Film Depictions Research Articles

The Extent to Which Tobacco Marketing and Tobacco Use in Films Contribute to Children's Use of Tobacco

To quantify the effect of exposure on initiation of tobacco use among adolescents. A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, PsychINFO, ABI/INFORM, and Business Source Premier through October/November 2005 was conducted. Unpublished studies were solicited from researchers. Of 401 citations initially identified, 51 (n = 141 949 participants) met the inclusion criteria: reporting on exposure and tobacco use outcomes and participants younger than 18 years. Included studies reported 146 effects; 89 were conceptually independent effects. Data were extracted independently by 3 of us using a standardized tool. Weighted averages were calculated using a linear mixed-effects model. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. Main Exposures Exposures (tobacco advertising, promotions, and samples and pro-tobacco depictions in films, television, and videos) were categorized as low or high engagement based on the degree of psychological involvement required. Outcomes were categorized as cognitive (attitudes or intentions) or behavioral (initiation, tobacco use status, or progression of use). Exposure to pro-tobacco marketing and media increases the odds of youth holding positive attitudes toward tobacco use (odds ratio, 1.51; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-2.13) and more than doubles the odds of initiating tobacco use (odds ratio, 2.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.79-2.77). Highly engaging marketing and media are more effective at promoting use (odds ratio, 2.67; 95% confidence interval, 2.19-3.25). These effects are observed across time, in different countries, with different study designs and measures of exposure and outcome. Pro-tobacco marketing and media stimulate tobacco use among youth. A ban on all tobacco promotions is warranted to protect children.

Rural America on the Silent Screen

Abstract This article analyzes American silent film depictions of rural life in order to understand their role in the creation of new conceptions of the countryside during the first third of the twentieth century. The rise of motion pictures during the 1910s and 1920s was a critical component of an emerging consumer culture in the United States that coincided with its broader transformation from a rural to an urban society. Because of this conjuncture, silent movies depicting agrarian life were instrumental in establishing new understandings of rural society for a modern, urban nation. They resonated with city audiences, particularly those who had been raised on the farm, as well as with rural and small-town moviegoers, and they helped to reconcile both groups to vexing social changes. Besides providing comfort in a time of transition, however, these films also facilitated the new order by subverting traditional understandings of agrarian life and distancing it from its previous position at the core of American culture.

When the Sun Sets over Suburbia: Class and Subculture in Bruce Beresford's Puberty Blues

Bruce Beresford’s film Puberty Blues (1981) focuses on Australian surf culture of the 1970s and the Sydney beach-side suburb of Cronulla Beach, presenting the Cronulla surf subculture as a prism through which Australian society is viewed. The film, which centres on the quest of the characters of Debbie and Sue to join the elite Greenhills surfing gang, signifies a turning point in Australian screen depictions of class, prefiguring an increased emphasis on the middle class and deviating from a traditional equation of class with the working class. The film’s bleak and satirical portrayal of the Australian middle class also reveals dimensions of suburban Australia that are usually absent from local films and television series. Based on Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey’s 1979 novel of the same name, the film draws on a cultural tradition that associates surfing with freedom from social constraints. Yet the film depicts the protagonists’ idealization of surfers as being undermined when drugs intrude upon their world. The flight from middle-class suburban existence also suggests that the comforts of suburbia are deceptive. This article’s analysis of class and subculture in Puberty Blues aims to draw greater attention to Australian film depictions of subculture and middle-class life, for despite the large body of work around subcultures and although the majority of Australian films made in the last 25 years centre on the middle class, these aspects of Australian cinema have generally received little analysis from film and cultural studies scholars.

