History 4314
American History Through Film
Professor Steven Mintz
University of Houston
Fall 2003
Office: 402 Agnes Arnold Hall
Voice: 713-743-3109
E-Mail: SMintz@uh.edu
Course Description:
One of the central events in
twentieth-century American history is the rise of mass communications.
In 1900, the modern instruments of mass communications, which
today provide Americans of all classes and regions with standardized
information and ideas, were almost wholly lacking. There would
be no commercial radio broadcasts for another twenty years; no
television for another 45 years. The first movie to tell a story
was still three years in the future. Not a single newspaper or
magazine reached as many as a million readers.
This course examines the evolution
of the first, most popular, and most influential instrument of
mass culture: the movies. Movies have been a major factor in
the "modernization" of American culture, helping to
disseminate a new set of norms and fashions that applied to taste,
masculinity, femininity, life styles, and politics. Films offer
a treasure chest of insights into American values, belief, and
behavior.
This course treats motion pictures
as texts deserving the same skills of critical thinking and analysis
as any other cultural artifact. Film is a type of communication
with its own rules and grammar. Just as one must learn to read
written language, one must learn to read the images and sounds
that comprise the text of a film. In a world in which the visual
image has become the dominant mode of communication, dramatically
influencing everything from political campaigns to popular culture,
it is important that students develop the tools to read, analyze,
and understand visual texts.
Cautions:
Objectionable Materials
Warning
Some of the film clips that
we will watch during the semester contain scenes of explicit
violence, sexual brutality, ethnic and gender stereotyping, nudity,
obscenity, adult themes, profanity, and offensive language that
might be found objectionable by some. There may be also be ideas
or practices endorsed by specific motion pictures that some might
consider immoral or amoral. All of these films, however, were
already in wide circulation in the culture at large and are,
in the instructor’s opinion, essential to understanding
American cultural history. If these clips will make you uncomfortable,
please do not enroll in the course.
Black and White/Subtitles
If you are bothered by or find
films made in a foreign language with subtitles or in (glorious)
black-and-white distracting or difficult to view, please do not
take this course.
Outside of Class Responsibilities
This class requires you to
view three films outside of class. A number of historically significant
films are available online for free at http://www.movieflix.com
(registration required). Many are available at the public library
or for rent or purchase.
Class Policies:
Attendance
Class attendance is essential
and attendance will be recorded. Any student who misses class,
arrives late, or leaves early will be penalized. Those who are
consistently absent, tardy, or leave early will be dropped from
the class.
Academic Honesty
All work must be your own.
In any case of cheating or plagiarism, the penalty will be flunking
the course. For written work, keep your preparation materials,
and be prepared to explain the meaning of everything you write.
Any unacknowledged use of the
words, ideas, insights, or the original research of another is
strictly prohibited. Cheating includes (but is not confined to):
• passing off someone
else's work as your own
• giving or receiving
any assistance during an examination
As a condition of taking this
course, all required papers may be subject to submission for
textual similarity review to Turnitin.com or a similar service
for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be
included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database
solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.
Accommodations for Students
with Disabilities:
Your instructor is committed to ensuring that students with health
impairments, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, psychiatric
disorders, or other disabilities are able to successfully compete
with non-disabled students. Students requesting an accommodation
must contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester.
Under UH’s policy, only
students who are registered with the Center for Students with
DisAbilities may request academic accommodations; students must
also have an approved recommendation from UH’s Academic
Accommodations Evaluation Committee. UH’s disabilities policy
is available at: http://www.uh.edu/provost/documents/disability.html.
Cell Phones and Pagers:
Cell phones, beepers,
or pages are a significant distraction and must be placed on
vibrate or silent mode prior to coming to class. Do not answer
phones during class. If you are expecting an emergency phone
call, you must make arrangements with the instructor prior to
class. Those using a cell phone must leave the classroom for
the remainder of the class period. Students who repeatedly violate
this policy will be dropped from the class.
