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POSC 220 Politics and Political History in Film
Winter 2009 / Barbara Allen,Tue/Thu 1:15–3:00 / Office hours by appt: Mon-Thu
CMC 210 / Sign-up Willis 408
The Course
How do representations of politics in film influence our ideas about governance, citizenship, power, and authority? How do film and TV reflect values and beliefs of democratic society, particularly in the United States? These are two questions that we will consider in the course as we study films representing politics and historical events in fiction and non-fiction genres for entertainment and education.
Readings
The readings for the course have been drawn from a number of books and journal articles available on reserve at the library. You may make copies for your personal use. I have placed several recommended (REC, not required) resources on reserve in addition to assigned readings. These resources are for your use in your projects and in studying a particular topic in greater depth for our class discussion. We will read one book in the course: Pierre Boule, Planet of the Apes (New York: Ballantine Books, 1968) ISBN 0345447980. Film screenings will take place in Library 341 as scheduled below. The films screened are considered texts for the course. Screenings are scheduled so that you can come to class on the following day to discuss the film assigned.
Assignments
Increasing visual literacy and knowledge of media effects in politics are among the main goals of the course. The reading assignments cover a range of interdisciplinary thinking about film and politics, including: film style and film theory, techniques of film production and their psychological effects on viewers, the function of film and visual media in political socialization and ideology, as well as the political psychology of narrative and framing. Your grade will be based on participation in our class discussion of the readings, an analysis of one of the “mini-doc films” created for Election 2008, and an analysis of a political event, institution, or idea expressed in a written essay and in a proposal for “treating” this issue visually. The “mini-doc” analysis will be carried out as a group project. You may use this project as the basis for your individual essay and film treatment assignment. The individually written essay and film treatment assignment will be carried out in several steps with due dates for work noted on the schedule below. The four main steps (see a detailed assignment handed out in class) for this project are: 1) choosing a topic in political history, public policy, law, political culture, or political theory; 2) compiling a journal (separate from class notes) in which you connect the readings, discussions, and films viewed (including recommended relevant readings and/or films) to the written and proposed visual discussion of this topic; 3) an analytical paper examining the problem/issue; 4) a proposal for the visual treatment expressing your ideas about the problem/issue/theory.
Grades will be computed as follows:
Group Project Analysis of “mini-doc” Election 2008 20
Journal and Journal Analysis 10
Analytical paper 30
Proposed Visual Treatment 30
Participation 10
Total 100%
Part 1: Elements of Film Style and Social Learning Effects in Representations of Politics and History
Tues Jan 6 Foundations of Film Analysis
Examples and discussion of film style (camera work, editing, mise en scène, settings, acting style, costumes, makeup, lighting)
Wed Jan 7 Film Screening: Charles Chaplin The Great Dictator (1940)
Thurs Jan 8 Film Propaganda or Critique? Narrative Analysis (narrative, plot, theme)
Read: Sergei M. Eisenstein, “Montage 1937,” (Ch 2) pp. 11–58.
REC: “Montage 1938” (Ch 12) BOTH IN: Selected Works, ed. Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor, trans. Richard Taylor, Vol. 2 (Toward a Theory of Montage) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 296– 326.
Mon Jan 12 Film Screening: Andre Heller and Ottmar Schmiderer Blind Spot—Hitler’s Secretary (2002)
Tues Jan 13 Propaganda, Advertising, and Influence; Film Style and the documentary
Read: Jill Godmilow and Ann-Louise Shapiro, “How Real is the Reality in Documentary Film?” History and Theory, 36, 4 (December 1997) 80–101.
Stephen Prince, “True Lies, Perceptual Realism, Digital Images, and Film Theory,” The Film Cultures Reader, ed. Graeme Turner (London: Routledge, 2002) pp. 115–128.
REC: Andre Bazin, “On Why We Fight: History, Documentation, and the Newsreel,” Bazin at Work, ed. Bert Cardullo (London: Routledge, 1997) pp. 187–196.
Gregory Curie, “Cognitivism,” A Companion to Film Theory, ed. Toby Miller and Robert Stam, (New York: Blackwell, 2005) pp. 105–120.
Wed Jan 14 Film Screening: Rachel Boynton Our Brand is Crisis (2005)
Thurs Jan 15 I. Contemporary Propaganda and Advertising: Election Ads &
News Coverage
II. Film Sound Part 1
Read: Sergei M. Eisentstein, “The Battleship Potemkin 1925, From Screen to Life,” (Ch 5) Works, ed. Richard Taylor, trans. William Powell, Vol. 3 (Writings 1934–47) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 50–51.
Sergei M. Eisentstein, “Vertical Montage” (Ch 13) Selected Works, ed. Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor, trans. Richard Taylor, Vol. 2 (Toward a Theory of Montage) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 327–399.
