Analysis Of The Film The Cradle Will Rock

The film The Cradle Will Rock takes place in the late 1930s, a time where the severe downturn in the economy left millions out of work and without any steady means of income. The Depression left people hopeless and desperate for any sort of work that would allow them to be able to afford food for their family, regardless of how dangerous or grueling the work was. Thanks to the rapid industrialization that began with the advent of the industrial revolution in the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, most of the jobs that were available at the time were jobs in factories or similar. Before the rise of unions and worker demonstrations, there were severe abuses of human rights due to the squalid conditions and rigorous hours that workers …show more content…
These demonstrations caused the perception of a great nuisance to the natural advancement of business and significantly affected the production for these goods and companies. While the factory and company shareholders saw these strikes as untamed riots fighting a useless battle, the people participating in the strikes did so because they recognized they were being abused by those in power. The saw that the system of society that they were participating in was passing off their existence as being essentially disposable and faceless. The harsh conditions became justified due to the notion that immigrants could be passed off as sub-human. These people are human, regardless of socio-economic standing and national origin. The unions are what give people that may often be overlooked a voice. One person complaining to the supervisors at a company will not have much clout, but the deafening silence of a factory or other workplace will have a resounding effect.
The Cradle Will Rock takes place at a point as American industrialism declines due to the depression, with the few remaining jobs in industry highly sought after. Due to the desperation that people endured, there was no room to be picky on the type of work and level of safety, just as long as it paid. The aspect of desperation further allowed companies to abuse their workers as the workers were less likely to complain …show more content…
The movie does show the feelings of desperation that plagued this era. The lines upon lines of people waiting for a breakthrough whose only hope was to be employed. Or how Watson’s character accepts a job as a stagehand happily after discovering she cannot be put in a casting role. This film shows the lesser focused on aspects of society that took place during the depression such as the employment of artists and the continuation of culture at a time where there was little money for people to even feed themselves or their families. It is not through just one character either that the audience sees these traits. Robbins successfully uses a multitude of characters to portray different aspects of society and fears that people