Hollywood's White House : The American Presidency in Film and History

by Rollins, Peter C.; O'Connor, John E.

• ISBN13: 9780813122700
• ISBN10: 0813122708
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

From George Washington to George W. Bush, the essays in Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History probe the limitations, strengths, and weaknesses of film and television depictions of the executive office. Directors from Frank Capra to Oliver Stone have interpreted American history and reimagined the nation's highest office in order to inform, to entertain, to criticize, and to influence. It may not be entirely coincidental that the modern presidency and the film industry came of age in America at almost the same time. Footage, filmed after the fact in a number of cases, of Teddy Roosevelt charging triumphantly up San Juan Hill gave audiences what they wanted -- news of war and presidential courage -- and the early film industry what it required -- a string of financial successes, although not all such films were made for profit only.

Author Biography

Peter C. Rollins, Regents Professor of English and American Studies at Oklahoma State University, is editor of the journal Film & History and is author or editor of a number of books John E. O'Connor, professor of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University Newark, is founding editor of Film & History, and a much-admired pioneer in film and history studies

Table of Contents

Foreword	x
Richard Shenkman
Introduction	1	(18)
John E. O'Connor
Peter C. Rollins
Part One. Representing American Presidents
George Washington, The Crossing, and Revolutionary Leadership	19	(11)
Stuart Leibiger
The Adams Chronicles: Domesticating the American Presidency	30	(20)
Scott F. Stoddart
Jefferson in Love: The Framer Framed	50	(12)
Jim Welsh
Abraham Lincoln in John Ford's The Iron Horse: Both Trumpets and Silences	62	(14)
Andrew Piasecki
Redeeming Lincoln, Redeeming the South: Representations of Abraham Lincoln in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Historical Scholarship	76	(20)
Bryan Rommel-Ruiz
Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders: A Century of Leadership in Film	96	(19)
J. Tillapaugh
Wilson in Technicolor: An Appreciation	115	(10)
Donald E. Staples
A Juxtaposition of Conflicting Images: Hubert H. Humphrey and the Television Coverage of Chicago, 1968	125	(18)
Jaap Kooijman
Part Two. Hollywood'S ``Take'': the Presidency in Fiction Films
Motion Picture Presidents of the 1930s: Factual and Fictional Leaders for a Time of Crisis	143	(16)
Michael G. Krukones
Gabriel Over the White House (1933): William Randolph Hearst's Fascist Solution for the Great Depression	159	(21)
Deborah Carmichael
Populism, Pragmatism, and Political Reinvention: The Presidential Motif in the Films of Frank Capra	180	(13)
Ian Scott
The Absent President: Mr. Smith, The Candidate, and Bulworth	193	(13)
Linda Alkana
Who's In Charge Here? Technology and the Presidency in Fail-Safe (1964) and Colossus (1970)	206	(17)
Robert E. Hunter
The 100 Million$ Men: Presidential Action/Adventure Heroes of Independence Day (1996) and Air Force One (1997)	223	(11)
John Shelton Lawrence
A Man of His Word: Aaron Sorkin's American Presidents	234	(17)
Loren P. Quiring
Part Three. Closing in on the Present
Hollywood's Presidents, 1944--1996: The Primacy of Character	251	(12)
Peter C. Rollins
Richard Nixon as Dick (1999) and the Comedic Treatment of the Presidency	263	(12)
Charlene Etkind
``Biological Business-as-Usual'': The Beast in Oliver Stone's Nixon	275	(13)
Donald Whaley
Myth and Reality in the Hollywood Campaign Film: Primary Colors (1998) and The War Room (1994)	288	(21)
Myron A. Levine
Bestowing Knighthood: The Visual Aspects of Bill Clinton's Camelot Legacy	309	(11)
Luc Herman
Hollywood, Impersonation, and Presidential Celebrity in the 1990s	320	(13)
David Haven Blake
Television Satire and the Presidency: The Case of Saturday Night Live	333	(18)
John Matviko
Part Four. Bibliographic Overview
The Transformed Presidency: The Real Presidency and Hollywood's Reel Presidency	351	(52)
Myron A. Levine
Appendix
A Filmography for Images of American Presidents in Film	383	(20)
John Shelton Lawrence
Contributors	403	(8)
Index	411