Implacable images: why epileptiform events continue to be featured in film and television

ABSTRACT Epileptiform events have been portrayed in film since 1900 and on television since the 1950's. Over time, portrayals have not reflected medicine's understanding of epilepsy. At present, it is unlikely that individuals who do not have a close relationship with someone with a seizure‐disorder will witness a seizure. Because fictive and often incorrect images appear increasingly, many think of them as accurate depictions. The research addresses three questions in relation to these images: How do directors use the images? Why do uses of seizures in visual media not reflect contemporary scientific knowledge? Why have they persisted and increased in use? Data consist of material from 192 films and television episodes. The general category of seizures includes seizures in characters said to have epilepsy or some other condition, seizures related to drug or alcohol use, pseudoseizures and feigned seizures, and, a category in which, for example, someone is described as “having a fit.” The research demonstrates how epileptiform events drive the narrative, support the genre, evoke specific emotional reactions, accentuate traits of characters with seizures, highlight qualities of other characters through their responses to the seizures, act as catalysts for actions, and enhance the voyeuristic experience of the audience. Twenty video sequences are included in the manuscript. The authors conclude that the visual experience of seizures remains so enthralling that its use is most likely to increase particularly on television, and that as the public has less experience with real seizures, depictions in film will continue to be more concerned with what the image can do for the show and less interested in accurate portrayals. Ways to influence depictions are suggested. [Published with video sequences]

History, Archaeology, and Mel Gibson's Passion

Whatever else The Passion of the Christ is about, it is about history. Thus, it is important to examine the film from the perspective of history, and see how, and if, the film incorporates what we have come to know about that era. A great deal of progress has been made into the recovery of the first century C.E. in the last several decades, and much of it has been done by archaeologists. In my few pages in this section, I propose to examine the film's depiction of the last few hours of the life of Jesus in the larger context of the world in which his crucifixion took place. It must be admitted that our sources are not very good. What passes for most of our written sources were written well after the death of Jesus, many by followers who did not witness the crucifixion and who were anxious to demonstrate how the world had changed because of his life and death. Click for larger view Figure 1 The World of Jesus

Tobacco use in popular movies during the past decade

Objective: The top 50 commercially successful films released per year from 1991 to 2000 were content coded to assess trends in tobacco use over time and attributes of films predictive...

Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History (review)

Reviewed by: Hollywood’s White House: The American Presidency in Film and History Daniel P. Franklin Hollywood’s White House: The American Presidency in Film and History. Edited by John E. O’Connor and Peter C. Rollins. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003; pp 464. $32.00. Hollywood's White House is one of the most enjoyable reads I have had in quite some time. I am an amateur student of film and a professional student of the presidency; not only did I learn quite a lot about filmography from reading this book, but much about the presidency itself. While it is often hard to glean from an edited volume a truly central theme, it strikes me that there is one largely unarticulated thread that ties this collection together. It seems that dramatic characterizations of the presidency say as much about the present as they do about the past. In fact, because filmmakers are likely to exercise dramatic license in telling their stories, many films about the presidency are more interesting as a record of the era in which they were made than as a record of the era the film is supposed to depict. By this standard, The Adams Chronicles television series (1976), by depicting the role of Abigail Adams as central to the historical record, tells us that the women's movement was on people's minds at the time the series was produced. Or in its highlighted depiction of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, Jefferson in Paris (1995) reflects the importance of the debate over that controversial relationship at the time the film was made. As film depictions of the presidency become less historically bound, they become even more accurate reflections of their own time. In Gabriel Over the White House, a completely fictionalized account of the presidency produced in 1933, the film's plot reflects America's brief flirtation with the protofascist philosophy of William Randoph Hearst—who produced the film and even wrote a speech delivered by the president in the script. Almost all of the chapters in this collection are compelling and some are excellent. My favorites are the discussions of films depicting Abraham Lincoln by Brian Rommel-Ruiz and Thomas Jefferson by an outraged Jim Welsh. I think that listing the filmography in chronological order of the presidencies is as good a way as any to organize the book. However, as I have said, the films discussed are as much a reflection of their day as they are of the day they depict. There is really only one clunker in the bunch, and it's not because the chapter is badly executed. The chapter about the news media's coverage of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago is jarringly out of place. Not only is this piece [End Page 235] not about the presidency, but it is also not in line with the theme of the book. I see a major qualitative difference between the entertainment media and the journalistic media (although I will admit the distinction is beginning to blur). Consequently, a chapter about news media coverage is largely out of place in a collection of film reviews. As I have said, however, this is not the fault of the author but of the editors. With the exception of that one chapter, this volume is a lively and informative discussion of the intersection of art and politics. As such, this book would be appropriate for a course on film history or as a supplement for a class about the presidency. After all, as in life, politics follows art. Daniel P. Franklin Georgia State University Copyright © 2004 Michigan State University Press

