A Data Scientist Analyzes American Movies and What They Say About Our Culture

A great many movies are made, but only a few become cultural icons, seen and valued by most people. If a movie draws an audience, it has captured public attention. But if a movie becomes iconic, it offers insight into our culture. Such movies reveal what we value, what we fear, or what we hope to become. Seminal movies help us understand important currents in American culture, reveal hidden attitudes, and both reflect and influence culture. Why, over the period from 1940 to 2020, did America go from making the world safe for democracy to almost giving up on it? Does the rise of superheroes suggest Americans feel powerless? What does it mean that movies have gotten darker, less comic, more violent? There’s an important caveat here; without data, it’s just speculation. This book uses data analytics—familiar from their application in baseball and football—to evaluate 1,600 American movies crucial to our culture.