Dan Stevens, John Sullivan, Barbara Allen, and Dean Alger. “What’s Good for the Goose is Bad for the Gander: Negative Political Advertising, Partisanship and Turnout,” Journal of Politics, 69, 1 (2007).
Barbara Allen, Dan Stevens, Gregory Marfleet, Dean Alger, and John Sullivan “Local News and Perceptions of the Rhetoric of Political Advertising,” American Politics Research, 35, 4 (2007) 506-540.
Barbara Allen, Paula O’ Loughlin, Amy Jasperson, and John Sullivan, “The Media and the Gulf War: Framing, Priming, and the Spiral of Silence,” Polity, 27, 2 (winter 1994) pp. 255–84.
Rec: Brooks, Deborah Jordan, “The Resilient Voter: Moving Toward Closure in the Debate over Negative Campaigning and Turnout,” Journal of Politics, 68, 3 92006) 684-697.
Sigelman, Lee, and Mark Kugler.. “Why is Research on the Effects of Negative Campaigning So Inconclusive? Understanding Citizens’ Perceptions of Negativity,” Journal of Politics 65, 1 (2003) 142-160.
************************Topics for Project Due in Class******************
Mon Jan 19 Film Screening: Barry Levinson Wag the Dog (1997)
Tues Jan 20 Class Meeting Rescheduled; Meet as Discussed on Thurs Jan 22
Cognition and Choice: Seeing is Believing
Read: Redlawsk, David, “Hot Cognition or Cool Consideration? Testing the Effects of Motivated Reasoning on Political Decision Making,” Journal of Politics, 64, 4 (2002) 1021-1044.
Freedman, Paul, Michael Franz, and Ken Goldstein, “Campaign Advertising and Democratic Citizenship,” American Journal of Political Science, 48, 4 (2004) 723-741.
Wed Jan 21 Film Screening: Spike Lee Malcolm X (1992)
Thurs Jan 22 Political Biography, Film Language, and the Effects of Framing and Priming on Cognitive Processing
Read: Malcolm X “Message to the Grassroots,” “The Ballot or the Bullet”, “Founding Rally of the OAAU,” “The Young Socialist Interview”
Graeme Turner, “Film Languages” (Ch 3) Film as Social Practice (London: Routledge 1988) pp. 44–66.
REC: Richard Dyer, “Lighting for Whiteness,” The Film Cultures Reader, ed. Graeme Turner (London: Routledge, 2002) pp. 95–106.
Sergei M. Eisenstein, “Mr. Lincoln by Mr. Ford” (Ch 26) Selected Works, ed. Richard Taylor, trans. William Powell, Vol. 3 (Writings 1934–47) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 224–238.
*************Group Projects Analyzing 2008 Election Mini-Docs Due in Class**********
Mon Jan 26 Film Screening: Herbert Bieberman Salt of the Earth (1954)
Tues Jan 27 Film Critiques of Capitalism and Major Institutions; Media Ownership, Government Censorship, and Cultural Production
Read: Steven J. Ross, “Struggles for the Screen: Workers, Radicals, and the Political Uses of Silent Film,” American Historical Review, 96, 2 (April 1991) 333–67.
Herbert J. Gans, “Hollywood Entertainment: Commercial or Ideology?’ Social Science Quarterly, 74, 1 (1993) 150–53.
REC: Philip Gianos.. “Politics and the Film Industry,” (Ch 3) Politics and Politicians in American Film (Westport: Praeger, 1998).
Christine Noll Brinkmann, “The Politics of Forces of Evil: An Analysis of Abraham Polonsky”s Preblacklisted Film,” Prospects 6 (1981) 357–86.
**************************Journal “Check-in” Due in Class **********************
Part 2: Film Representations Policy, Politics, and Political Institutions
Wed Jan 28 Film Screening: Gilo Pontecorvo Battle of Algiers (1966)
Thurs Jan 29 Critique of Empire
Read: Alexis de Tocqueville, “Essay on Algeria (1841),” Writings on Empire and Slavery, ed. Jennifer Pitts (Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins University Press 2001) 59–116.
Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni, “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,” Film Theory and Criticism 5th ed., ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 752–759.
REC: Andre Bazin, “The Myth of Stalin in the Soviet Cinema,” Bazin at Work ed, Bert Cardullo (London: Routledge, 1997) pp. 23–40.
Mon Feb 2 Film Screening: Jean-Pierre Melville Army of Shadows (1969, 2005)
Tues Feb 3 The “Good” War
Read: Walter Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” and Hannah Arendt, “Introduction,” Illuminations, Walter Benjamin, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books 1968).