Nervous Nazis: War Neurosis, National Socialism and the Memory of the First World War

When it appeared in German cinemas in 1930, the film version of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front presented an image of German soldiers in war that shocked civilians and outraged many veterans, particularly those organised in rightwing paramilitary and veterans' organisations. Thousands of men organised by Berlin's Nazi leader Josef Goebbels and the paramilitary Stahlhelm veterans' organisation protested outside Berlin cinemas and disrupted screenings.! Audiences were shocked by the film's depiction of German soldiers breaking down under stress. The newspaper Vossische Zeitung praised the film's accurate representation of combat and asserted that traurnatised soldiers and civilians were finally ready to discuss the war: 'Immediately after the defeat, people's nerves were worn down. In the ten years since, they have relaxed again, and this allows an objective review of the widespread trauma of the war'.2 Stahlhelm member Hans Grote shot back: 'The nerves of front soldiers remained like steel ... (Remarque] passes over the many unforgettable happy hours of the war at the front', and he suggested that Remarque's work reflected 'the war experience of the weak' and was a figment of the pacifist imagination.3 Ministry of the Interior official and psychiatrist Alfred Hoche/ who

Narcissism, sexual refusal, and aggression: testing a narcissistic reactance model of sexual coercion.

Laboratory analog studies investigated the theory that narcissism and reactance contribute to causing rape. In Study 1, narcissism correlated positively with rape-supportive beliefs and negatively with empathy for rape victims. In Study 2, narcissists reported more enjoyment than other men of film depictions that presented consensual, affectionate activity followed by rape (but not in response to either affection or rape alone). In Study 3, narcissists were more punitive than other men toward a female confederate who refused to read a sexually arousing passage aloud to them.

The Role of Photographs and Films in Kettlewell's Popularizations of the Phenomenon of Industrial Melanism

H.B.D. Kettlewell's investigations on the phenomenon of industrial melanism are generally referred to in textbooks and other popularizations of science as the classic demonstration of natural selection (Majerus 1989). A central question for historians of this episode is accounting for why public perceptions of the importance of Kettlewell's work have diverged from those of researchers who actually work on the phenomenon. In a recent paper published in Biology and Philosophy, Joel Hagen draws attention to the role Kettlewell and his colleagues played in idealizing his investigations as an example of controlled experimentation in their several retrospective popular accounts. The present essay discusses the important role photographic and film depictions of differential bird predation played in Kettlewell's popularizations. This analysis supports Hagen's contentions that Kettlewell deftly and strategically used these visual representations to command assent to his interpretation of the phenomenon and shore up claims about the scientific legitimacy and importance of his work. It nevertheless disputes that these images were intended to portray Kettlewell's experiments as an example of controlled experimentation. In a concluding section, the essay draws several morals from this analysis regarding the use of popularized articles and visual images to teach science.

Film Depictions of Judas

Film Depictions of Judas

Oz before the rainbow: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on stage and screen to 1939

