Beginning
The video being studied, Studs Terkel’s Chicago, is a documentary that begins with Studs Terkel talking about what the truth is made of. This short introduction describes the entire film and the speaker’s mood as the viewer understands that there are many aspects to be considered to understand the author’s view of Chicago. After this, the speaker will be presented with a story about his writing achievements, including the book “The Good War” (Jon Maycroft, 2020).
Middle
The film then delves into Chicago’s historical and cultural aspects, which help to understand the city from different perspectives. Just as Terkel described at the beginning, truth is a combination of several sides and views, so he tells the story, including the opposing sides of the city, revealing problems with organized crime (Jon Maycroft, 2020). One of these cases occurred when a criminal gang dressed up as police officers and provoked law enforcement officers into a confrontation (Jon Maycroft, 2020). This reflects the context of Chicago as a melting pot in which different people gathered and organically dissolved in the city’s atmosphere.
The speaker pays significant attention to the racial dynamics of the city. Their experiences are told in the film up to the Great Migration because they came to Chicago. After all, it seemed to them the city most free from prejudice (Jon Maycroft, 2020). Terkel then walked through the streets, looking at and talking about how the city combines the comfort of a small settlement and the advantages of a large metropolis because blacks could bring the best part of the South. They had significantly more opportunities in Chicago because social equality there contrasted sharply with the difficulties they encountered in the southern part of the country.
Vern Jarrett said in the film that Chicago combines all the negative traits that could be present in the city at that time (Jon Maycroft, 2020). However, at the same time, he noted that there is a freedom not found anywhere else in Chicago, and this comes with all the shortcomings. At the same time, the documentary also reveals economic problems that remained significant in the city, preventing residents from thoroughly ensuring their well-being.
The economic aspect of the city is seriously revealed at the end of the film, telling how the industry progressively started to fade. The steel mills helped the city develop and created the Chicago that Studs Terkel views (Jon Maycroft, 2020). However, the author emphasizes that the entire industry gradually began to go bankrupt, which led to a significant reduction in jobs in the city and the impoverishment of many people. From an area that produced the most steel in the world, Chicago became a city with rising crime as factories closed (Jon Maycroft, 2020).
End
Within a few years, the thriving industry of the city was utterly destroyed, and what continued to work produced much less than before. After the story about the decline of economic power, Terkel draws the final line with a monologue in which he asserts that it is in the power of people to choose how to live and, accordingly, what kind of country to build (Jon Maycroft, 2020). Thus, the documentary film fully reveals all essential aspects of Chicago, establishing ambiguity regarding the city’s future.
Reference
Jon Maycroft. (2020). Studs Terkel’s Chicago [BBC Documentary, 1985] [Video]. YouTube. Web.