Disruptive Behavior:
Any behavior that adversely
affects the normal educational functioning or the professional
standards of the class will result in failure for the course.
Requirements:
Your class grade will be based
on the following:
• class attendance and
participation
• a midterm examination in class Tuesday October 7
• a 7-10 page research paper due in class Tuesday, November
25
• a second examination in class Tuesday, December 2
Examinations:
The midterm and second examination
are closed-book, closed-note exam, consisting of multiple-choice,
identification, and essay questions based on the lectures, discussions,
film clips, and assigned readings. NO MAKE UPS WILL BE GIVEN
UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
Research Paper:
• The paper must be 7
to 10 double-spaced, typed pages in length
• You must discuss at
least three films in your essay
• The films must come
from three different decades
• The purpose of the paper
is to trace and explain the changing depiction of a particular
topic over time, providing an explanation for the changing portrayal
of a particular topic. Do not simply provide plot summaries of
individual films.
• Outside research is expected, including books and articles;
all sources must be properly cited.
Topics to choose from:
Addiction and film
American dream in film
American presidency in film
American Revolution in film
Atomic bomb and film
Catholicism in film
Communism and film
Disabilities and film
Fundamentalism in film
Holocaust and film
Irish Americans in film
Labor and film
Marriage in film
Media in film
Mental Illness in film
Native Americans in film
Patriotism and film
Political Campaigns in film
Schools and teachers in film
Slavery and film
Sports and film
State and Local Politics in film
Teenagers in film
Terrorism and film
Submitting Your Essay
Your research paper must be
typed and double-spaced. You need to use a standard 12 point
typeface. Papers must be formatted according to MLA style. All
assignments are due in class on the due date. E-mailed work is
NOT acceptable. Late papers will not be accepted. Your papers
must be presented BOTH as hard copy and on disk.
Help:
The instructor and the teaching
assistant hold regular office hours. Please feel free to come
to see us. We will also be available immediately after class
and will gladly schedule an appointment to meet with you at a
convenient time.
Student Support Services
• The University Studies
Division, 320 Student Service Center: support for students in
transition, freshmen students on Academic Notice, Texas Academic
Skills Program (TASP) eligible students, pre-health professional
students and
prospective students. For helpful
information, access the USD website at http://www.uh.edu/academics/usd.
• Academic Advising, available
for declared majors in the college or department of their major.
• Center for Students
with DisABILITIES, Justin Dart, Jr. "Live the Dream"
Center for Students with DisABILITIES CSD Building # 568, Room
100 (832)842-7104: provides numerous academic support services
to individuals with any type of learning disability, health impairment,
physical limitation or psychiatric disorder.
• Learning Support Services,
321 Social Work: tutoring in most subjects and workshops in reading
and study skills and exam preparation.
• University Career Services,
106 Student Service Center: computer-based career search tools
and major choice workshops.
• University Counseling
and Psychological Services, 226 Student Service Center: personal
counseling and academic workshops in choice of major, time management,
test anxiety, making the adjustment from high school to college,
etc.
