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Why Study Film?
"Film is … an important scientific tool that has
opened up new areas of knowledge. It provides the
first significant general means of communication
since the invention of writing more than seven
thousand years ago (Monaco 2009, p.71).
The recording arts (photography, film, and sound
recording) have shifted our historical perspective
with its ability to recreate a phenomenon. Film that
blends these recording arts together (photographic
image, movement, sound) provides a more direct
communication and/or language than the painting,
novel, theatre, music.
Walter Benjamin - "The Work of Art in an Age
of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)“: film is
the most social and communal of the arts.
Film addresses the world, pierces through the
realities of daily life like a knife, engaging an
audience in a social and cultural discourse, a
mass engagement of the imagination unlike
any other art form (also the potential being an
authoritarian representation of the dominant
ideology).
Film, Culture and Politics
Political Culture becomes a focus in political
science in the early 60s (Almond and Verba
1963).
Film scholar Dyer (2000) suggests that
culture "of all kinds produces, reproduces,
and/or legitimizes forms of thought society.
Who we think we are, how we feel about this,
who we believe others to be, how we think
society works, all of this is shaped, decisively,
perhaps exclusively, by culture." (p.6)
The difficulties in studying film
Abstraction: If poetry is what you can't translate, as
Robert Frost once said, art is that which cannot be
defined.
Non-individualized creativity: Who is the author?
Screenwriter? Director? Producer? Studio
executive? Orson Welles's The Magnificent
Amberson (1942), was removed from Welles's
control before it was edited. RKO reshot portions of
it, changed the ending and destroyed the deleted
footage. Can there be a message if there isn't an
author?
All arts, but perhaps, especially Film (and TV),
because it is so expensive, are economic products
that sees the audience as a consumer. Does the
message get lost in the commercial packaging of
the product?
Study of film is the study of the production process,
the film itself (final product), and the relationship
between the product and the viewer. This is a
complex, dynamic process, a process not easily
observable.
Mass production means it is no longer just for the
elite, but also that producers may try to appeal to
the lowest common denominator.
Limited time (average screenplay is 125-150
typescript pages, but the novel is 4 times
that). Details of incidents are lost in film
adaptations. [on exception: War and Peace –
20 part BBC serialization]
What about bad movies? Does being bad
mean the movie won't influence an audience
because the film "doesn't work" or can a
movie be bad in that it influences us in a bad
way (i.e. legitimize misogynistic behavior).
Why focus on (mainstream) Hollywood movies?
The Hollywood style was and is the dominant style
the world over. Films, movements, directors that
contest this style, are generally responding to
Hollywood, not ignoring it or inventing an alternative
(i.e., Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Fassbinder).
Reaches a larger audience. The larger the
audience, the large the impact, influence
(potentially).
Most people don't watch avant-garde films or even
documentaries (Michael Moore being an exception).
What Type of Hollywood movies will we
watch?
Examples of Film Types (Christensen and Haas 2005)
Politically Reflective Films
Pure (Overt) Political Films
Independence Day
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Candidate
Many legal, western, gangster films
Many Documentaries
Propaganda Films
Socially Reflective Films
Pretty Woman
Gone with the Wind
Many other genre films
Auteur Political Films
The Godfather
Natural Born Killers
Syllabus
• http://faculty.unlv.edu/kfernandez/film.htm