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Centron CorporationWhat About Prejudice? (1959)

Pioneering film that encourages youth to look into themselves for the causes of prejudice.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Centron Corporation
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Racism; Prejudice; Schools

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: 23_skidoo - - July 20, 2007
Subject: What About Prejudice?
As the 1950s wore on, Centron educational films got better as far as acting and production values go and the films began to tackle bigger and more serious issues, such as teen drinking and driving, venereal disease, and prejudice. This film---shot in 1958, originally to be titled "What About Bias?"---is one of them. One of the last titles in Centron's Discussion Problems series, it tells the story of Bruce Jones, a victim of bigotry who is cleverly never shown above the waist in order to represent all different types of prejudice. The middle-class kids at his high school all look at him with disgust and scorn. "Why do they even let people like him go to our school, anyway?" one asks.

As usual, a change of heart occurs only when serious misfortune rears its head and causes people to think. One night at the prom, word is received that Bruce has been badly burned trying to help some kids out of a car that exploded. Several of the kids go to the hospital to see about giving blood to Bruce, while one jerk and his date stay behind. While sitting in the hospital waiting room, the kids all take a long hard look at themselves and begin wondering if they have been wrong all this time.

There is lots of location footage in this film of Lawrence High School. Jim Lantz, a radio announcer from Kansas City (narrator of "The Your Name Here Story" and the bartender in "The Vicious Circle") is the narrator here, and regular Centron teen actor Larry Sneegas plays the guy who stays at the prom while the rest leave. Director Herk Harvey makes a cameo appearance at the end, telling the hospital receptionist that the kids can see Bruce now. The blonde girl is also the cousin in "What About School Spirit?" According to Centron production records, "What About Prejudice?" was produced by Art Wolf, directed by Herk Harvey, and written by Trudy Travis and Art Wolf, with cinematography by Norm Stuewe and Maurice Prather and editing by Chuck Lacey and Dan Palmquist. Sound recording was by Chuck Lacey and Art Wolf. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: ERD - - March 4, 2006
Subject: A beginning ...
This film deals with white middle class prejudice-Since they never actually show the individual it is directed to, you don't know if is racial, religous, or ethnic. In 1959, there was plenty of it to go around ( unfortunately, just as it still is today). Happily, coming from New York City, and a more educated and sophisticated group, my friends, family, and I did not have the attitude of the youngsters portrayed in this film. Other areas did-thus this film was a good start to deal with the problem.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - September 4, 2005
Subject: I think I need to watch better educational movies.
Bruce Johnson is the social outcast at school. Why? We never find out (which is sort of fun) and is left for us to decide. (My guess: his uneven pant cuffs! Booo!). All the kids hate him and blame him for everything, because.. well heÂs strange, and is just the sort of kid that would do such a thing! But then he saves some kids from a burning car (seriously) and then the kids are forced to reevaluate their hatred towards him.

Alright, this is a film that is actually quite well done, and has some THOUGHT behind it. I never thought IÂd say that about a Centron production, which normally runs the gamut from ÂGolly! to ÂGee! I like how the whole thing is laid out. We never actually get to see Bruce Johnson in the flesh, and makes us confront of what it is that makes the students recoil, (which of course, makes US reveal what prejudices we have). My guess is two heads.

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - December 26, 2002
Subject: What About Prejudice?
Amazingly, this 1959 film seems to point to the downside of all the dogma being pushed in the other "social guidance" films of the period. It's as if the looming shadow of the 60's suddenly made the films' makers wake up and get a clue. Bruce Jones, an unseen member of a minority group, is ruthlessly cut down and snubbed by his high school classmates. They all cattily talk about him behind his back until he redeems himself by risking his life to save two teenagers caught in a burning car after an accident. This causes his classmates to question their snap judgment of him and their bigoted attitudes in general. What's interesting is that many of those attitudes are ideas that were promoted in the other films in this archive. The kids regret judging Bruce by his "background"ÃÂÃÂwhich reminds us of other films touting the importance of parental checking of "backgrounds" of prospective friends or dates. We see Bruce only from the waist down, but that view allows us to clearly see his tattered jeansÃÂÃÂwhich then reminds us of all the hygiene films and their emphasis on "good appearance", tacitly encouraging kids to judge others on the basis of appearance. Most interestingly, the film points out that some of the kids got their prejudiced attitudes from their parentsÃÂÃÂwhich reminds us of how practically all other films in this category promote unquestioning acceptance of parental authority. A highly interesting counterpoint to the other films of the period.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****. Also available on Our Secret Century, Vol. 3: The Behavior Offensive.