• Writing Center, 217
Agnes Arnold Hall: writing tutoring
Course readings:
Steven Mintz and Randy
Roberts, Hollywood’s America
Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood
Robert Brent Toplin, Reel History
Important dates:
September 22:
Last day to drop a course without
receiving a grade
November 4:
Last day to drop a course
or withdraw
CALENDAR OF LECTURES
Aug 26
How to Read a Film
Introduction to the Course:
Approach and Themes
Decoding Visual Images
Approaches to Film Criticism and Interpretation
Dream Factories: Movie Theaters
Reorientation of American Culture in the Late 19th Century
Mass Communication
Sep 2
The Silent Era
The Birth of the Movies
Chaplin and Slapstick Comedy
The Seductiveness of Silence
Behind the Mask of Innocence: The Politics of Silent Film
Birth of a Nation
Douglas Fairbanks
Rudolph Valentino
Clara Bow
Jews and Hollywood
Sep 9
Hollywood’s Golden Age
The Arrival of Sound
The Jazz Singer, Hollywood, and Race
Technicolor
Classic Hollywood Cinema
Shifting Cultural Values
Film Meets the Great Depression
The Gangster
The Shyster
Depression-Era Comedy
The Depiction of Women in Depression-Era Film
The Production Code
'30s Musicals
Cartoons
King Kong
Sep 16
Great Depression, Part II
The Oscars
Hollywood's Golden Age - and Movies Today
Depression Genres
The G-Man
Social Consciousness Films
Screwball Comedy
Depression Themes
Knights in the Urban Wilderness
History Goes to the Movies
Mickey Mouse History: Pocahontas
Costume Drama
Docudrama
Ethnocentric and Presentist Approaches
Cinematic Social History
Revisionist History
Sep 23
A Separate Cinema
Images of African Americans
in American Popular Culture
Race Films
Immigration and Immigrants in Film
Mexican Americans in Film
Sep 30
Women in the Movies
Motherhood at the Movies
Women in Disney Films
Women in '30s Film
Women in '40s Film
The End of an Era
1939
Citizen Kane
Oct 7
FIRST EXAMINATION
Oct 14
World War ll and Film
Wartime Hollywood
War Films During the 1950s
Hiroshima and Film
Oct 21
Postwar Hollywood
Celebrity in American Culture
James Dean and Marilyn Monroe
The Red Scare in Hollywood
Anticommunism and Film
Elia Kazan
Informing in Film
Science Fiction
Biblical Epics
Family Melodramas
Oct 28
Ideology and Hollywood Film
The Western
Where Did the Western Go?
The Cold War and Film
Nov 4
The Musical
Sexuality and Gender at
the Movies
Postwar Women
Symbolic Annihilation of
Women
Impact of Feminism on Film
Masculinity in Film
Misogyny and Masculinity
in Film
Crises of Masculinity
Gays and Lesbians in Film
Heterosexuality in Film
Censorship and Film
The Changing Treatment of
Race
Sidney Poitier
Blaxploitation
New Black Cinema
Nov 11
Films of the 1960s
Seeds of the '60s
The Anti-Western
Film and Youth
Confusion of Values
Revising History
Violence in '60s Film
Forrest Gump: Reconsidering
the ‘60s
Nov 18
Vietnam in Film
The Green Berets
My Lai
The Deer Hunter
Rambo
Platoon
POWs and Film
Oliver Stone’s America
Films of the 1980s and 1990s
Nov 25
Contemporary Hollywood
Foreign Film
Concluding Thoughts
I Learned It at the Movies
Thanksgiving Break
Dec 2
SECOND EXAMINATION
Glossary
Blind Bidding: Exhibitors are
forced to rent a film before seeing it.
Block Booking: Exhibitors are
forced to rent groups of films in order to exhibit any one film
distributed by a particular studio.
Camera Angle: The angle at
which the camera looks at the action. In a low-angle shot, the
camera looks up from below the action.
Camera Distance: The distance
of the camera from the action being filmed; e.g., extreme close­up,
medium shot, long shot.
Classical Hollywood Cinema:
Certain narrative and stylistic practices characteristics of
American film between the 1930s and 1960s. Narratives are structured
around characters who have specific, clearly defined goals, and
deal with their triumph over various obstacles that stand in
the way of the goals' attainment. The narratives are presented
in a manner as invisible as possible.
Continuity Editing: Editing
that creates the illusion of temporal and spatial coherence,
unity, or continuity.
Crosscutting: Editing that
involves cutting back and forth between two or more separate
scenes.
Deep Focus: Style of filming
using wide angle lenses, coated lenses, fast film, and powerful
illumination to produce an image in which the extreme foreground
and background appear in sharp focus.
Dissolve: Fluid form of shot
transition that involves fading out on one shot while fading
in on another.
