DOCSLIB.ORG

Ps 252: Political Films

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ps 252: Political Films PS 252a/FS352: POLITICAL FILMS Dr. James Rhoads Spring 2014 Patterson Hall 303 MC 219 Office Hours: M 12:00-3:00pm W 2:00-5:00 and by appointment Phone: x7255 Course Objectives: The purpose of this directed discussion course is to explore the relationship between film (as an expression of popular culture) and the political realm. We will examine films that are, in the words of scholar Michael Genovese, both politically “explicit” and “implicit.” It is hoped that the course will further stimulate the student to consider the connections between popular culture and political behavior in these media saturated times. Course Requirements: The class will be conducted in both a lecture and a discussion format. Students will be expected to participate fully in class discussions. Throughout the course students are required to attend each class and keep abreast of their reading assignments. During the term two exams and two “reaction” essays will be required. Additionally, students will make a group presentation, (during the Final Period), examining and analyzing a political film. Text: Giglio, E. 2007. Here’s Looking At You: Hollywood, Film & Politics. Peter Lang: New York. Grading: Grades will be determined on the basis of this scale: 2 Exams @ 100 points each 200 2 Reaction Essays @ 25 points each 50 1 Final Presentation @ 100 points 100 Attendance & Participation 25 TOTAL POINTS 375 Letter Grades will be based on this scale: A 93-100% C 73-76%% A- 90-92% C- 70-72% B+ 87-89% D+ 67-69% B 83-86% D 63-66% B- 80-82% D- 60-62% C+ 77-79% F Below 60% TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES Wed Jan 15 Intro/“The In-Laws”/ Discussion READING: Chapter 1 Wed Jan 22 “Argo”/Discussion READING: Chapter 2 Wed Jan 29 “Capitalism: A Love Story”/Discussion READING: Chapter 3 Wed Feb 5 “Ides of March”/ Discussion 1st Reaction Essay Due READING: Chapter 4 Wed Feb 12 “Good Night, and Good Luck”/ Discussion READING: Chapter 5 Wed Feb 19 “Advise and Consent”/ Discussion Reading: Chapter 6 Wed Feb 26 "Frost/Nixon"/ Discussion/ FIRST EXAM DUE Wed Mar 5 “Inherit the Wind”/ Discussion Wed Mar 19 “The Client”/ Discussion READING: Chapter 7 Wed Mar 26 “Zero Dark Thirty”/ Discussion/ Reading: Chapters 8 & 9 Wed Apr 3 “Dr. Strangelove”/ Discussion 2nd Reaction Essay Due READING: Chapter 10 Wed Apr 10 “The Believer” / Discussion READING: Chapter 11 Wed Apr 17 “Breach”/ Discussion Wed Apr 24 "Charade"/ Discussion/ SECOND EXAM DUE Wed Apr 30 NO CLASS (URAC) Fri May 9 FINAL EXAM PERIOD 8:00-10:30am FILMS “Advise & Consent” (1962): Starring – Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton [139 min] “Argo” (2013): Starring – Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston [120 min] “The Believer” (2001): Starring – Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix [102 min] “Breach” (2007): Starring – Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillipe [110 min] “Capitalism: A Love Story” (2010): Starring – Michael Moore [127 min] "Charade" (1963): Starring – Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn [113 min] “The Client” (1994): Starring – Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Renfro [119 min] “Death of a President” (2006): Starring – Hend Ayoub, Brian Boland [97 min] “Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)” (1964): Starring – Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden [93 min] "Frost/Nixon" (2008): Starring – Frank Langella, Michael Sheen [122 min] “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005): Starring – David Straitharn [93 min] “Ides of March” (2011): Starring – Ryan Gosling, George Clooney [101 min] “Inherit the Wind” (1960): Starring – Spencer Tracy, Fredric March [128 min] “The In-Laws” (1979): Starring – Peter Falk, Alan Arkin [103 min] “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) -- Starring: Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt [157 min] .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 31 Days of Oscar® 2010 Schedule
