is the author of twelve non-fiction books, including the national bestseller What Really Happened to the Class of '65 (the basis for a popular TV series on NBC), as well as the definitive history of the White House chiefs of staff, The Shadow Presidents. His most influential-and controversial-work was a best-selling indictment of the entertainment industry, Hollywood Vs. America. England's prestigious Guardian newspaper wrote: "Just Occasionally, a book changes the way the world thinks. Michael Medved's Hollywood Vs. America is such a book." Mr. Medved then collaborated with his wife, Dr. Diane Medved, a clinical psychologist and author in her own right, on Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence. In October 1998, the Wall Street Journal wrote: "If Saving Childhood isn't an important book, I don't know what one would look like." His book, "Right Turns" (Crown Forum/Random House, January, 2005) drew rave reviews for its "lively and intimate" description of his transition from "punk liberal activist" to "lovable conservative curmudgeon."

Most recently, (2008-2009), Michael's book "The 10 Big Lies About America," spent twelve weeks on the New York Times extended bestseller list, and became a Main Selection of the Conservative Book Club. The follow-up volume --- "The 5 Big Lies About American Business," is scheduled for publication by Random House/Crown Forum on December 1, 2009. It is already a Main Selection of the Conservative Book Club.

Mr. Medved has been a frequent guest on all the major TV talk shows, including Larry King Live, Nightline, Oprah, David Letterman, Good Morning America, CNN's Reliable Sources and countless others. His columns on media and society appear regularly in USA Today, where he serves as a member of the Board of Contributors. The Medveds live in the Seattle area where they've raised their three children. Their oldest daughter is currently in graduate school, their middle daughter is a senior at University, and their youngest, Danny, is a senior in High School.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative, March 7, 2000

By 

Jason Rees (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood vs. America: The Explosive Bestseller that Shows How-and Why-the Entertainment Industry Has Broken Faith With Its Audience (Paperback)

I imagine the reviews of this book will be split two ways: On one side, they'll say Medved is just another member of the Religious Right trying to make everyone conform to a boring religious regime.

On the other side, people will say it's a well-deserved attack on the entertainment industry at large. It is neither. Medved points out that no one movie, no one song title, no one T.V. show should be cancelled, censored, etc.

What Medved does is point out the self-destructive trends of the entertainment industry elite to flood the market with material of little worth in the name of profits or a cause. In the former, he proves that movies have been steadily repulsing more and more of the public, and decreasing the chances of bringing in families, where the real money is. In the latter matter, he shows beyond a doubt that a very narrow viewpoint is being portrayed in hollywood, to the nearly complete exclusion of all other views. A move detrimental to Americans AND the entertainment industry.

Anyone who wants to get an idea of where the entertainment industry has been, and is taking American viewers, should read this book.

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent documentation, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hollywood vs. America: The Explosive Bestseller that Shows How-and Why-the Entertainment Industry Has Broken Faith With Its Audience (Paperback)

Few people discuss the excellent documentation and cold, hard statistics Medved supplies - perhaps because they are irrefutable. And also because it's easier to make subtle charges of racism and bigotry. One reviewer even claimed Medved wants a world where everyone is white and Christian - Medved is Jewish and discusses his religion at length in the book!!! But then, you'd have to actually READ the book to know that...

Medved shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that Hollywood is more interested in what it thinks of itself than in anything else - true art or even money.

Strange that many of the same movie buffs who decry the dumbing-down of film within the past 15 years suddenly rush to defend Hollywood (even the trash!) in order to avoid agreeing with Medved.

An excellent book - an excellent tool for analyzing American culture.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insider Reveals what's wrong with Hollywood, February 14, 2003

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hollywood Vs America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values (Hardcover)

Well known movie critic resigns from doing so, because of his strong conviction that Hollywood is unwilling to be responsible cultural contributor.

Leaning even more to the dangerous trends Medved exposes in this book in 1992, Hollywood does not feel any responsibility to nation's moral troubles, only freedoms which they certainly are given under our laws.

It's only entertainment? Of the foulest, sickest kind. History will concur with Medved that this increasingly slippery slope has led all other leading civilizations to decay, disease and collapse. Can we be of such historic stuff?

Medved provides convincing evidence in this, and most disturbing is Hollywood's seeming "don't care" attitude.

Suffice recent stars stance on Iraq as infuriating most of country's citizens.

More like Medved and this reviewer, should boycott most of Hollywood. Wake up America, thanks Mike for this helpful classic work.