Will Rogers’ 1920s (1976), An American Family (1973) and The War Room (1993): A Cowboy’s Guide to the Pristine Sunshine and Wars in the Name of Peace

Abstract

The study compares the responses of an artist, a common man and an American president to the times by analyzing the content of three documentary films: Will Rogers’ 1920s: A Cowboy’s Guide to the Times, An American Family (1973) and The War Room (1993) from the twentieth century. Will Rogers’1920s gives an insight into the simple life of a jongleur and a troubadour, cowboy cum actor, Will Rogers who was famous for topical humor in 1920s and whose life size sculpture occupies space in the American White House to keep an eye on the deeds of the greatest world leaders. An American Family, the world’s first ever reality show, documents real life events of seven members of a common American family and provide a contrast to the perfect Hollywood family portrait in 12 episodes. The War Room focuses on the president Clinton’s political agenda during his 1992 election campaign. The authors reviewed literature on the said documentaries and history of documentary film, American institutions and movements by Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane, Jeffrey Ruoff, Peter C. Rollins, Peter Ian Crawford, Klin Richard, Chris Hegedus, Shawn J. Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry-Giles. The study finds that Will Rogers learned to share his inherent happiness with the American audience by mollifying and disciplining many of their anxieties in the context of industrialization and the world war in 1920s. An American family is disturbing yet hilarious and presents a real portrait of the American family against 70s “culturally polyglot confluence backdrops” (Ellis and McLane 254). Pat Loud divorces her husband on air and their son Lance Loud becomes the first gay icon of the ‘gay decade,’ as several feminist, gay/lesbian, and civil rights, antiwar, ecology, and environmental protection movements takeover America. An American Family shows the mundane truth of everyday life in its social context. Its controlled realism reflects the filmmaker’s social conscience for audience’s identification and political action. The War Room celebrates the ideology of war during the president Clinton’s election campaign.