JFK Politics and Propaganda

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JFK - Politics and Propaganda

• FS344
• American Film Since 69

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Oliver StoneJFK
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Introduction

• Next Week
• Essay due
• Last Week
• Action Movies and Vietnam
• Subtle reworking of a contentious historical
  event
• This Week
• Politics, Propaganda, and JFK
• Not-so-subtle reworking of a contentious
  historical event
• Film as Propaganda
• J FK as Propaganda
• Cultural imperialism
• Americanization

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Essay Proposals/Essays

• Great essay proposals!
• Grade based on effort and thoroughness
• Evidence of research and thought
• Annotation that reflected thorough research
• NOT based on the quality of the argument or paper
  proposed
• An A on the proposal does not mean your essay
  will be same
• I will be uncontactable from Wed 5pm till Mon 9am
• Extension Essay Due Friday 19th 4pm in my essay
  box
• Feel free to talk to me in my office hours today
  1-2pm
• OR bring a revised prop, outline, questions to
  office hours Wed 3-4
• If I have recommended this on your paper, then
  please do see me

• Note
• Underline or italicise film titles
• Use specific examples from the films to
  illustrate your points
• Use STRONG sources to back up your points
• Define your terms look up sources to do this
• Modern (1910s-1930s) vs contemporary
• Narrative, characters, themes AND film style
  (m-e-s, cinematog, editing, music etc)
• Use critical sources avoid reviews
• Review MLA for referencing and bibliography you
  must cite sources in this manner
• Female is not a noun the representation of
  females in the film should be women

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Auteur Topic

• If you are doing the Auteur essay remember
• This is probably the hardest topic
• or the one where you can go most easily astray
• You must talk about themes AND film style
• You must define auteurism
• Originally and whether or not it works in New
  Hollywood
• Remember that the original use of the term was
  actually related to directors in the Classical
  Hollywood system
• Personal expression or signature does not mean
  biographical experience
• It means themes are important to that director
• Do not dwell on biography of filmmakers or
  interviews
• stick to critical sources

All topics make your thesis focussed and
specific egs from the class Auteur Tarantino
as an auteur because he blends popular culture
and popular techniques of genre cinema in order
to create a unique version of the familiar.
(Dru) In Spike Lee one can apply the three
original premises of the auteur theory,
revealing the fact that the original idea still
holds true today amidst the accusations of
contemporary auteurism being a commercial
entity. (Joel) Gender The similarities and
differences of the portrayals of the lead female
characters in Minnelli and Shyers films Father
of the Bride, especially in terms of sexuality,
financial security and marriage roles, can be
understood by thoroughly examining the evolution
of the status of women in American society from
1950-1991. (Jenna)
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Oliver Stones JFK

• So, you want to know, who killed the President
  and connived in the cover-up? Everybody! High
  officials in the CIA, the FBI, the Dallas
  constabulary, all three armed services, Big
  Business and the White House. Everybody done
  iteverybody but Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Time Magazine, Dec. 23, 1991, describing Stones
  JFK
• I hope people everywhere will see this movie and
  make up their own minds. JFK is our alternative
  myth to the Warren Commission myth, an
  opportunity for people to rethink history. I hope
  they become more aware of how politics are played
  out and how kings are killed. And I hope the film
  inspires them to be politically active,
  determined to shape a better future, to improve
  upon the past. These are my fondest wishes.
• Oliver Stone
• But did this film make its viewers think/be more
  politically aware?
• Or did people just accept the films version as
  truth?

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JFK

• JFKdamned or praised
• depending on ones opinion of Stones history
• one of the most controversial films
• Been described as
• the most arrogant of the fact-to-film efforts in
  recent years largely because of the
• Docudrama techniques
• Clear anti-government bias
• Far-fetched conspiracy theory
• And the lack of any disclaimer
• Key is to separate the politics and history
• from the fiction and Hollywoodisation of the
  event
• What is the historical truth?
• What is Stones own opinion and agenda?

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Reactions to the film

• Robert S. Robins (poli sci)
• Jerrold M. Post (psych)
• JFK - one of a line of artistically
  commercially potent paranoid films
• If the storyline can be tied to a historical
  event
• then fiction, history, popular delusion can be
  joined in pursuit of profit.
• The paranoid message will give more and more, and
  then it will give even more.
• Contradictions are dismissed as being naive or,
  more likely, part of the conspiracy itself
• Feeds the conspiracy

• Jonathan Alter (Newsweek)
• Woodrow Wilson (1915) was wrong when he said
  movies were like writing history w/lightning
• later, Oliver Stones JFKprovides its own form
  of reactive history
• Stone claims hes simply engaged in creative
  counter myth
• The truly brave film would be about Lee Harvey
  Oswald acting alone.

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Film as Propaganda

• A propaganda film is
• A film, often a documentary, produced for the
  express purpose of propaganda
• ie. convincing the viewer of a certain political
  point.
• However, propaganda is not limited to
  documentaries
• Many of Hwood WWII films were designed to create
• consensus at the expense of the enemy coming
  together
• tell women how to behave back on the homefront
• tell men how to behave when they returned from
  war
• Arguably one of the earliest propaganda films is
• Birth of a Nation (Griffith 1915)
• But maybe ALL film is propaganda
• Didactic/moral messages are embedded in
  entertainment
• Historical and moral concepts linked to appealing
  heroes
• Reaffirming cultural values
• Ques what do you think? Am I being paranoid.?