    31 DAYS OF OSCAR® 2010 SCHEDULE Monday, February 1 6:00 AM Only When I Laugh (’81) (Kevin Bacon, James Coco) 8:15 AM Man of La Mancha (’72) (James Coco, Harry Andrews) 10:30 AM 55 Days at Peking (’63) (Harry Andrews, Flora Robson) 1:30 PM Saratoga Trunk (’45) (Flora Robson, Jerry Austin) 4:00 PM The Adventures of Don Juan (’48) (Jerry Austin, Viveca Lindfors) 6:00 PM The Way We Were (’73) (Viveca Lindfors, Barbra Streisand) 8:00 PM Funny Girl (’68) (Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif) 11:00 PM Lawrence of Arabia (’62) (Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole) 3:00 AM Becket (’64) (Peter O’Toole, Martita Hunt) 5:30 AM Great Expectations (’46) (Martita Hunt, John Mills) Tuesday, February 2 7:30 AM Tunes of Glory (’60) (John Mills, John Fraser) 9:30 AM The Dam Busters (’55) (John Fraser, Laurence Naismith) 11:30 AM Mogambo (’53) (Laurence Naismith, Clark Gable) 1:30 PM Test Pilot (’38) (Clark Gable, Mary Howard) 3:30 PM Billy the Kid (’41) (Mary Howard, Henry O’Neill) 5:15 PM Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (’37) (Henry O’Neill, Frank McHugh) 6:45 PM One Way Passage (’32) (Frank McHugh, William Powell) 8:00 PM The Thin Man (’34) (William Powell, Myrna Loy) 10:00 PM The Best Years of Our Lives (’46) (Myrna Loy, Fredric March) 1:00 AM Inherit the Wind (’60) (Fredric March, Noah Beery, Jr.) 3:15 AM Sergeant York (’41) (Noah Beery, Jr., Walter Brennan) 5:30 AM These Three (’36) (Walter Brennan, Marcia Mae Jones) Wednesday, February 3 7:15 AM The Champ (’31) (Marcia Mae Jones, Walter Beery) 8:45 AM Viva Villa! (’34) (Walter Beery, Donald Cook) 10:45 AM The Pubic Enemy
    [Show full text]
  • John Caglione, Jr
    JOHN CAGLIONE, JR. Make-Up Designer IATSE 798 and 706 FILM BROKEN CITY Personal Make-Up Artist to Russell Crowe Director: Allen Hughes PHIL SPECTOR Personal Make-Up Artist to Al Pacino Director: David Mamet TOWER HEIST Department Head Director: Brett Ratner ON THE ROAD Special Make-Up Effects Director: Walter Salles Cast: Viggo Mortensen THE SMURFS Department Head Director: Raja Gosnell YOU DON’T KNOW JACK Personal Make-Up Artist to Al Pacino Director: Barry Levinson Nominee: Emmy Award for Outstanding Make-Up for a Miniseries or Movie SALT Department Head Director: Philip Noyce STATE OF PLAY Personal Make-Up Artist to Russell Crowe Director: Kevin Macdonald THE DARK KNIGHT Personal Make-Up Artist to Heath Ledger Director: Christopher Nolan Nominee: Academy Award for Best Achievement in Make-Up Nominee: Saturn Award for Best Make-Up 3:10 TO YUMA Personal Make-Up Artist to Russell Crowe Director: James Mangold AMERICAN GANGSTER Personal Make-Up Artist to Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott THE DEPARTED Department Head Make-Up and Department Head Effects Make-Up Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Vera Farmiga, Ray Winstone, Kristen Dalton TENDERNESS Department Head Director: John Polson Cast: Russell Crowe, Laura Dern, Jon Foster, Tonya Clarke THE MILTON AGENCY John Caglione, Jr. 6715 Hollywood Blvd #206, Los Angeles, CA 90028 Make-Up Telephone: 323.466.4441 Facsimile: 323.460.4442 IATSE 798 & 706 [email protected] www.miltonagency.com Page 1 of 4 MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND Department Head Director: Ivan Reitman Cast: Luke Wilson, Anna
    [Show full text]
  • The 48 Stars That People Like Less Than Anne Hathaway  by Nate Jones
    The 48 Stars That People Like Less Than Anne Hathaway By Nate Jones Spend a few minutes reading blog comments, and you might assume that Anne Hathaway’s approval rating falls somewhere between that of Boko Haram and paper cuts — but you'd actually be completely wrong. According to E-Poll likability data we factored into Vulture's Most Valuable Stars list, the braying hordes of Hathaway haters are merely a very vocal minority. The numbers say that most people actually like her. Even more shocking? Who they like her more than. In calculating their E-Score Celebrity rankings, E-Poll asked people how much they like a particular celebrity on a six-point scale, which ranged from "like a lot" to "dislike a lot." The resulting Likability percentage is the number of respondents who