Hollywood Feature Research Articles

The Hollywood Feature Film as Historical Artifact

The Hollywood Feature Film as Historical Artifact

Celluloid Ivy: Higher Education in the Movies, 1960-1990.

Because of their tremendous mass audience, Hollywood feature films help mold, shape, and direct popular beliefs and attitudes. They also serve as frozen pieces of time that preserve the concerns of the past. CELLULIOD IVY examines the portrayal of higher education in movies from 1960-1990, offering a fascinating view not only of how Americans gained their views of higher education and college life during this crucial period, but also of the fascinating tension between movie fantasy and the realities of life. From The Graduate to Revenge of the Nerds, from The Paper Chase to Educating Rita, the book delves into how movies treat the classroom, the extra-curricular, rites of passage, professors, romance, sports, alcohol and drugs, and sometimes, education itself. It offers some startling conclusions on how movies often reflect America's latent anti-intellectualism and how students can enter college with media-fed expectations for an experience different from what they encounter.

The Hollywood Feature Film in Postwar Britain

The Hollywood Feature Film in Postwar Britain

A Self-Contained Project for Using Film in History Courses

to what footage ofthe camps was new and what was archival. Another war documentary, Rossif s To Die in Madrid, was weakened by a failure to make that distinction, according to William Johnson. "Coming to Terms with Color,, in Lewis Jacobs, ed., The Movies as Medium (New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970.) p. 232. 20This and the following quotations are from Roy Armes, idem. 21The Plaque, tr. Stuart Gilbert (New York, Alfred A. Knopf), p. 278 22lnsdorf s translation in her, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, p. 32 23Author s interview with Alain Resnais, New York City, November 2, 1984. 24Quoted in Alistair Home, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York, Viking Press, 1977), p. 124. 25See, for example, "Memories of War Haunt, and Divide, the French, " The New York Times, November 3, 1984. 26Resnais in L Avant-Scene du Cinema 6 1 -62 (juillet-septembre 1966), p. 9 27James Monaco, Alain Resnais (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 22 28New York City, November 2, 1984. 29February 13, 1985 30In Robert Hughes, ed., Fünr.Book 2. p. 189 31Ibid., p. 7 32For a scholarly review and refutation of some ofthe key points raised by the "revisionists", see Serge Klarsfeld, ed., The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania (New York, Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1978), particularly the articles by Joseph Billig and George Wellers. A Self-Contained Project for Using Film in History Courses By Mariette Rebhorn Mariette Rebhorn teaches histoiy at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, where she has designed and implemented thefilm and histoiy curriculum materials discussed in this article. For those historians who will accept the use of film as a viable part of enriching courses in history, there is still a debate. It focuses on what film materials to use and how 11 to use them. At the community college with which I am associated, we have had great success with a system in which students view feature length Hollywood films, read an accompanying essay, and then perform various pre-arranged projects which relate events in the film to actual historical phenomena. The process begins with the student viewing a Hollywood feature film (on vidéocassette) ranging from classics such as The Birth of a Nation and City Lights, to more recent films such as The Deer Hunter and Ragtime. Complete lists of films are currently available for both halves ofthe Western Civilization course and the second half of the American History survey. Students then read a provocative essay which relates events in the film to actual historical developments. These essays critique the information presented in the film as well as providing some ofthe historical context the film left out, and relate the film action to other historical periods. The student then chooses from a list ofpossible pre-packaged projects, and after consulting with the course instructor, decides which project to work on and how much it will "count" toward his grade. The projects include writing reports on books from a selected bibliography, comparing and contrasting such books, and doing further research on events portrayed in the film. Ifthe project is completed to the instructor s satisfaction, the pre-arranged "credit" is awarded to the student. The system has many advantages. Since the films are on vidéocassette, the student can watch them at his convenience—a major plus at a community college where students have such widely different schedules. The student can also view the scenes repeatedly. Since the students see the film outside of class, no valuable class time is lost More important, because the package—the film, its accompanying essay and projects—is a self-contained unit, even instructors with no film expertise can utilize the system. Students view the film, but the instructor assigns a traditional historical project and grades it by the traditional standards he already knows. This curriculum project began with the assumption that, for better or worse, the modem student is usually more visually oriented than print oriented. The great deal of time most students spend watching movies and television has given them some skills, but without doubt, they can and should become more critical viewers. In this project, students are taught to analyze...

