History, Film and Television in Cold War America

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History, Film and Television in Cold War America
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Film, TV, and Teaching History

• Film need not substitute for reading and writing
• Encourage background research or use as
  springboard for engaging students in historical
  inquiry
• Weaknesses of film
• Lack of historical accuracy
• Dramatic license and dependence on non-historical
  plots

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Analyzing Film and TV

• Examine a film in terms of how its production and
  the audience reception reflects the cultural
  milieu of the historical period
• Use contemporary film reviews as window
• Recognize Hollywood as dominated by econ and pol
  structure, thus question what is presented and
  what is missing
• Can also look at Hollywood as an industry and the
  political and cultural battles (censorship, war,
  etc)
• Can study films as representation of the past
  (i.e.interpretation) evidence of social and
  cultural history (values and concerns of society
  at that time) actuality footage or as evidence
  for history (Murrow show on McCarthy)

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Communism and Post-War films

• Impact of 1947 Hollywood hearings
• Anti-Communism films
• Big Jim McClain (1952)
• Wayne as HUAC investigator uncovering commie
  subversives in HI
• My John Son (1952)
• Parents denounce Ivy League educated son for
  being duped by commies
• Red Menace (1949)
• All commies agents of USSR
• Red Nightmare (1962)
• Life under commie rule

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Communism and Post-War film

• Informing Films
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• Brandos longshoremen character exposes
  fraudulent union activity
• High Noon (1952)
• Condemnation of Hollywoods failure to stand
  against pol censorship

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Cold War Science Fiction FilmThe Bomb, Invasion,
and Anxiety

• Day Earth Stood Still
• Them!
• On the Beach
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Politics, Cold War, and 60s America

• Challenging and Questioning Cold War
• Context of civil rights, Cuban Missile Crisis,
  Vietnam, Protests
• Dr. Strangelove (1964)
• Establishment not only irrational and anti-comm
  threatens security and world
• Star Trek critiques cold war and offers social
  commentary
• Planet of the Apes Race and humanity
• Counter-culture and Youth rebellion
• The Graduate
• Easy Rider
• Mod Squad

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Cold War Defended and Revisited

• Challenging Vietnam Protests
• Green Berets (1968)
• Patton (1970)
• Reagan and Cold War Revived
• Rambo
• Red Dawn