Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films

422 Pages·2015·3.78 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Haas

T he new edition of this infl uential work revises, updates, and expands the scope of the origi-
nal and includes more sustained analyses of individual fi lms, from The Birth of a Nation to
The Wolf of Wall Street. An interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between Ameri-
can politics and popular fi lm, Projecting Politics offers original approaches to determining
the political contours of fi lms and to connecting cinematic language to political messaging.
A new chapter covering 2000 to 2013 updates the decade-by-decade look at the W ashington–
Hollywood nexus, with special areas of focus including the post-9/11 increase in overtly
political fi lms and the tension between the rise of political war fi lms like Green Zone and
fi lms tightly constructed around the experience of U.S. troops like The Hurt Locker. The
new edition also considers recent developments such as the Citizens United Supreme Court
decision, the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, the political dispute over Zero Dark Thirty,
newer generation actor-activists, and the effects of shifting industrial fi nancing structures on
political content. A new chapter addresses the resurgence of the disaster-apocalyptic fi lm,
while updated chapters on nonfi ction fi lm, the politics of race, and gender in political fi lms
round out this expansive, timely new work.
A recipient of a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in the Humanities, Elizabeth Haas has pub-
lished in numerous journals and teaches fi lm studies at the University of Bridgeport in
Connecticut.
The author of many books including Local Politics: Governing at the Grassroots, Terry
Christensen is professor emeritus in the political science department at San Jose State Uni-
versity in California.
Peter J. Haas, recipient of a Fulbright Foundation Senior Specialist grant, is education
director for the Mineta Transportation Institute and teaches political science at San Jose
State University.
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This edition published 2015
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to infringe.
First edition published 2005 by M. E. Sharpe
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christensen, Terry.
Projecting politics : political messages in American fi lms / Elizabeth
Haas, Peter J. Haas, and Terry Christensen.—Second edition
p. cm.
Revised edition of: Projecting politics: political messages in American fi lm /
Terry Christensen and Peter J. Haas.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion pictures—Political aspects—United States. 2. Politics in
motion pictures. 3. United States—Politics and government—20th
century. 4. United States—Politics and government—21st century. I. Haas,
Elizabeth, 1964– II. Haas, Peter J. III. Title.
PN1995.9.P6C47 2014
791.43′658—dc23
2014025319
ISBN: 978-0-7656-3596-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-7656-3597-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-72079-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
I. Studying Political Films
1. Setting the Scene: A Theory of Film and Politics 3
2. The Making of a Message: Film Production and
Techniques, and Political Messages 25
3. Causes and Special Effects: The Political Environment of Film 61
II. Political Films by Decade
4. Politics in the Silent Movies 95
5. The 1930s: Political Movies and the Great Depression 105
6. The 1940s: Hollywood Goes to War 121
7. The 1950s: Anti-Communism and Conformity 137
8. The 1960s: From Mainstream to Counterculture 153
9. The 1970s: Cynicism, Paranoia, War, and Anticapitalism 169
10. The 1980s: New Patriotism, Old Reds, and a Return to Vietnam in
the Age of Reagan 193
11. The 1990s: FX Politics 217
12. The Twenty-First Century: 9/11 and Beyond 237
III. Political Films by Topic
13. True Lies? The Rise of Political Documentaries 269
14. Film and the Politics of Race: The Minority Report 291
15. Women, Politics, and Film: All About Eve? 313
16. White House Down? Politics in Disaster 343
CONTENTS
Appendix
Closing Credits: A Political Filmography 371
Index 393
About the Authors 409
vi
Preface
Interest in the relationship between American politics and fi lm appears to be on the rise.
Explicitly political fi lms from the biting documentary about the George W. Bush adminis-
tration’s “war on terror” F ahrenheit 9/11 (2004) to the historical White House drama T he
Butler (2013) are fi lling theaters and collecting awards—2012 was even dubbed the year
of the political fi lm. Within that trend fi lms with expressly activist discourses also appear
ascendant. The rightwing documentary A merica: Imagine the World Without Her (2014)
urges viewers to “stop” the Obama White House, while the DVD release date of the eco-
logically themed sci-fi fantasy A vatar (2009) was timed with Earth Day 2010 to support an
international reforestation campaign. Yet a review of the academic literature on political fi lm
as well as the content of the many books dedicated to the subject reveals disagreement, if not
confusion, about what exactly constitutes a political fi lm and why.
All fi lm genres are historical in nature and derive from the repetition of certain fi lm ele-
ments, including character types, plot patterns, setting, and iconography. These repeated
elements establish a framework recognizable to and shaped by fi lmmakers and audiences
alike. Yet political scientists and fi lm scholars seem to agree only on the complexity and
diffi culty of assigning to political fi lms any single set of identifying features or genre con-
ventions. Researchers into this area will instead encounter a bewildering array of critical and
analytic approaches. This book aims to provide a coherent overview of the subject and intro-
duces a methodology useful to any researcher of the topic for considering any fi lm’s political
value. The second edition revises, expands, and updates the fi rst edition while maintaining
its organization and offering sustained analysis of a greater number of fi lms.