Film and Business History: The Development of an American Mass Entertainment Industry

Increasingly, historians employ feature films in their studies of political, social, and cultural change. Most often, American historians rely on the products of Hollywood to tender clues to broad trends in mass tastes and desires. Since the American film industry has long used an assembly-like process of production to fashion products for mass consumption, Hollywood features ought to be intimately interwoven with the fundamental ideas and beliefs of the average American. Recent work in film and history has recognized that there exist significant methodological pitfalls in this type of analysis, principally the necessity to specify how films have created meaning, how films have been treated by social and political forces, and how films have been received by audiences. But for Hollywood in particular, the historian first needs to understand how film-making as an institution has functioned. Hollywood exists as an industry, a collection of corporations seeking profits. Paul Smith expressed this dimension of the study of film and history in the following terms:

Folk song lyrics as communication in John Ford's films

Folk song lyrics, a special type of verbal communication, are examined in the context of the Hollywood feature film. Dramatic films, selected from the work of director John Ford, illustrate Ford's recurring use of familiar folk song lyrics to develop filmic characterization, communicate personal thematic concerns about community and nature, and enhance audience identification.

Native American Women in Westerns: Reality and Myth

Native American women have been portrayed in many of Hollywood's feature films, especially Westerns, in negative and stereotyped ways. After reviewing certain anthropological data, the distortions in these films become quite apparent. Few people realize the importance of women in Native American societies-past and present-and that their status in these societies was very different from what is presented in these films. The ethnographic material on Native women is rich, abundant, and readily available. What follows is a brief sample of the various leadership roles women had in Native American societies. Women's roles were as diverse as the tribes of North America. There was no universal standard regarding the status of Native American women; the role of each woman was unique to her own tribe and her status was determined by a number of factors, such as environment, economic base, and social and political institutions. Matrilineal tribes provided the greatest opportunities for women: women in these tribes owned houses, furnishings, fields, gardens, agricultural tools, art objects, livestock, and horses. Furthermore, these items were passed down through female lines. Regardless of marital status, women had the right to own and control property. The woman had control of her children and if marital problems developed the man would leave the home. Among both matrilineal and patrilineal tribes it has not been uncommon to find women warriors, statesmen, chiefs, religious leaders, medicine women, or shamans (the equivalent of doctors), and some women controlled great amounts of economic and political power. They were not, as Euro-Americans imagine, merely chattel, servants to men, wives, and mothers. Some examples of the cultures in which women would achieve high status were the Pueblo of the Southwest, the Iroquois of the Northeast, and the Muskogean tribes (Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw) of the South. The most prominent women statesmen were found among the Iroquois. The matrilineal/matrilocal aspect of Iroquois society helped secure their role in traditionally male-oriented culture and they developed highly effective political power. Their position was so secure that their status has remained relatively stable through to the present. In fact, it was the Iroquois male population which suffered the most in its contact with patrilineal white society. 1 Political power was held by the elder women of each local unit, who composed the Council of Clan Mothers. This council had the power to appoint and/or depose tribal chiefs and subchiefs; select the men to sit on the Great Tribal Council and thereby influence decisions made on that council; to wage or avert war; and to decide the fate of captives. Economic and religious activities were shared jointly and the entire social structure was based on equal but different functions. Women warriors were found among many tribes, and they offer rich source material for filmmakers. The most notable of these women were found among the waroriented Plains tribes: Crow, Blackfoot, Sioux, and Cheyenne. The social structure of the Plains tribes differed from that of the Iroquois. Among the Iroquois, women's status was integrated into the society. Among the Plains tribes, the woman had less stature than the man but she was allowed to attain higher rank through her deeds. Many married women would accompany their husbands on horse stealing raids. Although on these raids women cooked and performed other domestic tasks, they also were able to take an active part in the attacks on enemy villages or camps. Specific examples of female warriors include Yellow-

