criterionforum.org

There are obvious ways in which Elia Kazan’s 1957 A Face in the Crowd speaks to our current moment. It is both a satire about the collision of politics and entertainment and an expression of anxiety about populism. The film’s antihero lead, Lonesome Rhodes, exploits a folksy, down-home persona to accrue influence over America’s culture and politics. That mask comes off in the movie’s climax, when a scorned partner turns the sound on during his TV show’s credit sequence, thus broadcasting his disdain for the “idiots” that make up his audience. So far, so prescient.

But the denouement is where the movie sadly becomes an inverted reflection of 21st century politics. Rhodes, bitter and alone, berates his black servants with slurs and insults, revealing the racism that undergirds his good-ole-boy image. This is hypocritical and horrifying, but, as Masha Gessen writes, “(h)ypocrisy in politics, as infuriating and damaging as it can be, serves the function of reiterating aspirational values.” Masks like the one Rhodes wears can have their value; they can cultivate a culture of virtuousness and decency even if the mask-wearers are not always virtuous and decent. In order words, though it may be a cold comfort, at least Rhodes wasn’t saying that shit on air. At least he was (kinda) performatively humane. So what does it say about us now that so many of our leaders are performatively inhumane? That racism, cruelty, bitterness, and rage are not behind the mask but are the mask itself?