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Cultural imperialism?

• Tied to idea of propaganda
• American film reflects American values
• Cultural Imperialism
• The practice of promoting the culture and
  language of one nation in another
• Particularly when the former is a large powerful
  nation and the latter a small poor one.
• United States and the former Soviet Union
• Vs third world nations - a threat to a culture
  and way of life
• Americanisation US Cultural Imperialism
• Some countries, have policies
• that actively oppose Americanisation ie. quotas
  on the importation of American TV/film in Europe
  esp France
• US movies take the lion's share of Fr box office
• But US TV comes 2nd to French programs
• See Bill Grantham. America The Menace France's
  Feud with Hollywood http//www.worldpolicy.org/jo
  urnal/grantham.html

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Hollywood Film as Cultural Imperialism?

• Many critics would say YES!
• Hollywood film American values and America
  Dream
• Sell it to the world like McDonalds and Coke
• A way to conquer world through spreading the
  desire for US way of life
• Imperialism without violence or great cost
• However, others argue that US culture is world
  culture
• Derek Shearer (US Ambassador to Finland from
  1994-7)
• I argued to my Canadian audiences that Hollywood
  is not, per se, an American industry but
  rather, an entertainment industry that is located
  in California and belongs to the world. It is all
  about world culture and is uniquely open to the
  best entertainment talent in the world. Hollywood
  seeks it out and displays it to a global
  audience. This is commerce at its best, not
  cultural imperialism. Hollywood is about the
  spread of popular culture, not its destruction
  and I believe that the globalization of culture
  through movies, television, videos, CDS, and live
  performances is overwhelmingly a good thing. The
  next time that I serve as an ambassador you will
  still find me proudly saying, Hooray for
  Hollywood.
• Edited version appeared in LA Times May 13, 1998
• http//www.usembassy.fi/servlet/PageServer?Pageus
  missio/hollyw.html

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Hollywood and Americanisation

• Robert Harris (British)
• wrote novel on which Enigma (2001) was based
• Hollywood reduces world-changing events to
  slushy romances
• Americans rewrite history so they always came
  out on top
• American film as a form of cultural imperialism
• This domination of the popular imagination has
  been allowed to go to ridiculous lengths.
• British and European films now unfortunately
  incorporating these elements
• This is worrying and quite dangerous

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Film and History

• What is a films relationship to history?
• Good Authentic? a record of the past
• Bad Misrepresentation? a contemporary image of
  the past
• Good but awareness to new generation who might
  not know
• D. W. Griffith argued that motion pictures would
  revolutionize the way history was taught just
  show films to students
• Eg. Billy Joel We didnt start the fire
  Passion of the Christ
• The key films ability to record reality
  faithfully
• Film mechanical reproduction objective -
  neutral
• Many critics argue that films HAVE to be accurate
• But can they be?
• Do not expect historical accuracy from any film
• How do the filmmakers know how ancient Greeks
  really spoke like, acted like etc?
• History is written by the winners
• Read/watch all texts with suspicion
• For a chart of JFKs film-to-history accuracy
  see mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jfkmovie.htm

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Objectivity?

• Can films offer an objective account of real
  life? OR
• Do they always reflect prevailing social
  attitudes?
• And if so can we interpret those social attitudes
  accurately from the film?
• Probably not,
• fictional films are complex industrial and social
  products
• How they are made/received must be investigated
  to evaluate them as historical evidence
• The attitudes in a film can be compromises
• Different films have different attitudes toward
  events at the same time
• In the 1980s, not all films reflected Reaganite
  politics
• Broad audience and want to make money
• offer a variety of kinds of films in terms of
  what social attitudes are presented (although
  mainly mainstream)

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Stone Style

• How does JFK convince you of authenticity?
• Critics vs the film complained that
• Stone mixed fact and conjecture so seamlessly
  that it is difficult to find the difference.
• Stone solidified a brand new style of filmmaking
  a mix, a pastiche, a montage film style from
  years in TV advertising
• different film stocks colour and black and white
  film
• camera angles stock footage and recreated
• documentary style with Classical Hollywood
  narration/style
• docudrama (tv or movie dramatisation based on
  fact
• Undermines any stable notion of truth
• Powerful and convincing film (Sharrett)
• Even though it flags up its own construction as a
  text
• Even though it exposes how visual texts are
  manipulated
• it seduces us with effect
• Ie we buy his version of the event

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William D. Romanowski Oliver Stones JFK
Commercial Filmmaking, Cultural History, and
Conflict.

• By examining how Stone constructed his narrative
  about the assassination, we can observe the
  complexity of
• turning historical subject matter into a
  commercially successful film
• in the classic Hollywood narrative style
• while also uncovering Stone's version of the
  assassination.
• Moreover, the box office success of the movie and
  the concurrent debate indicated more than mere
  fascination with the Kennedy assassination.
• The whole affair demonstrated how effective a
  motion picture can be as a transmitter of
  knowledge, history, and culture. The JFK
  controversy was a telling incident demonstrating
  the larger cultural conflict over values and
  meaning in America and the competition to define
  national identity.
• LA Times film critic Jack Mathews said,
  "Filmmakers have a tacit responsibility not to
  lie or distort truth when truth is the very thing
  they claim to present" (25).
• however, Stone's co-scriptor Zachary Sklar
  argued, "Since nobody agrees on anything, nobody
  is distorting history. The only official history
  is the Warren Commission report, and that nobody
  believes" (qtd. in Conant 67).