World Politics on Screen: Understanding International Relations through Popular Culture

Conclusion: Messages and World Politics

Conclusion messages and World PolItICs Art and politics frequently intersect in many ways. This book has focused on the intersection of film and world politics. Films have the ability to shape the ways in which we view the world. In the previous chapter it was noted that an excellent film about Oskar Schindler, Schindler’s List (1993), created a cultural touchstone by which people could make common references. People who performed similar acts are now known as alternative Schindlers, or they are at least compared to him.1 An episode of the television series Seinfeld, “The Raincoats” (1994), highlighted the importance of the film to both the Jewish community and society at large, comically signaling why the film should be treated reverently. Given the power of cinema to establish the framework of discussions, to inform people, and to create a narrative, it should be no surprise that film and television are important in understanding world politics today. For as long as there have been films (and popular culture), there have been disagreements, controversies, and arguments over their influence. Film is a place where there are ongoing conversations, where battles occur over what is, or should be, culture.2 At times the struggle has been about what is shown on the screen. Some boycotts are concerned with how certain individuals or groups of individuals have been portrayed,3 while other protests about films are concerned about the messages, content, or visions portrayed. For example, in the early 1930s the Legion of Decency, a Catholic organization, routinely called for boycotts of films that were deemed morally objectionable.4 Religious groups, particularly in the United States, have often advocated protests or boycotts of films that they find offensive.5 The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), a film that depicted Jesus as a human racked by doubts and fears, resulted in a firestorm of protests from religious leaders.6 Other protests have been organized against films that run counter 181 182 World Politics on Screen to an accepted political message. Thus, films like Our Leading Citizen (1939) were boycotted because of perceived anti-union sentiments.7 Suffice it to say, films and television programs are contested forms of art precisely because of their ability to set and shape political agendas and attitudes.8 Political Messages This book has attempted to demonstrate that there are messages in most films produced throughout the history of moving pictures. Some of these messages are overt; many are presumably unintentional or simply a part of the culture that produces the work.9 As the twentieth century progressed, it became apparent to many that being able to control and manipulate media was a potentially important power to be acquired. The prospect of being manipulated, especially by governments, was something that a number of writers worried about in the middle of the twentieth century. There is no doubt that world events helped to shape many writers’ fears. The ability of Soviet and Nazi propaganda to mobilize people concerned a number of writers. Perhaps what is interesting, and what makes propaganda still relevant, is not that writers necessarily feared individual regimes, but that these regimes demonstrated how easily people could be manipulated. Thus George Orwell demonstrates how propaganda shapes politics in his novels 1984 (filmed in 1956 and 1984) and Animal Farm (filmed in 1954 and 1999); Ray Bradbury speculates how the manipulation of people could have dire consequences in novels such as Fahrenheit 451; Aldous Huxley examines the effects of brainwashing in Brave New World. Moving images have become a sophisticated art in the modern world; however, the moving image is not limited to art and entertainment. It has become an essential tool of advertising and marketing (in fact, some would call it manipulation). The goal of many television advertisements is to create lifelong customers. Television advertisements, for example, rely on pathos, sentiment, and vanity to encourage consumers to purchase their products—and to do so again and again. As such, television advertising has become a major industry, one that, some have argued, has the ability to shape cultures and habits.10 Given the success of commercial enterprises, we should not be surprised that there will be people who attempt to modify or sway the public’s opinion about world politics. There is nothing new about this. Films that attempt to persuade date back to the very early days of cinema, and the practice Conclusion 183 has evolved and...