indicated they either "like" Anne Hathaway or "like Anne Hathaway a lot." Hathaway's 2014 Likability percentage was 67 percent — up from 66 percent in 2013 — which doesn't quite make her Will Smith (85 percent), Sandra Bullock (83 percent), Jennifer Lawrence (76 percent), or even Liam Neeson (79 percent), but it does put her well above plenty of stars whose appeal has never been so furiously impugned on Twitter. Why? Well, why not? Anne Hathaway is a talented actress and seemingly a nice person. The objections to her boiled down to two main points: She tries too hard, and she's overexposed. But she's been absent from the screen since 2012'sLes Misérables, so it's hard to call her overexposed now. And trying too hard isn't the worst thing in the world, especially when you consider the alternative.
    [Show full text]
  • Variety Announces This Year's 10 Actors to Watch
    VARIETY ANNOUNCES THIS YEAR’S 10 ACTORS TO WATCH Marks Five Years of Collaboration With The Hamptons International Film Festival Variety is pleased to announce its annual list of 10 Actors to Watch, an honor the publication has bestowed since 1998. Past honorees include many future Oscar winners and nominees such as Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Shannon and Melissa Leo. This year’s honorees will be feted in the Oct. 4 issue of Variety, in conjunction with coverage of the Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs Oct. 6-10. This marks the fifth year Variety has collaborated with the festival to present Actors to Watch. "The Hamptons International Film Festival has had the privilege of honoring rising talent for over 15 years. We are thrilled to once again partner with Variety to recognize this group of ten diverse, talented actors for the incredible work they have done in their careers," says David Nugent, HIFF Artistic Director. "As we have seen our previous honorees blossom over the years, with just this year Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander both taking home Academy Awards, we know this class has a bright future ahead of them." Added Vice President/Executive Editor of Variety Steven Gaydos, “As the Fall film awards season approaches, there may be questions about which films will ultimately shine as prize winners, but there is no doubt that once again this year's releases feature astounding new talents filled with creative courage and unlimited ‎potential for bright careers.
    [Show full text]
  • It's a Conspiracy
    IT’S A CONSPIRACY! As a Cautionary Remembrance of the JFK Assassination—A Survey of Films With A Paranoid Edge Dan Akira Nishimura with Don Malcolm The only culture to enlist the imagination and change the charac- der. As it snows, he walks the streets of the town that will be forever ter of Americans was the one we had been given by the movies… changed. The banker Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a scrooge-like No movie star had the mind, courage or force to be national character, practically owns Bedford Falls. As he prepares to reshape leader… So the President nominated himself. He would fill the it in his own image, Potter doesn’t act alone. There’s also a board void. He would be the movie star come to life as President. of directors with identities shielded from the public (think MPAA). Who are these people? And what’s so wonderful about them? —Norman Mailer 3. Ace in the Hole (1951) resident John F. Kennedy was a movie fan. Ironically, one A former big city reporter of his favorites was The Manchurian Candidate (1962), lands a job for an Albu- directed by John Frankenheimer. With the president’s per- querque daily. Chuck Tatum mission, Frankenheimer was able to shoot scenes from (Kirk Douglas) is looking for Seven Days in May (1964) at the White House. Due to a ticket back to “the Apple.” Pthe events of November 1963, both films seem prescient. He thinks he’s found it when Was Lee Harvey Oswald a sleeper agent, a “Manchurian candidate?” Leo Mimosa (Richard Bene- Or was it a military coup as in the latter film? Or both? dict) is trapped in a cave Over the years, many films have dealt with political conspira- collapse.