Although obvious source for 1939 MGM musical Wizard of was L. Frank Baum's children's book, author reminds readers in this text that various stage and screen dramatizations of Baum's story preceded and influenced 1939 film. Musical-comedy elements in MGM film, extensive scenes with Kansas farmhands, and even ending in which Dorothy realizes that her visit to Oz was only a dream, all originated in stage or film versions rather than in pages of Baum's book. This illustrated text contains rare photographs, film stills, sketches, theatre programmes and movie advertisements from different productions. Piecing together Chicago and Broadway stage productions (1902-3) from contemporary reviews, surviving script pages and published song lyrics, Mark Evan Swartz shows how Baum and his many collaborators worked to transform book into a popular theatrical attraction - often requiring significant alterations to original story. He documents how show evolved during its tour of US, changing songs or adding topical jokes to keep production fresh. Swartz makes clear that popular stage musical influenced silent film depictions of Oz, including a multimedia show (1908), a one-reel short produced by Selig Studios (1910) and a full-length feature film (1925) that portrayed Dorothy as a flirtatious flapper and co-starred Oliver Hardy as Tin Woodman. Comprehensive examinations of each production provide behind-the-scenes information, including: battles over legal rights to Baum's stories and over financial backing for each play or film; different strategies to market each production; set and costume designs; special effects (how to create a tornado on stage); box-office receipts; and reactions of audiences and newspaper critics. To offer a comparison of different versions, Swartz also provides a full plot-synopsis of each production - including lyrics from early musicals, some written by Baum himself. The book concludes with an examination of famous MGM film, first version of story to locate Oz in a land Somewhere over Rainbow. Swartz argues that Baum created the first truly American fairyland, using language and imagery that would be familiar to ordinary American child.

Do film cuts facilitate the perceptual and cognitive organization of activity sequences?

Film depictions of activities possess two kinds of structures--namely, the structural features of the depicted activities themselves and a formal structure defined by film cuts. The former structure is used by everyday observers for perceptually and cognitively unitizing the continuous flow of events into comprehensible entities. It seems conceivable that cuts can serve a similar unitizing purpose for film viewers. For each of two different activity sequences, two film versions were produced. Throughout each film version, cuts were placed either at breakpoints or at nonbreakpoints. In a 2 x 2 (activity sequence x film version) factorial design, 40 subjects segmented the film during viewing and recalled the film content after viewing in a detailed protocol. Segmentation behavior depended primarily on the occurrence of breakpoints and was largely unaffected by the occurrence of cuts. Cuts accompanying a breakpoint lead to more detailed recall protocols for these sections of the film.

Disability Portrayal in Film: Reflecting the Past, Directing the Future

Going to the movies and viewing videos are very popular forms of entertainment. Cinematic stories and characters influence perceptions and opinions of many viewers. Studying film depictions, therefore, provides a unique perspective on society's views of individuals with disabilities. The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate trends in Academy Award winning films that portray persons with disabilities. Over the decades, there have been an increasing number of awards involving “disability” movies; psychiatric disorders have been most frequently portrayed. Only two of the motion pictures identified presented children or youth with impairments, while none featured learning disabilities. Implications for special education professionals, with particular emphasis on using films for instructional purposes, are discussed.

A Study of Biblical Depiction of Disability

Biblical references to disability were compiled, defined and compared to depictions in film, television, and classic literature. A total of sixty-eight references were tallied. The ten most frequently cited in the Bible were blind, sick, leprosy, afflicted, drunken, issue, disease, dumb, lame, and mad.

Psychological Responses to the Threat of Nuclear War

We investigated the nature of psychological responses to the threat of nuclear war and the relationships between attitudes and behavior in three studies. The first was a quasi‐experimental study of the effects of a film depiction of nuclear war on attitudes and behavior. Results suggested that exposure was mediated by a sense of control over political events, but that exposure itself had no significant effect on psychological responses to nuclear war. The second was an experimental investigation of the effects of efficacy enhancing, fear arousing, or informational tactics as well as individual differences on memory for relevant information and political activism on the issue of nuclear arms control. Results indicated that men exposed to the fear arousal tactic were less likely to take action than those exposed to information alone or efficacy enhancement, whereas women exposed to fear arousal were more likely to act. Gender differences are explained in terms of the socialization of male responses to fear, the “macho” response. Those who showed less denial were more likely to act, as were those who stated intentions to take action. The third study employed structural modeling to examine the relationships between attitudes and behavior. Results supported the Model of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) in showing that intentions to act mediated the relationship between attitudes and behavior on this issue.