Paul Fussell, “School of the Soldier,” “Unread Books on the Shelf,” The Ideological Vacuum” and “Accentuate the Positive, “Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, (New York: Oxford University Press,1989) pp. 52–66, 66–79, 129–143, and 143–164.
Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), Ch 7 “Reflections, the Mutuality of Gender and War,” 403–414;
REC: Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001) Ch 6 “Conquests: sex, rape, and exploitation in wartime” pp. 332–402.
Wed Feb 4 Film Screening: Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse Now (1976)
Thurs Feb 5 I. “Not so ‘good’” wars and questionable futures
II. Film Sound Part 2
Read—On Representations of World Order: Stephen Prince, “Hearts and Minds,” (Ch 4) Visions of Empire: Political Imagery in Contemporary American Film, Westport: Praeger 1992) pp. 116–153.
Michael Herr, excerpt from “Breathing In,” Dispatches (New York: Vintage, 1968) pp. 3-10.
On Film Sound: “Gianluca Sergi, “A Cry in the Dark: The Role of Post-classical Film Sound,” The Film Cultures Reader ed. Graeme Turner (London: Routledge, 2002) pp. 107–114.
Christian Metz, “Aural Objects,” Film Theory and Criticism 5th ed., ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) pp. 356– 359.
Rec—On Viet Nam: Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (New York: Simon & Schuster,1994) Chapters 1-5, pp. 3–99.
On Film Sound: Sergei M. Eisentstein, “[Rhythm]”( Ch 7 ) Selected Works, ed. Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor, trans. Richard Taylor, Vol. 2 (Toward a Theory of Montage) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 227–248.
Sergei M. Eisentstein, “From Lectures on Music and Colour in Ivan the Terrible,” (Ch 32) Selected Works, ed. Richard Taylor, trans. William Powell, Vol. 3 (Writings 1934–47) (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988–1996) pp. 317–340.
Additional Resources: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1995) “Killing at Close Range” (Pt. 3 Ch 4) pp. 114–119 and “The Entrapment of Atrocity” (Pt. 5Ch 3) pp. 214–221
Stanley D. Rosenberg, “The Threshold of Thrill: Life Stories in the Skies Over Southeast Asia,” Gendering War Talk, ed. Miriam Cooke and Angela Woolacott, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) pp. 43–66.
Leisa D. Meyer Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). Ch. 1–4.
Russell Merritt, “Recharging Alexander Nevsky: Tracking the Eisenstein-Prokofiev War Horse,” Film Quarterly, 48, 2 (winter 1994–1995): 34–47.
Mon Feb 9 ****************MIDTERM BREAK******************
*********Optional Film Screening: Franklin Schaffner Planet of the Apes (1968)*********
Tues Feb 10 Social Anxiety in the Nuclear Age
Read: Pierre Boule Planet of the Apes (New York: Ballantine, 1963).
REC Jutta Weldes, “Popular Culture, Science Fiction, and World Politics; Exploring Intertextual Relations,” To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics, ed. Jutta Weldes (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) pp. 1–30.
Wed Feb 11 Film Screening: John Frankenheimer Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Thurs Feb 12 Social Anxiety in the Nuclear Age
Read: Geoffrey Whitehall, “The Problem of the ‘World and Beyond’: Encountering the ‘Other’ in Science Fiction,” To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics, ed. Jutta Weldes, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2003 pp. 169–193.
Steven Weisman, “Can the Magic Prevail?” New York Times, April 29, 1984
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04EEDA1338F93AA15757C0A962948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=9
Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida” March 8, 1983 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/30883b.htm
Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security” March 23, 1983 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/32383d.htm
****************************Analytical Paper Due in Class************************
Mon Feb 16 Film Screening: Errol Morris Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Tues Feb 17 Cold War Redux 1980–2007
Read: Carol Cohn, “Wars, Wimps, and Women: Talking Gender and Thinking War,” Gendering War Talk, ed. Miriam Cooke and Angela Woolacott (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003) pp. 227–246.
Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address January 20, 1981 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/12081a.htm
Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on Strategic Arms Control and Nuclear Deterrence,” November 22, 1982 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/112282d.htm
Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Soviet Attack on a Korean Civilian Airliner” September 5, 1983 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/90583a.htm
Ronald Reagan, “Remarks Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas” August 23., 1984 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/82384f.htm
Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address January 21, 1985 at:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1985/12185a.htm
******************Brief Statement of Treatment Focus Due in Class****************
Wed Feb 18 Film Screening: John Ford The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Thurs Feb 19 Westerns and Gangsters I: State of Nature and Rule of Law
Read: “ Dorothy M. Johnson, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” and Leonard Elmore “3:10 to Yuma,” The Reel West, ed. Bill Pronzini and Martin Greenberg (New York: Doubleday, 1984) pp. 101–115 and 117–132.