Y200 Politics and Film

September 29, 2011

Political IntentLow High

PoliticalContent

Low

High

SociallyReflective

PoliticallyReflective

PurePolitical

AuteurPolitical

Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 8

ExamplesPolitical Reflective

Independence DayInvasion of the Body

Snatchers

Socially ReflectivePretty WomenPhiladelphiaGone with the Wind

Pure PoliticalMr. Smith Goes to

WashingtonThe Candidate

Auteur PoliticalThe GodfatherNatural Born KillersAmerican Beauty

Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 9.

Differences Between Documentaries and Feature Films

usually shorter, lower production valuesmore journalistic style

narrator with interviewscamera 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 DocumentariesNanook 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 DocumentariesTitle Studio Box OfficeFahrenheit 9/11 Lions Gate $118M

Bowling for Columbine United Artists $21M

Winged Migration SPC $12M

Hoop Dreams FL $7.8M

Tupac Resurrection Paramount $7.7M

Roger & Me Warner Bros. $6.7M

Spellbound Think $5.7M

Touching the Void IFC $4.6M

The Fog of War SPC $4.2M

Source: Christensen and Haas, p. 229.update

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

Controversy over Michael MooreBias in selection of imagesSkewed analysisUse of surprise interview tacticsUse 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 NazisThere 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