Politics and Film GOVT 432 10/15

Professor Eric Langenbacher

[email protected] 687-5903
Summer 2017 First Session June 5-July 7
M,T,W,R 6:00-8:30
Office Hours: M, T 2:00-3:00 ICC 657 or by appointment

The important and long-standing interplay between politics and film is the focus of
this course. Three general questions characterize this examination. First, what ideological,
chronological, or cultural differences mark different films focusing on a common political
object, such as the American Dream or war? What accounts for these differences?
Second, how political is an individual movie? How expansive should the definition of
political content be? Third, how effective is the specific genre in conveying the intended
political message? Are propaganda films really more effective than the indirect messages
found in mainstream blockbusters?
We begin with a general overview of the film-politics relationship and a brief
discussion of the various perspectives and theories that illuminate the connection. Next,
we look at the most obvious political films: the propaganda movies Triumph of the Will
and Birth of a Nation. Next we look at the documentary genre through a contemporary
production Paragraph 175 and a classic, Wiseman’s Titicut Follies. A discussion of
political satire follows, focused on Chaplin’s Great Dictator and South Park: Bigger,
Longer and Uncut. The next section delves into Hollywood’s image of America and
American politics. The first two films revolve around the presentation of the American
Dream, exemplified by Citizen Kane, and Forrest Gump, movies separated by 50 years.
Then we look at the more focused theme of the image of Washington politics through
Capra’s classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Wag the Dog.
On a different note, we discuss one of the most unexpectedly political films,
Dangerous Liaisons, a study in political personality, power maximization and
unadulterated competition. The last section thematizes war and genocide. In contrast to
typical heroic representations of WWII, we look at a Japanese animated feature, Grave of
the Fireflies, which reveals a substantially different cultural and political sensibility, as
well as the Oscar-winning glimpse of Hitler’s last days, Downfall. For the Cold War we
will analyze The Manchurian Candidate and From Russia with Love. Next comes The
Deer Hunter, a masterpiece that best captures the pervasive malaise of the Vietnam War
period, both at home and at the front. The final films delve into an historical theme with
great contemporary political and ethical relevance: the Holocaust as depicted in
Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and Holland’s Europa, Europa.

Requirements

For All Students

Participation 5%
Comparative Film Critiques 3x15%=45%
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In the film critiques, you will compare and contrast two films. One is a film we viewed
in class and the other must be a topical film that you will screen independently. Each
should be 5-7 pages in length.

For Undergraduate Students

Final Examination 50%

The Final Exam will consist of several short essay questions and one long essay.

For Graduate Students

Research Paper 50%

The 20-page paper should have a broad comparative focus, be based on external
research and have a theoretical dimension. Please approve your topics with me in
advance.

Textbooks

There are two required texts for this course—available for purchase at the bookstore:

Giglio, Ernest. Here’s Looking at You: Hollywood, Film and Politics, fourth
edition (New York: Peter Lang, 2014)
Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary, second edition (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2010)

All other readings will be available on e-reserve at Lauinger library. Some additional
handouts will be distributed in class.

*** Please note that all students are expected to abide by the code of student conduct
as found in the Georgetown Honor System***

Course Schedule

I. Exploring Genre

1. June 5 Introduction/The Propaganda Film

Giglio, chs. 1, 2
Nichols, chs. 1, 2, 3, 4
Abercrombie, Nicholas and Longhurst, Brian (1998). Audiences: A
Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination, “Changing
Audiences, Changing Paradigms of Research,” pp. 3-37.
Sontag, Susan. “Fascinating Fascism,” in Bill Nichols, ed. Movies and
Methods (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 31-43
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Triumph of the Will (1935)

2. June 6 Propaganda?

Giglio, ch. 3
Nichols ch. 5
Sklar, Robert (1994). Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of
American Movies, “D.W. Griffith and the Forging of Motion-Picture Art,”
pp.48-64
Combs, James E. and Combs, Sara T. (1994). Film Propaganda and
American Politics: An Analysis and Filmography, “Introduction,” “War-
Time Documentary Films,” pp. 3-11, 38-80.

Birth of a Nation (1915)

3. June 7 Contemporary Documentary Film

Nichols, chs. 6,7,8

Godmillow, Jill and Shapiro, Anne-Louise. “How Real is the Reality in
Documentary Film?” History and Theory 36, 4 (1997), pp. 80-101.
Guynn, William (1990). A Cinema of Nonfiction, “The Non-Fiction Film
and its Spectator,” pp. 215-231.

Paragraph 175 (2000)

4. June 8 Classic Documentary

“Let the Viewer Decide,” Interview with Frederick Wiseman, Reason,

December 2007.

Titicut Follies (1967)

5. June 12 Old School Political Satire

McCaffrey, Donald W (1992). Assault on Society: Satirical Literature to

Film, “Introduction,” “War and Holocaust for Some Painful Laughter,” pp.
ix-xiii, 36-46.
Christensen, Terry (1987). Reel Politics: American Political Movies from
Birth of a Nation to Platoon, “You Provide the Prose Poems,” “Power Is
Not a Toy,” pp. 55-62, 111-24.