    [Show full text]
  • Film Essay for "The Best Years of Our Lives"
    The Best Years of Our Lives Homer By Gabriel Miller Wermels (Harold Russell), a “The Best Years of Our Lives” originated in a recommen- seaman, who dation from producer Samuel Goldwyn's wife that he read has long a “Time” magazine article entitled "The Way Home" been en- (1944), about Marines who were having difficulty readjust- gaged to the ing to life after returning home from the war. Goldwyn girl next door. hired novelist MacKinlay Kantor, who had flown missions He returns as a correspondent with the Eighth Air Force and the from the war Royal Air Force (and would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize a spastic, in 1955 for his Civil War novel “Andersonville”), to use that unable to article as the basis for a fictional adaptation of approxi- control his mately 100 pages. Inexplicably, Kantor turned in a novel movements. in verse that ran closer to 300 pages. Goldwyn could barely follow it, and he wanted to shelve the project but Sherwood was talked into letting Kantor work on a treatment. and Wyler made some William Wyler, his star director, returned to Goldwyn significant Studios in 1946, having been honorably discharged from changes that the Air Force as a colonel, also receiving the Legion of added more Merit Award. Wyler's feelings about his life and profession complexity had changed: "The war had been an escape into reality … and dramatic Only relationships with people who might be dead tomor- force to the row were important." Wyler still owed Goldwyn one more story. In film, and the producer wanted him to make “The Bishop's Kantor's ver- Wife” with David Niven.
    [Show full text]
  • Writer of the Peter Falk Act (“Columbo”)
    Catherine Falk Founder, Catherine Falk Foundation; Writer of the Peter Falk Act (“Columbo”) http://www.caregiversummit.org/portfolio/6318/ (Columbo)The Falk Family: Peter Falk & Alyce Falk with Daughters, Jackie & Catherine Peter Falk: Financial Exploitation of the Elderly! 2003 Peter Falk (Columbo) Family Tribute 2015 ‘Columbo’ daughter pushes for bill that protects the right to visit sick parents http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/06/columbos-daughter-p ushes-for-bill-that-protects-right-to-visit-sick-parents.html Actor Peter Falk’s Daughter Urges Change in Colorado Law to promote Guardianship rights Actor Peter Falk’s Daughter Pushing For Change In Legal Guardianship Law DENVER (CBS4) – Some Colorado lawmakers want to strip some the decision making power from legal guardians, and they’re getting help from the daughter of a famous actor. The bill is named after Peter Falk, the actor who played Columbo on TV. What it does seems basic — it simply allows families to see their loved ones when they become incapacitated. It’s about the power of guardians and the rights of some of the most vulnerable Coloradans. Peter Falk was known to TV viewers as the disheveled, endearing detective Columbo. Catherine Falk knew him as “Dad. “He was exactly the same on screen as off screen,” Catherine Falk said. “He was just this tender, really funny, goofy person.” But Peter Falk’s life would take a tragic turn when he developed Alzheimer’s disease. His second wife isolated him, forcing his daughter to go to probate court just to see her father before he died.