Sifting Through the Controversy: Reading The Color Purple

The Color Purple, the novel and the film, have both been the subject of intense opposition since the arrival of Alice Walker's book in 1982 and the release of Steven Spielberg's film in December 1985. On the surface, the dissension has centered on the image of black people in media. Both works present a negative portrait, proclaim some critics, of black men in particular and the black family in general. These kinds of protests are not new, for black people have fought against negative depictions in film in many instances; notable among them were protests against The Birth of a Nation (1915), The Green Pastures (1936), Gone With the Wind (1939), and Porgy and Bess (1959). The primary difference in the criticism of the contemporary film is that the outrage over the works is not unanimous. Black women and black men, for the most part, are split, and at times, at odds over the effect of the works on the condition of black people in this country. The nature of the debate over The Color Purple and the way it affected how the public received the film and produced a reading of it are the subjects of this investigation. There is, of course, a significant difference between the novel and the film, one being the work of a black woman, the other a mainstream media product constructed by a white male. There is also a critical difference in the way a novel and film are experienced. The reading experience is more personal and private, whereas watching a film, until it is released on videotape, involves sitting in a theater with many other people and being affected by their reactions. Although these are important differences between the Alice Walker book and the Spielberg film, the two works have become almost interchangeable in many people's minds. The novel won the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for a number of weeks, but its impact was not as widespread as the film's. Although there were criticisms of the novel when it was published and there have long been attacks against Alice Walker, the protests accelerated in the wake of the film's release. The film reached an audience in several stages and each time induced a strong reaction. It was released during the holiday season in 1985, withdrawn from circulation in the fall of 1986, re-released theatrically at the beginning of 1987, and released on videotape July 1987. By October 1986 the film version of The Color Purple had made almost $100 million, and the rental of the videotape has been in the top twenty since its arrival in the video stores.1 It is therefore safe to assume that more people have seen the film than have read the book. It is also a sure bet that many people's perception of the novel is based upon what they have seen or heard about the film.

Italian-Americans in Film: From Immigrants to Icons

Intoned by a solemn voice and emblazoned on millions of television screens throughout the United States, these words preceded the 1977 showing of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Saga (a revised and expanded version of the two theatrical motion pictures, The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II). Forewarned that the characters were not representative of any ethnic group, a nationwide television audience then watched the violent, multi-generational saga of the Corleone family. Much of the early part of the film took place in Sicily, large segments of the film were spoken in Italian with English subtitles, and most of the characters bore such names as Barzini, Clemenza, Brasi, and Tattaglia. No problem. The disclaimer had guaranteed that viewers would not mistake them as members of any specific ethnic group. The Godfather disclaimer has become a landmark in the history of the film depiction of Italian-Americans, as well as ethnic groups in general, reflecting a growing awareness of the power of the media to influence audience thinking and public beliefs. It also represented an effort, albeit ineffective, to address this media educational power, although the insertion of the disclaimer can be interpreted either positively as an honest attempt to mute the deleterious side-effects of the film or negatively as cynical posturing to blunt criticism by Italian-American groups. Moving beyond the confines of Italian-Americana, that statement established a media disclaimer model, which has been copied and only slightly modified in later controversial films that similarly presented other ethnic groups as criminally violent, such as the 1983 Scarface (Cuban-Americans) and the 1985 Year of the Dragon (Chinese-Americans). In short, the disclaimer demonstrated a recognition that entertainment films do, in fact, teach, possessing the power to create, reinforce, and modify public images about ethnic groups, including Italian-Americans.

Howard Hughes and Melvin Dummar: Forensic Science Fact Versus Film Fiction

Abstract Publicity about the death of Howard Hughes and the search for his will stimulated the imaginations of many forgers. A purported will naming Melvin Dummar, a service station operator whose previous fame involved multiple appearances on game shows, became the feature attraction in forensic science as well as film presentations of the willful or unwillful ways of Howard Hughes. An award winning film depiction of Melvin Dummar's purported Good Samaritan association with Hughes and Melvin's loss of Cinderella status as a beneficiary of the so-called Mormon Will suggested strongly that Hughes had drafted a handwritten will and that Melvin was the victim of establishment bias. In this article, the forensic science record of a seven-month trial involving multiple, adaptive versions of Melvin Dummar's story and abundant proof of forgery is contrasted with the fanciful and sympathetic film portrayal of Melvin Dummar as a victim of a suppressive society.