Classical Hollywood—the period of American cinema when the major film studios were at the apex of their power and craft (roughly 1915-1960)—was and continues to be the subject of intense criticism from the right and the left, and from artists working both outside of and within the industry. This course tracks the history of classical Hollywood, its preeminent practitioners (including Griffith, Ford, Hawks, Arzner, Hitchcock, Sirk) and genres (western, melodrama, film noir, comedy, musical, animation, science fiction), by foregrounding its many historical and contemporary skeptics, detractors, and subversives. These include: critics and filmmakers who challenged its systematic aesthetics and its often patriarchal and white supremacist politics; moral crusaders who abhorred its promotion of sexuality and intoxication; and artists who sought either to change the system from within, or else to construct cinematic alternatives elsewhere. Topics include: early Black independent film, indigenous representation in the American western, the male gaze, camp, the Hays Code, the blacklist, and the American avant-garde.