This excerpt from Thomas Doherty’s “Properly Direct Hatred” explains the urgent nature of America’s need for unity through the media during World War II, through particularly cinema. In this passage he explains that domestic issues of race, class, and ethnicity were eclipsed by the need to unify the heterogeneous population of the American ‘melting pot’ in order to fight in the war, not only militaristically and industrially, through the draft and increased production required by war, but also ideologically, because America’s power as a heterogeneous nation, directly countered Nazi ideologies of the Master Race eugenics. In his essay as a whole, Doherty outlines the way in which Hollywood collaborated with the Office of War Information to direct
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The film industry’s history of WWII representation described by Doherty and the textual influence of the circumstances of WWII are evident in Casablanca (1942) which implicitly navigates the tough terrain which the Office of War Information sought to outline by concentrating WWII conflict into personal stories, as well as, representing the war as a battle of ideologies and refusing to give the enemy a face, while ultimately suggesting that the personal is subordinate to the war and political efforts. One particular scene is especially emblematic of the OWI’s strategy in representing WWII as a war of faceless ideologies, rather than of people or groups of people, while keeping the conflict largely personal. In this scene, a group of German soldiers, with no particular leader, begins singing the German national anthem in Rick’s café, abiding by the OWI’s suggestion that the representations of hatred in WWII films not be directed toward any individuals. However, the larger narrative of the film shows that the issues are personal for Rick and Laslo, because Rick has witnessed their corruption and villainy of the soldiers, inherent in their ideology, not themselves personally, …show more content…
Cinerama, and its similar technologies, prove that cinematic technologies do not emerge on their own, but rather require circumstances that incite their development or adoption, in this case, the competition that arose with television and other leisure activities. Cinerama also exemplifies the ephemeral nature of film technology because, despite the fact that Cinerama and the competitive technologies, like CinemaScope, that it provoked became the standard during the 1950s and early 1960s, they were quickly reinvented and became outdated. Cinerama and other widescreen technologies were also part of a broader industrial shift in film production from studios making many cheaper films to instead making fewer more expensive films, to accommodate to increasing production values required in making competitive films due to the costs of filming in color and the widescreen format, and with stereo sound, based on greater potential profits in the newly restricted and highly competitive industry. The widescreen revolution of the 1950s also was part of a shift to demographically segmented audiences that required that films be produced to
The film industry’s history of WWII representation described by Doherty and the textual influence of the circumstances of WWII are evident in Casablanca (1942) which implicitly navigates the tough terrain which the Office of War Information sought to outline by concentrating WWII conflict into personal stories, as well as, representing the war as a battle of ideologies and refusing to give the enemy a face, while ultimately suggesting that the personal is subordinate to the war and political efforts. One particular scene is especially emblematic of the OWI’s strategy in representing WWII as a war of faceless ideologies, rather than of people or groups of people, while keeping the conflict largely personal. In this scene, a group of German soldiers, with no particular leader, begins singing the German national anthem in Rick’s café, abiding by the OWI’s suggestion that the representations of hatred in WWII films not be directed toward any individuals. However, the larger narrative of the film shows that the issues are personal for Rick and Laslo, because Rick has witnessed their corruption and villainy of the soldiers, inherent in their ideology, not themselves personally, …show more content…
Cinerama, and its similar technologies, prove that cinematic technologies do not emerge on their own, but rather require circumstances that incite their development or adoption, in this case, the competition that arose with television and other leisure activities. Cinerama also exemplifies the ephemeral nature of film technology because, despite the fact that Cinerama and the competitive technologies, like CinemaScope, that it provoked became the standard during the 1950s and early 1960s, they were quickly reinvented and became outdated. Cinerama and other widescreen technologies were also part of a broader industrial shift in film production from studios making many cheaper films to instead making fewer more expensive films, to accommodate to increasing production values required in making competitive films due to the costs of filming in color and the widescreen format, and with stereo sound, based on greater potential profits in the newly restricted and highly competitive industry. The widescreen revolution of the 1950s also was part of a shift to demographically segmented audiences that required that films be produced to