"Major ritual occasions of weddings, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, funerals, graduations and birthday parties appear in hundreds of popular films produced by Hollywood throughout the 20th century. This study suggests that these stock scenes are more significant to American film than we might have thought. This book examines the tension between authentic ritual occasions and an event on film that is often twisted or devoid of meaning, and suggests that this complex ambivalence toward ritual occasions in American film is related to other ritualized conventions in American movies and American culture."--BOOK JACKET.