The Great Dictator (1940)

First Critique Due

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6. June 13 Contemporary Satire

Scott, Ian (2000). American Politics in Hollywood Film, “Hollywood on

the Campaign Trail,” pp. 84-95

South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut (1999)

II. Images of America and American Politics

7. June 14 The American Dream and its Discontents

Gianos, Phillip L (1998). Politics and Politicians in American Films,

“Aspiration, Disillusionment and Ambivalence,” pp. 169-184.
Kelly, Beverly Merrill (1998). Reelpolitik: Political Ideologies in ‘30s and
‘40s Films, “Antifascism, in Citizen Kane,” pp. 61-76.
Bordwell, David, “Citizen Kane,” in Nichols, Movies and Methods, pp.
273-289.

Citizen Kane (1941)

8. June 15 The American Dream Reaffirmed

Scott, “Hollywood and politics in the 1990s,” pp. 153-175.

Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1997). Movies as Politics, “Entertainment as
Oppression,” pp. 166-170.
Leitch, Thomas M. “Know-Nothing Entertainment: What to Say to your
Friends on the Right, and Why it Won’t Do Any Good,” Literature/Film
Quarterly 25, 1 (1997), pp. 7-17.
Lavery, David, “’No Box of Chocolates’: The Adaptation of Forrest
Gump,” Literature/Film Quarterly 25, 1 (1997), pp. 18-22.
Yacowar, Maurice, “Forrest Gump: Rejecting Ideology,” Queen’s
Quarterly 101, 3 (1994), pp. 669-682.

Forrest Gump (1994)

9. June 19 Hollywood’s Image of American Politics: The Populist Promise

Giglio, ch.6.
Gianos, “Movies and the Great Depression,” pp. 93-103.
Sklar, “Movies in the Age of Mass Culture,” pp. 205-214,
Richards, Jeffrey, “Frank Capra and the Cinema of Populism,” in Nichols,
Movies and Methods, pp. 65-77.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

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10. June 20 Cynicism and Manipulation

Giglio, Ch. 11.

Wag the Dog (1997)

III. The Ultimate Political Film

11. June 21 Power and the Political Personality

Lasswell, Harold D (1962). Power and Personality, “Introduction,” “The

Political Personality,” pp. 7-58.
Carson, Kathryn, “Les liaisons dangereuses on Stage and Film,”
Literature/Film Quarterly 19, 1 (1991), pp. 35-40.
Hall, Carol, “Valmont Redux: The Fortunes and Filmed Adaptations of
Les liaisons dangereuses,” Literature/Film Quarterly 19, 1 (1991), 41-50.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

IV. Images of War and Genocide

12. June 22 Civilian Suffering in World War II

Giglio, ch. 8.
Pilling, Jayne, ed. A Reader in Animation Studies. Sydney: John Libbey,
1997, “Disney, Warner Brothers and Japanese Animation,” pp. 124-136.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

13. June 26 The End of Nazism

John Bendix, “Facing Hitler: German Responses to Downfall,” German

Politics and Society, 25, 1 (2007): 70-89.
Jürgen Pelzer, “The Facts Behind the Guilt? Background and Implicit
Intentions in Downfall,” German Politics and Society, 25, 1 (2007): 90-
101.

Downfall (2004)

Second Critique Due

14. June 27 Cold War Paranoia

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Gianos, “The Cold War and Vietnam in Films,” pp. 158-167.

Scott, “Action Adventure and Conspiracy,” pp. 102-119, 124-132

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

15. June 28 The Cold War Order

Chapman, James. Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond

Films (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000); Ch. 2, Postscript pp.
19-100, 268-275

From Russia with Love (1963)

16. June 29 Vietnam

Giglio, ch. 9.
Gianos, “The Cold War and Vietnam in Films,” pp. 158-167.
Ryan, Michael and Keller, Douglas (1988). Camera Politica: The Politics
and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film, “Vietnam and the New
Militarism,” pp. 194-216

The Deer Hunter (1978)

17. July 3 Hollywood’s Holocaust

Loshitzky, Yosefa (1997). Spielberg’s Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on

Schindler’s List, “Introduction,” “Spielberg’s Oskar: Hollywood Tries
Evil,” pp. 1-59.
Sklar, “From Myth to Memory,” pp. 357-372.
Rosenbaum, “Missing the Target,” pp. 98-104.

Schindler’s List (1993)

18. July 5 Europe’s Holocaust

Ginsburg, Terri and Thompson, Kristen Moana, eds. Perspectives on
German Cinema (New York: G.K. Hall and Co., 1996), pp. 231-250.

Europa, Europa (1991)

Third Critique Due

19. July 6 FINAL EXAMINATION