Avalon (1990)

The movie Avalon is about a Jewish immigrant family from Eastern Europe trying to assimilate to life in the United States.

One of the greatest issues raised is family values and how they are different here in America. The families, when they come over stay very close and hold regular circle meetings. As time goes on and the family starts assimilating more into the American culture they lose touch with their family and start to distance themselves. One example of this is when one part of the family moves to the suburbs and the other part take offense to this because they will no longer be close. Soon siblings start fighting about Thanksgiving dinner and refusing to ever show up again. With so much bickering going on I feel it’s the Americanization that made the family apart. They are celebrating Thanksgiving a holiday they do not really understand but will still fight about their traditions of waiting for everyone is present to cut the turkey.

At the beginning of the film the American symbols so profusely present that it made me feel a little nauseous. Everything you saw was yelling Red White and Blue. As the film goes on these symbols disappear and we start seeing “America” inside the family.
One of the things that I learned most is how modernity changed American life. Television for example changed the family’s routine completely. At first the family left their dinner at the table once their favorite television program came on. At the end of the film you see the family eating in silence in front of the TV during Thanksgiving dinner.

A question I had about the film was why was it important to make sure the audience knows the family is of obvious Jewish ancestry but make no clear mention of this in the film? Throughout the film they remained neutral no displaying any Jewish traditions. Is this film supposed to be a greater look at Americanization and less on religion?