W e believe that the most important and overarching aspect of the study of politics and
fi lm is the political messages that movies may transmit. We therefore believe that such
messages have potentially tremendous political signifi cance that transcends basic critical
analysis. However, a major obstacle to the task of analyzing fi lm from this perspective is
the general lack of reliable data and research that demonstrate (1) that movies indeed send
messages beyond general and readily identifi able ideological impressions, and (2) that
these messages have verifi able and measurable effects on the political behavior of individu-
als and institutions. Although we present research to support these assumptions, it is not
within the scope of our intentions for this text to prove that they are wholly valid. Rather we
stress the importance of recognizing the varying degrees of political messaging intrinsic to
most popular fi lms.
vii
PREFACE
O ur interest here is exclusively with (more or less) American fi lms. Certainly foreign
fi lms present an intriguing canon of politically interesting releases, but in addition to limit-
ing our study to a manageable scope, we believe that American movies are the most likely
both to be seen by readers and to infl uence American politics. Thus anyone with an interest
in comparative studies will want to supplement this text with other materials. On a related
note, we devote most of our attention to popular movies. Certainly other volumes could be
devoted to fi lms that fewer people are likely to see, but we think that popular movies are the
ones that are most likely to be politically salient—they are also the most accessible, both in
terms of audience comprehension and ready availability.
Projecting Politics is divided into three parts. P art I provides a conceptual overview of the
relationship between politics and fi lm. Chapter 1 explores the meaning of the term “politi-
cal fi lm” in a systematic way, so as to assist those who study politics and fi lm. The goal
is to identify a practical yet focused approach for thinking about and classifying a ll fi lms
with respect to their political signifi cance. Chapter 2 explores how the various techniques
involved in the production of movies help to create political messages. We examine the
elements of fi lm production to reveal how cinematic language can be and has been used
to shape political messages in various ways. Chapter 3 examines how the “real world” of
politics, ideological institutions, and society affects the “reel world” of Hollywood and fi lm-
making. While not meant to be an exhaustive examination, this chapter approaches that real-
to-reel connection from a range of perspectives and fi nds that, historically, political forces
have had a profound impact on the making of fi lms. We also argue that the worlds of fi lm
and politics are increasingly intertwined. When fi lms like F ahrenheit 9/11 (2004), 2016:
Obama’s America (2012), and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) draw audiences and incite political
debate, and a fi lm like T he Invisible War (2012) leads to landmark legislation, and an aging
Hollywood action hero from fi lms like T otal Recall (1990) wins a recall election to become
governor of California, these worlds appear even to collide.
I n P art II, we provide a historical overview of American fi lms of political signifi cance.
Each chapter covers the fi lms of a decade; new to this edition is the chapter covering the
period from 2000 through 2014. We recognize that categorizing fi lms in this way is some-
what arbitrary. Both historical trends and trends in fi lmmaking overlap decades—and we
take this overlap into account. But at the same time, referring to decades provides a ready
historical context for the movies we discuss and helps readers comprehend change and
development in political fi lmmaking by providing a rough chronological order. Although we
look at the tenor of a range of fi lms in each decade, we generally focus most intently on fi lms
with overt political themes and content.
O ur discussion of each decade of movies is not intended to be entirely systematic from a
critical-analytic perspective. In some instances, we seek to explore the political messages of
fi lms; in others, we examine the impact or potential impact a fi lm had. We also look at why
some fi lms of political signifi cance are more popular with critics and the public than others,
as we believe that the reasons fi lms are successful have implications for the relationship
between fi lm and politics. But we do not mean to imply that fi nancially unsuccessful movies
are categorically without merit or political signifi cance. Additionally, we frequently cite box
offi ce numbers and the comments of popular press movie critics as reception studies or indi-
cations of how fi lms were received by audiences and made meaningful in popular culture.
P art III of this volume compiles four topical approaches to fi lm and politics: documenta-
ries, race, gender, and, new to the second edition, the recently revived disaster and apocalyptic
viii
PREFACE
fi lm genre. Our discussion of minority fi lms in Chapter 13 uses as a case study movies by
and about African-Americans and concerns racial politics specifi c to that socially designated
group alone. This selective approach is not meant to suggest that the nexus of racial identity,
race relations, fi lm, and politics is limited to the black experience or that conclusions drawn
from this chapter should or even can be extrapolated to other groups. Rather the representa-
tion of African-American culture in American popular fi lm offers an especially compelling
and instructive case of how racial politics and Hollywood fi lmmaking intersect.
Finally, we include as an appendix a political fi lmography that compiles most of the more
blatantly political fi lms in this book, plus others that space and time did not permit us to
address, with their box offi ce performance.
ix