    [Show full text]
  • Adventure Playground: Essentially, to a Place of Pleasure—That Today It Surrounds Us, Everywhere, Having Quietly John V
    The city’s onscreen prominence is so taken for granted today that it is hard to imagine that as late as 1965, the last year of Robert F. Wagner’s mayoralty, New York hardly appeared in films at all. That year, only two features were shot substantially in the city: The Pawnbroker, an early landmark in the career of veteran New York director Sidney Lumet, and A Thousand Clowns, directed by Fred Coe, which used extensive location work to “open up” a Broadway stage hit of a few years earlier by the playwright Herb Gardner. The big change came with Wagner’s successor, John V. Lindsay—who, soon after taking office in 1966, made New York the first city in history to encourage location filmmaking: establishing a simple, one-stop permit process through a newly created agency (now called the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting), creating a special unit of the Police Department to assist filmmakers, and ordering all city agencies and departments to cooperate with producers and directors (1). The founding of the Mayor’s Film Office—the first agency of its kind in the world—remains to this day one of the Lindsay administration’s signal achievements, an innovation in governance which has been replicated by agencies or commissions in almost every city and state in the Union, and scores of countries and provinces around the world. In New York, it helped to usher in a new industry, now generating over five billion dollars a year in economic activity and bringing work to more than 100,000 New Yorkers: renowned directors and stars, working actors and technicians, and tens of thousands of men and women employed by supporting businesses—from equipment rental houses, to scenery shops, to major studio complexes that now rival those of Southern California.
    [Show full text]
  • Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1949)
    1 Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1949) In the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Samuel Goldwyn, MGM, and David Selznick were wooing him, Laurence Olivier chose not to become a movie star “like dear Cary.” After playing Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1939), Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Maxim Dewinter in Rebecca (1940), he appeared in Hollywood pictures sparingly and tried to avoid a fixed persona. He nevertheless became the symbol of what midcentury America thought of as a distinguished actor, and was the most successful English theatrical type in the movies. He wasn’t romantically flamboyant (Orson Welles was closer to that), he wasn’t a naturalist like the students of the Method, he wasn’t a Brechtian, and he wasn’t the sort of movie actor who plays variations on a single character. He belonged instead to a school of disciplined, tastefully romantic verisimilitude, and within that school was a master. He was also the best-known Shakespearian in films. Olivier often said that his favorite movie role was the working-class comedian Archie Rice in The Entertainer (1960), but his performances in the Shakespeare films that he directed are more representative of his skills and more significant in film history. Based on canonical texts with a long performance history, they foreground his stylistic choices 2 and make his influences relatively easy to identify. His version of Hamlet (1949), for example, seems to derive pretty equally from the English romantics, Sigmund Freud, and William Wyler. These sources are not so eclectic as they might appear. Romantic-realist ideas of narrative shaped nearly all feature films of the period; Wyler had been the director of Wuthering Heights and at one point was scheduled to direct Olivier’s production of Henry V; and Olivier’s conceptions of character and performance are similar to the ones that shaped Hollywood in the 1940s, when Freud was in vogue.
    [Show full text]
  • DGA Template
    DGA 70YEARS The Early Show The founders of the Guild were not businessmen or labor leaders. They were active directors who understood the importance of protecting their creative rights. Here are some of them at their day jobs at the time. CONFEDERATE CON MEN: Roland V. Lee (bottom left) directing Jack Oakie (in top hat), Edward Arnold and Frances Farmer in The Toast of New York (1937), based on Photos: Photofest; (opposite) DGA Archives the life of Civil War-era speculator James Fisk. 82 dga quarterly GOING UP: Henry King (with glasses) directing the 1937 melodrama Seventh Heaven with James Stewart and Simone Simon (left) about a Parisian sewer worker who rescues a prostitute from the police. FRENCH KISS: Rouben Mamoulian’s stylish and tech- nically innovative musical fan- tasy, Love Me Tonight (1932), featured Jeanette MacDonald as a haughty princess courted by a Paris tailor (Maurice Chevalier). EMOTION PICTURES: Frank Borzage (far left), a two-time Oscar winner, gets the most out of a love scene in the rain between Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1932). INDIANS AHEAD: Stagecoach (1939) was John Ford’s first sound Western and helped elevate the genre above shoot-’em-ups between good guys and bad guys. It also Photos: (top) DGA Archives; (bottom) AMPAS; (opposite) Archives made John Wayne a star. dga quarterly 85 BACKSTAGE: A comedic Marion Davies plays a Georgia beauty who comes to Hollywood to be a star in Show People (1928), King Vidor’s last silent film. HIGH FLYING: Howard Hawks’ unsentimental adventure Only Angels Have Wings (1939) featured his typical hardened professionals, with Cary Grant as a mail pilot in South America and Rita Hayworth as his ex-girlfriend.
