The Cold War had an incredibly profound effect on the United States. It effected the country politically, economically, as well as culturally. Use High Noon as an allegory of the 1950 s to examine issues of conformity, individualism, community, and political commitment in the context of Congressional investigations such as that of HUAC into the activities of the Hollywood 10. In this scenario, Marshal Will Kane represents individuals who were willing to confront the political investigations of HUAC, while the townspeople who deserted him may represent liberals who were afraid of being blacklisted or censured.
Use On the Waterfront as an allegory of why some witnesses deemed it proper to name names before Congressional committees. Director Elia Kazan did appear as a cooperative witness before HUAC, and the film may be interpreted as a justification for his actions. Thus, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) decides he must inform on his former friends in a corrupt waterfront union led by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb, who may represent the Communist party and the policies of Joseph Stalin. ) In the context of the pressure put on Hollywood by HUAC to ‘name names’ and implicate associates who may have been involved in left wing causes, films began to explore the theme of informing. One such example, On the Waterfront (1954), was directed by Elia Kazan, who had earlier decided to cooperate with HUAC.
The decision by longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to expose the fraudulent activities of the union, led by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), may be perceived as justification for Kazan’s denouncing of a corrupt Stalinist Communist party. On the other hand, Carl Foreman’s script for High Noon, which John Wayne called un-American, can be read as a condemnation of Hollywood’s failure to take a stand against political censorship. In this allegory, the Miller gang represents HUAC, while Marshal Will Kane stands for the Hollywood Ten deserted by the townspeople and the liberals respectively. Foreman’s success with High Noon earned Oscar nominations for the film, but the screenwriter was placed on the blacklist. In the end, this western reveals little about the history of the frontier, but a great deal regarding the ideological and political fallout from the Cold War.
The Research paper on Political films
The research paper “The Timing of Presidential Cinema” discusses and analyzes social meaning of political films. Little research is done in this filed, although many films contain political and economic meaning. Interestingly, the release of presidential cinema is associated with the controlling party and with the ideology that the party has in the White House. Republican and Democratic ...
While the allegorical devices used in On the Waterfront and High Noon were obvious to the Hollywood community, they were often lost on film audiences for whom the insecurities of the Cold War were better addressed in science-fiction films. With the advent of the civil rights movement, near nuclear war in the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of John Kennedy, war in Vietnam, and the rise of a counter-culture, many films of the 1960 s began to question the assumptions of the Cold War, anticommunism, and consensus values. In Dr. Strangelove (1964), director Stanley Kubrick suggests that the emperor wears no clothes, and that the establishment is not only irrational but leading us to destruction. According to the films of the 1950 s, anticommunism would protect us against subversion, but in Dr. Strangelove the communist paranoia of General Jack D.
Ripper (Sterling Hayden) destroys America and the world. This dark satire censured right wing generals and liberal presidents, while foreshadowing many of the themes prevalent in later antiestablishment films of the 1960 s. The Cold War had an incredibly profound effect on the United States. It effected the country politically, economically, as well as culturally. Use High Noon as an allegory of the 1950 s to examine issues of conformity, individualism, community, and political commitment in the context of Congressional investigations such as that of HUAC into the activities of the Hollywood 10. In this scenario, Marshal Will Kane represents individuals who were willing to confront the political investigations of HUAC, while the townspeople who deserted him may represent liberals who were afraid of being blacklisted or censured.
The Essay on Taking Place Viewer Film War
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a classic film depicting, with much humor and irony, the strain and tension that the cold war wrought on America and the world. There are many aspects that make this film the work of art that it is, and, perhaps most importantly, they come together brilliantly to create something truly memorable. ...
Use On the Waterfront as an allegory of why some witnesses deemed it proper to name names before Congressional committees. Director Elia Kazan did appear as a cooperative witness before HUAC, and the film may be interpreted as a justification for his actions. Thus, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) decides he must inform on his former friends in a corrupt waterfront union led by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb, who may represent the Communist party and the policies of Joseph Stalin. ) In the context of the pressure put on Hollywood by HUAC to ‘name names’ and implicate associates who may have been involved in left wing causes, films began to explore the theme of informing.
One such example, On the Waterfront (1954), was directed by Elia Kazan, who had earlier decided to cooperate with HUAC. The decision by longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to expose the fraudulent activities of the union, led by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), may be perceived as justification for Kazan’s denouncing of a corrupt Stalinist Communist party. On the other hand, Carl Foreman’s script for High Noon, which John Wayne called un-American, can be read as a condemnation of Hollywood’s failure to take a stand against political censorship. In this allegory, the Miller gang represents HUAC, while Marshal Will Kane stands for the Hollywood Ten deserted by the townspeople and the liberals respectively.
Foreman’s success with High Noon earned Oscar nominations for the film, but the screenwriter was placed on the blacklist. In the end, this western reveals little about the history of the frontier, but a great deal regarding the ideological and political fallout from the Cold War. While the allegorical devices used in On the Waterfront and High Noon were obvious to the Hollywood community, they were often lost on film audiences for whom the insecurities of the Cold War were better addressed in science-fiction films. With the advent of the civil rights movement, near nuclear war in the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of John Kennedy, war in Vietnam, and the rise of a counter-culture, many films of the 1960 s began to question the assumptions of the Cold War, anticommunism, and consensus values. In Dr. Strangelove (1964), director Stanley Kubrick suggests that the emperor wears no clothes, and that the establishment is not only irrational but leading us to destruction.
The Term Paper on Film Noir War Dark Women
Dames, Coppers, and Crooks: A Look At Film Noir Film noir is a style of black and white American films that first evolved in the 1940 s, became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in a classic "Golden Age" period until about 1960. Frank Nino, a French film critic, first coined the label film noir, which literally means black film or cinema, in 1946. Nino noticed the trend of how "dark" and ...
According to the films of the 1950 s, anticommunism would protect us against subversion, but in Dr. Strangelove the communist paranoia of General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) destroys America and the world. This dark satire censured right wing generals and liberal presidents, while foreshadowing many of the themes prevalent in later antiestablishment films of the 1960 s. Reference sAnderson, Lindsay, ‘The Last Sequence of ‘On the Waterfront’, Sight & Sound, 24, 3, 1955, pp.
127-30; see also the reply by Robert Hughes, Sight & Sound, 24, 4, 1955. Hey, Kenneth, ‘Ambivalence as a Theme in ‘On the Waterfront’, in Peter C. Rollins, ed. , Hollywood as Historian, Revised edition, 1998.
Medved, Michael. Hollywood vs. America. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Sayre, Nora. Running Time: Films of the Cold War.
New York: The Dial Press, 1982.