Shotlist

Ken Smith sez: This film marks Centron at its melodramatic apogee. "This is the story of Bruce Jones, who walked in the shadow of hate and suspicion. The shadow of what he was because of his background." With this bit of bombast to put us in a proper frame of mind, the film begins -- as a waist-down tracking shot follows the tattered jeans and scuffed shoes of Bruce shuffling along a sidewalk, while the freshly-pressed chinos and spic and span saddle shoes of his peers (see How To Be Well Groomed, Let's Be Clean And Neat, etc.) stride arrogantly in the opposite direction.
We never actually see Bruce "since he is a symbol for any or all of the minority groups," but we see plenty of his white bread, middle America classmates as they bitch and moan about this "undesirable element." "I don't know why they let people like him go to our school anyway," gripes one. "My dad made it plain I'm not to associate with him," adds a second. "He's not like us and he never will be," proclaims a third. Bruce is suspected of everything from starting fights to stealing sweaters, but then, on the night of the big dance, comes shocking news: "Tom" and "Carol" have smashed their car into a bridge abuttment, but their lives were saved when Bruce happened along and pulled them from the burning wreck! "As he was helping Tom, the gas tank exploded," one of the teens relates. "Bruce was burned severely."
Now the same kids who earlier vilified Bruce suddenly make a 180 degree turn toward bleeding heart liberalism and we're treated to a series of shots of them in the hospital emergency room, looking repentant, while voice-overs convey their shame. "If Bruce doesn't make it, how will I ever be able to face myself after what I've done to him?" thinks one. "I just hope I can somehow work out a new set of values to judge him by in the future," thinks another. "You hear about other people's prejudice, but you never feel guilty until you realize it's you! YOU'RE the one who's prejudiced!" concludes a third.
"This trip to the hospital," the narrator proclaims, "could be the first step for these students of East High toward tearing down the false barriers which their own bias and prejudice have built. What do YOU think?" The big question mark appears and Centron heads into the sixties at full throttle.
What About Prejudice? was part of a series of Young America productions, the "Discussion Problems in Group Living" series, with titles like What About Drinking? (1954), The Griper (1954), What About Juvenile Delinquency? (1955) and What About School Spirit? (1958). But this film marked a real departure.
Centron Films was located in Lawrence, Kansas, where John Brown fought for the abolition of slavery, and 22 miles from Topeka, where racial segregation in the public schools was first ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1954. By 1959, local conflicts over school integration (notably President Eisenhower's battle with Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus over integration in Little Rock) had been played on television news before national audiences.
The placidity and relatively trivial concerns of most postwar social guidance films belie the intense conflicts of the period. It's almost impossible to find educational films that contain any serious consideration or debate over issues such as labor unions, communism, civil rights or nuclear proliferation. Such subjects were considered taboo by large educational film distributors, who were unwilling to produce titles that might offend conservative sensibilities in some regions of the United States. But in 1959 Centron stepped out with What About Prejudice?, certainly one of the first films for teenagers that took a point of view, however vague, on a controversial issue.
"This is the story of Bruce Jones who walked in a shadow of hate and suspicion. The shadow of what he was because of his background, over which he had no control." Bruce Jones represents the Other. His face is never shown Ñ only his feet Ñ so we won't know whether he's of a different race, social class or nationality. And Bruce always seems to be getting into trouble. First there's a fight between Bruce and another boy, whose nose is bloodied; then an incident involving a missing sweater. Since Bruce can't speak for himself, all we know of him and of these incidents is what we hear from a nasty clique of well-dressed, white bobbysoxers.
But then Bruce redeems himself in the eyes of his enemies Ñ at great personal cost. The truth about the incidents we have already seen begins to emerge. Without being a spoiler, we'll confirm that Bruce suffers greatly to gain the respect of his fellow students. While Bruce's future hangs in the balance, they confront their personal prejudices and try to reconsider their values. "The thing is, it wasn't Bruce at all. I was the one," says one student. "Neatly fitting people into categories because of where they go to church, what their fathers do, or what the color of their skin is. You hear about other people's prejudice, but you never feel guilty until you realize it's you Ñ you're the one that's prejudiced." Like the other "Discussion Problems in Group Living" films, this ends with a large question mark.
Whether or not such dire punishment is necessary to gain redemption, Bruce must pay dearly for acceptance by the group. It's as if the victim of hate is sacrificed so that the haters can learn how not to hate; an uncomfortably Christ-like fate for Bruce. I won't go as far as to say that What About Prejudice? signifies an enlightened victory over prejudice or racism. It expresses the limits and contradictions of its times, and does so with great discomfort. Nonetheless, this film marks a sharp divide between the attitudes of the repressed Fifties and the turbulent Sixties, and points to the new kind of social guidance films that arose, films that left behind questions of popularity and school spirit, taking up urgent (and divisive) social problems.
Centron shot its social guidance films in and around Lawrence, using nonprofessional actors from the nearby University of Kansas and elsewhere. Their films collectively form an unusually interesting record of the "look and feel" of Lawrence and the surrounding area throughout the postwar years. While Centron, like other producers, avoided explicit regional references in most of its films, it also made no attempt to homogenize the distinctive speech and mannerisms of its prairie-reared talent and, perhaps without intending to do so, made movies that have real ethnographic and documentary value in addition to their declared subject matter.


PREJUDICE STUDENTS CLASSMATES SCHOOLS EMOTIONS CIVAL RIGHTS NEW FRONTIER SIXTIES MENTALITY
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