    [Show full text]
  • Classic Film Series
    Pay-as-you-wish Friday Nights! CLASSIC PAID Non-Profit U.S. Postage Permit #1782 FILM SERIES White Plains, NY Winter/Spring 2016 Pay-as-you-wish Friday Nights! Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series Join us for the New-York Historical Society’s film series, featuring opening remarks by notable directors, writers, actors, and historians. Justice in Film Explore how film has tackled social conflict, morality, and the perennial struggles between right and wrong that are waged from the highest levels of government to the smallest local communities. Entrance to the film series is included with Museum Admission during New-York Historical’s Pay-as-you-wish Friday Nights (6–8 pm). No advanced reservations. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 6 pm. New-York Historical Society Members receive priority. For more information on our featured films and speakers, please visit nyhistory.org/programs or call (212) 485-9205. Dale Gregory Vice President for Public Programs | Alex Kassl Manager of Public Programs | Hannah Donoghue Assistant Manager of Public Programs | Kate Yurkovsky Public Programs Assistant Classic Film Series Film Classic 170 Central Park170 West at Richard Gilder (77th Way Street) NY 10024New York, Publication Team: NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM LIBRARY Justice in Film Friday, February 12, 7 pm Don Pollard Don Pollard Don Doran Marissa Harold Shapiro Glory | 1989 | 122 min. Historians Edna Greene Medford and David W. Blight, in conversation with Harold Holzer, present this Civil War epic that follows the first all-black regiment as they fight for racial equality among their fellow Union Army officers as well as against the Confederates.
    [Show full text]
  • PUNKS! TOPICALITY and the 1950S GANGSTER BIO-PIC CYCLE
    cHAPTER 6 PUnKs! TOPIcALItY AnD tHe 1950s gANGSTER BIo-PIc cYcLe ------------------------------- PeteR stAnfield “This is a re-creation of an era. An era of jazz Jalopies Prohibition And Trigger-Happy Punks.” — Baby Face Nelson this essay examines a distinctive and coherent cycle of films, pro- duced in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which exploited the notoriety of Prohibition-era gangsters such as Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, Bonnie Parker, Ma Barker, Mad Dog Coll, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, and Legs Diamond. Despite the historical specificity of the gangsters portrayed in these “bio-pics,” the films each display a marked interest in relating their exploits to contemporary topical con- cerns. Not the least of these was a desire to exploit headline-grabbing, sensational stories of delinquent youth in the 1950s and to link these to equally sensational stories of punk hoodlums from 1920s and 1930s. In the following pages, some of the crossovers and overlaps between cycles of juvenile delinquency films and gangster bio-pics will be critically eval- uated. At the centre of analysis is the manner in which many of the films in the 1950s bio-pic gangster cycle present only a passing interest in pe- riod verisimilitude; producing a display of complex alignments between the historical and the contemporary. 185 peter stanfield DeLInQUENTS, gANGSTERs, AnD PUnKs In the 1950s, the representation of gangsters and of juvenile delinquents shared a common concern with explaining deviancy in terms of a rudi- mentary psychology,
    [Show full text]