POL128 - Final Exam Review

Politics and Film course at TMU.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - dir. Frank Capra

• “Democracy in action!”

• Power of the press + public opinion

• Political corruption vs. American idealism

Bowling for Columbine (2002) - dir. Michael Moore

• Gun control in America

• “What A Wonderful World” montage

• Charlton Heston (head of NRA)

• Confronting K-Mart about bullet/gun purchases

Dr: Stangelove (1964) - dir. Stanley Kubrick

• Satire, dark comedy

• Fear of nuclear warfare

• Paranoia of the Cold War

Captain America and the Winter Solider (2014) - dir. Russo Brothers

• Freedom, rebellion

• Issues of security and surveillance

Battleship Potemkin (1925) - dir. Sergei Eisenstein

Russia

Triumph of the Will (1935) - dir. Leni Riefenstahl

Germany

Citizen Kane (1941) - dir. Orson Welles

• Power of the press

• Corrupted by politics

• Against William Rudolph Hearst

• Deep focus

Fascist sympathizer

William Randolph Hearst

1930s genre films

Gangsters = Ddespair of the Great Depression
Musicals = Optimism of Roosevelt’s New Deal

1940s genre films

Film noir = Fear of the Cold War
Musicals = Postwar optimism

American film director

• Important for national morale during the war

• Why We Fight (1940) series

• Stood for American society (patriotism, idealism, small-town values)

Frank Capra

“Propaganda is a much maligned and often misunderstood word…the word propaganda always has a bitter after taste.”

Joseph Goebbels

“Dissemination of ideas intended to convince people to think and act in a particular way and for a particular persuasive purpose”

Propaganda (Cull’s definition)

Propaganda tools

1. Broad and positive statements

2. Appealing to the desires of the target audience

3. Creates symbols

4. Likeness (class, gender)

5. Positive outcomes = exaggeration

6. Repetition of ideas

Propaganda misconceptions

1. Nothing more than the art of persuasion

2. Consists ONLY of lies and falsehood

Effective propaganda

1. Messaging conveyed secretly

2. Influences the audience

3. Symbols shown throughout

4. Emotions

Function of propaganda

“To focus the attention of the masses on certain facts, processes, and necessities”

Nazi Germany ideology

Innate racial superiority

Soviet Union ideology

Scientific analysis of economic class conflict in human history

Weapons of Propaganda

1. Words

2. Symbols

3. Newspaper from a different propagandist, different order, different age

4. Emotions

5. Portraying attitudes that do not seem “controversial”

6. Communication channels

1. Propagandist =

2. Propagation =

3. Propaganda =

4. Political function =

5. Audience =

1. Actor

2. Action

3. Influence public opinions

4. Purpose and direction

5. Intended result

Benefits of cinema

• Less demanding and easier to comprehend

• Mass communication 

• Attraction to all social classes

Founder of the NFB

John Grierson

NFB films from WWII to the October Crisis of 1970

Narrative of “whiteness”

Canada Carries On

• Series produced by the NFB (made during WWII)

• Morale-boosting propaganda films

Shameless Propaganda (2012) - dir. Robert Lowery

• Explores all 500 NFB films from 1939-1945

• Released on NFB’s 75th birthday

• Showcases the masqueraded reality

Of Japanese Descent (1945) - dir. D.C. Burritt

• Commissioned by the NFB

• Dishonest view of Japanese-Canadians

• Internment camps presented as beautiful and beneficial; “relocation districts”

What is a “Canadian”?

White, Anglo-Saxon descendant of Western Europe

Grierson’s definition of documentary

Documentary as “creative treatment of actuality”

Documentaries engage us by representing the world

1. Depiction of recognizable familiarity

2. Representing the interests of other

3. Interpretation of evidence

Filmmakers’ ethics

1. Risk of exploiting people they don’t know

2. Risk of altering behaviour or events

3. Rish of losing perspective

Informed consent

Informing subjects about the “dangerous side effects”

Documentaries (Projecting Politics)

• Nonfictional and factual

• Convinces the audience of “truth”

• Inherently propagandistic

Actualities

Early films capturing daily life

Nanook of the North (1922) - dir. Robert Flaherty

• Staged scenes presented as reality

• Comedic display of a foreign culture

Direct Cinema

Observational cinema

Direct Cinema characteristics

1. Hand-held

2. Unedited shots

3. Follow action

4. Chronological order

5. Events must be revealed untouched

6. No non-diegetic music

7. Story “found” in material

8. No commentary, narrative or script

9. No re-enactments

10. No interference from film crew

Cinéma Vérité

New cinema truth

Cinéma Vérité characteristics

1. Interaction and engages

2. Characters

3. Cutting style

4. Documentary of encounter

Edgar Morin on Cinéma Vérité

1.  Pretend that you can present reality to be seen

2. To pose the problem of reality

Changes in technology that allowed documentaries to blossom during the 60s

Lightweight hand-held cameras and portable sound recording

Michel Brault

• Canadian cinematographer

• Developed hand-held techniques that became a staple of Cinéma Vérité

Frederick Wiseman

• American filmmaker

• Pioneered the observational style of documentary

The Thin Blue Line (1988) - dir. Errol Morris

• First filmmaker to add a fictionalized reenactment to a documentary

• Movie resulted in the release of the subject from prison

Number of feature films in 2011 that were documentaries

300 out of 800

Increase in documentaries in the present

• Cheaper cost of quality recording equipment

• Availability of multiple viewing platforms for distribution

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - dir. Michael Moore

• Complaints of Bush’s actions after 9/11

• Shifted back to an observational style

Michael Moore

• Political provocateur

• Highly engaged within his films (in front of the camera, delivering his opinions)

• First film: Roger and Me (1989)

JFK

• Took office in 1961

• Assassinated in 1964

1964

Emergence of counterculture

1968

Fall of counterculture

Political thriller

Genre of films that emerged in the 1960s

Red Alert by Peter George

Dr. Strangelove’s source material

Deterrance

Use of punishment as a threat to deter people from offending

Films of the 1970s

• Marked by their exploration of trauma in American politics

• Themes of corruption, assassination

• Disillusionment

Influences on 1970s filmmakers

• Assassination of political leaders

• Civil Rights movement

• Antiwar movement

• Women’s movement

Paranoia cinematography

• Confused panic

• Surveillance viewpoints

• Modernist architecture, dim lighting, and labyrinthine interiors

Reason for the emergence of the blockbuster

Consolidation of studios

Depiction of the Vietnam War in Hollywood films

Began after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976

1970s Blacklist

Filmmakers banned during the McCarthy era returned to Hollywood

1960s

End of the Hays Code and HUAC era

Peter Coogan’s three aspects of a superhero

1. Mission

2. Powers

3. Identity

Superhero archetypes

• Cultural foundation

• Evolution from comics to film

Superheroes and villains

• Complex dynamics with villains

• Narrative and thematic depth

Gender role beliefs

• Cultural influence of media on gender norms

• Entertainment media shapes and reinforces beliefs and expectations about gender roles

• Broader implications for society

Portrayal of women in action films

• Sexualization of female characters

• Traditional gender roles in superheroes

• Limited representation and memorability

• Impact cultural perceptions

Black superhero stories

• Emphasis on narratives

• Community focus and stereotypical imagery

Black stereotypical representation

• Stereotypical racial portrayal

• Dependency on White male characters

SHIELD

Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division

Ideologeme

A single unit of an ideology