Here's Looking at You: Hollywood, Film, and Politics

by Giglio, Ernest

• ISBN13: 9780820444215
• ISBN10: 0820444219
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Inc

Summary

Here's Looking at You examines the relationship between Hollywood films and the world of real politics, from the silent era to the dawn of the new millennium. What is discovered contradicts the film industry's patented response that the only messages its films deliver are messages intended for entertainment. While the vast majority of commercial features are designed to attract a mass audience, Hollywood has produced several hundred films that contain political messages. These range from D. W. Griffith's silent classic, The Birth of a Nation, to recent entries like Wag the Dog, Primary Colors, and Bulworth.

Author Biography

Ernest Giglio is Professor of Politics and American Studies and Director of International Studies at Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Hollywood and Washington: The Marriage of Film and Politics	1	(18)
Defining the Political Film: From Riefenstahl to the Three Stooges	19	(16)
Nonfiction Film: Investigating the Real	35	(20)
Flesh and Blood: Regulating Sex and Violence on Screen	55	(18)
HUAC and the Blacklist: The Red Scare Comes to Hollywood	73	(20)
Reel Politics: American Politicians on Screen	93	(24)
Picturing Justice: Law and Lawyers in Hollywood Films	117	(26)
Hollywood Goes to War: From the Great War to the Good War	143	(28)
Remembering Vietnam: The War on Film	171	(16)
Hollywood Confronts the Nuclear Holocaust	187	(20)
Political Film in the Next Century	207	(12)
Notes	219	(24)
Select Bibliography	243	(6)
Filmography	249	(20)
Index	269