The Saga of Western Man, 1964 (Part 2).

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1964

Creator: McGraw-Hill Films

Complete Record: SAGA SERIES. This series is meant to raise issues of progress and its results: waste, replacements of workers, drying of of small towns, pollution, etc. Visual images and narration on changing a way of life very rapidly -- from rural to urban. Covers institutional care versus families caring for their own. Part 2 opens with the statement that “for the first time in our history 1/2 of the population is under 21.” Thus begins an analysis of youth culture. Early learning with machines. The idea of accelerated learning is presented. The educated will be the unemployed. Presented is the idea that Americans are not unconscious of the disparities in people’s economic level and education; American just don’t know what to do about it. So Americans build and build, trusting in the future. Against images of youth and schools: There are more clothes, more lipsticks, etc. but there is not equality in opportunity for all races and economic endeavors. Good images of school children in both rural and urban settings -- running, studying, etc. Scene of closed doors to school which suddenly open to expel children much as the factory doors opened in that first Lumiere film that had factory doors open to factory workers. Never before has man had the means to completely destroy himself (a bomb). Man also has the power of life in his advances in medicine (heart surgery shown). JFK tribute and images of Texas building that housed shooter. Also shown memorials and graves. Previous cataloguer wrote: 1964. the United States during social economic problems in an age of rapid change. Illustrates the relative amounts of money spent on education and gambling, the increase in our ability both to destroy and to save lives, the persistence of poverty in the midst of prosperity, the ever-increasing importance of educational opportunity, the effects of automation, the social and economic roles of the teen-ager and the elderly, and the use of leisure time.