World War II Films As Propaganda

discuss and respond to the proffered sensory experiences in the free atmosphere of a lighted classroom rather than in the darkened room demanded by cinema. Iftelevision presents any disadvantages they lie largely in the necessarily "lumpy" investment in capital equipment. As in railroad building, one may not lay only one track and expect to profit. The investor must build two tracks in addition to stations, shops, and rolling stock. The television producer cannot start small. He must have two cameras, two videotape recorders, and a studio as a minimal investment. Later on he may think of adding color and any one of several editing systems. As the system grows more sophisticated the services of a fulltime engineer add to the annual budget. Even so, the cost per production may be kept down simply by using the studio with greater frequency and imagination. Nevertheless, the historiantelevision producer may take heart in the relatively smaller operating expenses, editing and processing costs, and the security and comfort that comes with the knowledge that the final product may be pulled together, shaped, and timed and then rerun all in the studio, with no waiting for the results to come back from the lab. In a sense, the low operating costs encourage the historian-producer to consider every program as a work-tape to be modified and reshaped based on the feedback from successive groups ofstudents. All things considered, television provides a medium through which the historians most scholarlyjudgments may be refined and presented in a format that allows the widest range of sources, the most personal editorial control, and the most creative outreach to the student consumer. And it accomplishes its goals, not only without doing violence to other audio-visual expressions, but by giving them- a new editorial dimension through the use of electronic technology. Thomas Cripps is Professor ofHistory at Morgan State College; afrequent contributor to historicaljournals; and co-producer, host, or writer ofmore thanfifty television shows. HISTORY THROUGH FILM With this issue we are expanding our "History Through Film " section to include the archivist'spoint ofview as well as that ofthe teacher. Otherfilm archivists will contribute tofuture issues as well otherprofessionals who have insights to share The Teacher Printed below and on thefollowingpages is the second in a series ofsyllabi of "history throughfilm" courses currently bring offered in American universities. The professors have been asked to supply an introductory statement describing their approach, the goals they have in view and whatever insights they might already have into the "history throughfilm" experience. In subsequent issues ofFilm and History the series will be continued with attach historians and other schools contributing. Ifyou (each a similar course a, have similar experience thatyou would like to share with others, the editors invite you to contribute. 31 World War II Films As Propaganda By Taylor Stults Muskingum College New Concord, Ohio The last several years have seen a growing professional interest in film, both as a teaching device to supplement traditional curricula and especially as a subject ofanalysis in itself. The formation of the Historians Film Committee illustrates this trend. For the past two years I offered a film study course at Muskingum, utilizing the January interim term in our 4-1-4 calendar. In 1971, my interim was "Films of the Thirties," using thirty-five Hollywood feature films to illustrate how movies represent popular culture and to determine what value the films conveyed in Depression-age America. This article describes the structure ofmy January, 1972 interim, "Films ofWorld War II: Movies as Propaganda." Major goals were: first, to provide the student with a deeper appreciation ofthe cinema as an art form and an expression ofpopular culture; second, to isolate and analyze the values contained in the films we saw dealing with a wartime situation; third, to develop an understanding of the meaning and techniques of propaganda; fourth, to determine the extent to which propaganda existed in the films, to increase student comprehension ofWorld War II and its impact upon the American people. We used only motion pictures released between 1940 and the fall of 1945, to see only what war-time Americans were seeing in movie theaters. These twenty-five feature length movies plus a...