Film Noir: Style of filmmaking
that presents crimes or criminal actions in a manner that disturbs,
disorients, or induces anxiety in the viewer.
Flashback: A sequence that
shows events that take place at an earlier moment than the present
time in the film.
Genre: A category of filmmaking
possessing familiar narrative and stylistic conventions.
Mise-en-scene: The staging
of action for the camera, including set design, costume design,
performance, lighting, camera movement, camera angle, camera
distance, and composition.
Montage Sequence: Editing to
condense or expand action, space, or time.
3-Point Lighting: Standard
lighting setup employed in Hollywood. The 3 points refer to key
light (chief directional light source), the fill light (weaker
light source that fills in shadows cast by key light), and back
light (minor light that illuminates space between back of the
set and characters).
Vertical Integration: System
of motion picture production, distribution, and exhibition in
which a single entity makes a distributes a product that is exhibited
in its own theaters.
Voice-Over Narration: Speech
that accompanies a filmed sequence but does not come from the
sequence itself
Required Reading for the First Examination
Hollywood’s America, pp.
1-18, 31-152
Reel History, pp. 1-138
Study questions based on
the reading:
Reel History:
1. Be prepared to identify
the specific objections that have been leveled against the depiction
of history in Hollywood films.
2. What does Toplin mean by
the term “genre”?
3. What, according to Toplin,
are the specific features and narrative conventions of the genre
of historical films?
4. Precisely how does Toplin
defend Hollywood’s historical film?
Hollywood’s America:
1. The decade of the 1890s
witnessed profound changes in American values and behavior.
a. Describe the important changes
that took place in American sports, music, women's roles, and
cultural values during the '90s and explain why these changes
took place.
b. How can one explain the
sudden obsession with sport, strength, and virility?
2. What were the defining characteristics
of Victorian culture and entertainment?
3. The late nineteenth century
saw the emergence of mass communication and commercialized forms
of entertainment.
a. What new instruments of
modern mass culture and commercial entertainment appeared during
this period?
b. What common background did
the creators of mass culture share?
c. What kind of aesthetic style
characterized the new mass culture? How did it differ from the
"genteel tradition"?
d. Describe the social consequences
of the rise of mass communication and commercial entertainment.
How did the new commercialized amusements reshape American leisure
patterns?
4. Identify and state the significance
of the terms listed in the glossary plus:
"persistence of vision"
magic lantern
realism
actualities
William K.L. Dickson
Motion Picture Patents Companv
5. Describe the attitude of
Progressive reformers toward the movies.
6. What did the Supreme Court
rule in is 1915 Mutual decision?
7. Describe the changes that
took place within the film industry between 1900 and 192 in exhibition,
industrial organization, film narrative, and so on.
a. Why did Jewish producers
play a central role in the industry's growth?
b. To what extent were these
individuals conspiring against "traditional" American
values and the power structure that maintained them? Did they
challenge conservative community standards or did they share
the middle class morality of their public?
c. How did film themes shift
in the late 1910s and 20s?
d. How did audiences change
during the 20s?
e. How did ownership of theaters
shift?
8. Why did the film industry
base itself in Hollywood?
9. What kinds of films did
movie makers produce during the 1900s and 1910s? What kinds of
generalizations can one make about their content?
10. How did film content change
during the late teens and twenties?
11. Discuss the impact of the
arrival of sound on the movies.
12. How did the movies respond
to the dislocations of the Depression?
a. Identify the kinds of films
people attended during the Depression and analyze their appeal.
b. Were they essentially escapist?
c. Were they attacks on the
conventional social and moral order? Or did they have a different
significance? If so, what was it?
13. Identify the Production
Code Administration of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors
Association.
a. How and why was the Production
Code created?
b. Identify Joseph Ignatius
Breen and explain why he had so much influence in Hollywood .
c. What was the impact of the
Breen Office on the character of films?
14. Identify the diverse forms
of cinematic history.
