Hollywood raises political consciousness
Political messages in feature films
Edited by
Michael Haas
Nonfiction; Paperback: $39.95
ISBN: 978-1-4331266-0-4
Hardcover: $149.95
ISBN: 978-1-4331266-1-1
E-Book from www.peterlang.com
ISBN: 978-1-4539-1372-7
Editor: Michael Haas is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for his work on behalf
of human rights in a career as an academic political scientist. Besides
the University of Hawai‘i, he has taught at Northwestern University, Loyola
Marymount University, Occidental College, Purdue University, the University
of California (Riverside), the University of London, and six campuses of
California State University.
Feature films establish images of politics and political systems because
they depict, often subliminally, a structure of power in any situation
involving humans and a procedure for raising problems and making decisions. Films
sometimes explicitly depict historical situations, social problems, and
also can propagandize. Those who see films, therefore, have a grasp of
politics without taking a course in political science and may be galvanized to
action as a result. Those who teach political science often have to correct
errors and misunderstandings in films.
Accordingly, the present volume undertakes three tasks: (1) To define the “
political film” as a distinct genre. (2) To demonstrate how films have
defined politics to film audiences. (3) To illustrate how films treat specific
issues politically, including civil society, disasters, and elections.
To do so, the editor Michael Haas brings together the following
outstanding political scientists, who undertake the three tasks in a professional
manner through scholarly essays that serve to develop a theory of the
political film:
Andrew L. Aoki (Augsburg College)
Michael A. Genovese (Loyola Marymount University)
Ernest D. Giglio (Lycoming College)
Elizabeth Haas (Fairfield University)
Hans Noel (Georgetown University)
John W. Williams (Principia College)
It's indisputable that films contain messages. Most messages have meaning
to the sender, some consciously intended, some not. Many of these messages,
whether intended or not, have social impact, much of which eventually must
be understood as political. I know of no one who has made more of a study
of the political impact of the messages we ingest, whether we're aware of
it or not, than has Michael Haas.—Mike Farrell, star of M*A*S*H and
Providence and author of Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist" and Of
Mule and Man.
Contents
Introduction (by Michael Haas) explains the design of the book.
Part I. Defining the Political Film
Chapter 1. Films Contain Political Messages (by Michael Haas) provides a
history of political film and a list of the components of filmmaking, from
initial conception to box office screening, indicating where political
content may be inserted or deleted.
Chapter 2. Art and Politics: The Political Film as a Pedagogical Tool (by
Michael A. Genovese) points out that films, the most accessible and popular
art form in the contemporary world, must overcome four barriers—the desire
of filmviewers for light entertainment, the fast pace of public issues,
resistance to overly preachy dialog, and the fear of producers that political
films will not sell at the box office. Thus, political films continue to
seek acceptance by clever artistic innovation.
Chapter 3. Search for the Political Film (by Ernest D. Giglio) traces
political films within four purposes—as ideology, propaganda, history, and as
an agent of change. To be a “political film,” he insists that the
producer, filmmaker, or studio must consciously want to make a political statement,
and that audiences must perceive the film as conveying a political
message.
Part II. How Films Define the Political
Chapter 4. The Real Oliver North Loses: The Reel Bob Roberts Wins (by John
W. Williams) contrasts four candidates for the U.S. Senate—two fictional
and two real. Employing cultivation analysis, the author analyzes the media’
s social construction of candidates in creating images of politics—focus on
everyday topics, make cultural or literary allusions, exaggerate traits of
the candidates, and provide background in the form of timely events,
issues, and personalities.
Chapter 5. Escape from the Bowling Alley: Traditional Associations as the
Antagonist in Popular Film (by Hans Noel) refutes Robert Putnam’s
influential view that Americans do not socialize together as in the past,
undermining civil society, and instead finds in six films how the younger generation
rejects traditional associations as inappropriate for their more diverse
lives.
Chapter 6. The Politics of Disaster Films (by Elizabeth Haas). The 21st
century’s steady stream of disasters, more real than imagined, has
stimulated films that exploit fears to demonstrate that individual heroism is
possible, though government is ineffective, as in disaster films of the past.
Chapter 7. Liberalism and the Blending of a Kaleidoscopic Culture (by
Andrew L. Aoki) demonstrates assimilationist tensions experienced by Asian
Americans in recent popular films. He concludes that amalgamationism, wherein
one can both be American and Asian, is the cinematic answer to those who
fear a balkanization of American into separate ethnic groups.
Chapter 8. Films about Thailand and Vietnam (by Michael Haas) contrasts
stereotypic portrayals of Thais and Vietnamese in films made outside the two
countries, whereas the film industries in both countries show considerable
diversity in film content.
Epilog. Using Political Films in the Classroom (by Michael A. Genovese)
demonstrates five ways in which films used in undergraduate teaching yield
extraordinary benefits.
Appendix. Films Nominated by the Political Film Society, 1986–2014
Combined References
Film Index
Subject Index
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