Y200 Politics and Film

Y200 Politics and Film September 29, 2011

Types of Political Films Politically Reflective Pure Political High Political Content Socially Reflective Auteur Political Low Low High Political Intent Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 8

Examples • Political Reflective • Independence Day • Invasion of the Body Snatchers • Socially Reflective • Pretty Women • Philadelphia • Gone with the Wind • Pure Political • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington • The Candidate • Auteur Political • The Godfather • Natural Born Killers • American Beauty Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 9.

Differences Between Documentaries and Feature Films • usually shorter, lower production values • more journalistic style • narrator with interviews • camera carried into places that movie cameras often do not go • increasing tendency for feature films to integrate some documentary footage and for documentaries to include contemporary films and popular culture

Influential Documentaries • Nanook of the North (1922) • Why We Fight (WW2) • Triumph of the Will (1935) • The Sorrow and the Pity (1971) • The Atomic Café (1982)

Box Office of Top 10 Documentaries Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 229. update

Michael Moore Documentaries • Roger & Me (1989) • Canadian Bacon (1995) • Bowling for Columbine (2002) • Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) • Sicko (2007) • Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Controversy over Michael Moore • Bias in selection of images • Skewed analysis • Use of surprise interview tactics • Use of deception to gain access to key people and places

Giglio Book “Why does Hollywood avoid the dogmatic political film, the critical political biography, or the straight political drama? The reason is quite simple: political movies are box office poison. To admit that 90 percent of Hollywood films are purely commercial ventures ignores the remaining ten percent that deliver messages that can be ideological, propagandistic, historically deceptive and politically motivated.” (p. 10)

What is Propaganda? • David Culbert’s definition: “the controlled dissemination of deliberately distorted notions in an effect to induce action favorable to the predetermined ends of a special interest group.” • E.g. Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl or Salt of the Earth and The Red Menace. Source: Giglio, p. 45.

Triumph of the Will (1935) Documentary by innovative female director Leni Riefenstahl

Hollywood Ignores the Nazis • There were no Hollywood movies about the Nazis prior to the outbreak of WW2, with the exception of The Great Dictator • Most pre-WW2 movies referred to the Nazi threat obliquely in terms of spies or saboteurs • Were the Hollywood Studio heads asked to play down the threat?

The Great Dictator (1940) • Charlie Chaplin played Adenoid Hynkel in a satire of Nazi Germany • Hitler’s troops saw ads for the movie when they entered Paris; they thought the French were welcoming them! Clip from the film

Y200 Politics and Film