15. Trace the evolution in
the treatment of motherhood and womanhood in film.
FRONT PAGE MOVIES
What does Kay Sloan mean when
she says that early film often served as a vehicle for overt
political causes?
BIRTH OF A NATION -- PROPAGANDA
AS HISTORY
1. How does the historian John
Hope Franklin assess Birth of a Nation as history?
2. How does he explain the
film's distortions?
WORK, IDEOLOGY AND CHAPLIN'S
TRAMP
What does Chaplin's tramp have
to say about work and productive labor?
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, MARY PICKFORD
AND THE NEW PERSONALITY
How does Lary May account for
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks popularity during the 1910s.
LAUGHING THROUGH TEARS
1. Describe the impact of the
Depression on the film industry.
2. Identify the genres through
which Hollywood responded to the Depression.
3. Assess the impact of the
Production Code on the Depression-era films.
GANGSTERS AND FALLEN WOMEN
Explain the succession of gangsters
and prostitutes that appeared in film during the Depression's
early years.
GONE WITH THE WIND and GRAPES
OF WRATH
What do these two films share
in common that spoke to American preoccupations during the Great
Depression
EVOLUTION OF BLACK FILM
To what extent were African
Americans able to create a distinctive African American cinema
prior to World War ll?
Required Reading for the Second Examination
Hollywood’s America, pp.
18-27,155-322
History by Hollywood, pp. 46-175,
204-223
Study questions based on
the reading:
History by Hollywood:
JFK
Why did Oliver Stone’s
JFK provoke more controversy than any other historical film?
SERGEANT YORK
1. In what ways was a movie
about a World War I character relevant to current events at the
time of its release?
2. In what way did this film
contribute to a transformation in public attitudes?
MISSING
Does this film deal responsibly
with the historical evidence and are its principal conclusions
justified?
BONNIE AND CLYDE
1. How does Toplin account
for the film’s popularity?
2. How was this film distinctive in the way it portrayed violence?
3. Were the real-life Bonnie and Clyde Robin Hood figures similar
to the characters portrayed in the film?
PATTON
What does Toplin mean when
he likens this film to a Rorschach test?
NORMA RAE
1. What obstacles did the filmmakers
face in producing this film?
2. What does the film say about
workers, unions, and women?
Hollywood’s America:
World War ll and Film
1. What kinds of films did
Hollywood produce during WWII? What do these films tell us about
attitudes and concerns on the homefront?
2. In what ways were World
War ll combat films allegories of a democratic nation at war?
3. How did the federal government
seek to shape wartime films? How successful were its efforts?
4. What political messages
does the film Casablanca convey?
Postwar Hollywood
1. Thoroughly identify the
major genres and themes of Hollywood films of the late 1940s
and 1950s.
2. How would you account for
these particular themes and genres?
3. In what ways does the film
The Magnificent Seven combine the political concerns of the Cold
War with the traditional terms of the Western?
4. Explain why Dr. Strangelove
is a significant film.
Hollywood Films of the 1960s
and 1970s
1. During the "Golden
Age" of film, Hollywood helped create a shared conception
of the meaning of the American dream and America's role in the
world. How and why did this change in the 1960s and early 1970s?
2. What were the defining characteristics
of the popular politically-oriented films of the late 1960s and
early 70s? How were older Hollywood genres – the crime film,
the western, and the historical romance, among other genres --
revised?
3. How and why did the tone,
themes, and nature of popular films change in the late 1970s?
Vietnam War in Film
1. Describe the variety of
ways that Hollywood has dealt with the American experience in
Vietnam
2. Explain how Hollywood depicted
has Vietnam veterans.
3. Describe how Hollywood has
dealt with the meaning and reasons for the Vietnam war.
American Film Since 1970
1. How, according to William
Joe Palmer, has Hollywood depicted "yuppies," their
values, virtues, and vices?
2. How, according to Richard
Schickel, did Hollywood shape President Ronald Reagan's ideology
and outlook?
