The Hollywood Feature Film as Historical Artifact

Briley | The Hollywood Feature Film as Historical Artifact Ron Briley Sandia Preparatory School The Hollywood Feature Film as Historical Artifact Ë or the last ten years I have enjoyed teaching a class for college-bound high school seniors which uses Hollywood feature films as primary sources through which to investigate the formation of American values and ideology in the period between the Great Depression and Watergate in the early 1970s-a period rich in film and history. Essentially, I attempt to use film, just as one might consider other sources of popular culture such as music or novels, to examine the manifestation of popular attitudes and ideas in historical context. The films are screened in chronological order (with some exceptions which will be noted) with considerable attention given to reading which will place these primary sources within historical context. Accordingly, students are required to do a great deal of reading to provide some perspective through which to view the films as historical artifacts. I have used historical surveys such as William Chafe's The Unfinished Journey and A History of Our Times, in addition to film sources such as Hollywood'sAmerica by Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts. Also Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique and The Autobiography ofMalcolm X have proven invaluable in providing historical background. In conjuction with this background reading, Hollywood feature films from the 1930s to the early 1970s contribute a primary source through which many of the values and ideas discussed by scholars become meaningful for a student body better adjusted to the medium offilm than print. After priming my students with some discussion of film techniques and visual literacy contained in such references as Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, we begin the screening offilms in a film lab period. The schedule for each week consists of historical introduction, screening of the film followed by discussion, and a synthesis provided by writing on each film. The course tends to work better when it is possible to screen films in one setting, but the inclusion of film also works with the use ofkey scenes if time for viewing a complete film is not possible. I begin my course with the gangster epic PuWic Enemy (1931) and IAm a Fugitivefrom a Chain Gang (1932) in order to depict the nadir of the early depression years when there was a lack of faith in American institutions and happy endings . I continue the depression unit with screenings ofIt Happened One Night (1934) which suggests that perhaps by the mid 1930s with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal hope was returning to the American people. Or perhaps director Frank Capra and Hollywood were just papering over what were real class conflicts in American society . Other depression films which I have found useful include Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) and the John Ford production ofSteinbeck's Grapes ofWrath (1940). Both films provoke good discussion regarding their political messages and how such messages are undermined or brought along by visual elements within the films. The next part of 82 I Film & History Regular Feature | Pedagogy the course focuses upon World War II and the events leading up to that conflict. For the consideration of anti-war feelings in the 1930s, we screen Duci Soup (1933) featuring the Marx Brothers, but it is important to note that this film represented the only real financial flop for the popular comedy family during the 1930s. Perhaps their comic attack on the state and patriotism went too far for many audiences. For the Hollywood campaign to enter the war we screen Chaplin's The GreatDictator (1940) and Casablanca (1942). Although realeased after American entrance into the war, the classic Casablanca offers an allegory on American foreign policy between the wars which students are able to readily follow. For the examination of fascism and whether such an ideology could make itself felt in America we consider Capra's MeetJohn Doe (1941) in which an unscrupulous newspaper editor seeks to manipulate Gary Cooper's naive John Doe into supporting dicatatorship. The film goes well with discussions of Huey Long and Father Coughlin. For the war itself Hollywood offers numerous possibilities, but I would recommend...