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The influence of Hollywood
Film influence on pop culture
Hollywood influence on society
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Trudging through the mountains of facts, studies, and opinions relevant to social and political issues creates a daunting task for political strategists, leaving them to decide what information is relevant and essential for the voting public to know, in order to rally the voters to support a certain candidate. However, these mountains of facts and opinions can turn off voters, and scare away many potential supporters, forcing political strategists to also engage the emotional lives of the populace: enter the role of cultural narratives- tales of adventure, sacrifice, defeat, and victory grabbing hold of the emotional lives of the audience, and as George Lakoff points out, “…politics is about the narratives of our culture and our circumstances make available to all of us to live” (35). The key to the liberal narrative is empathy; not solely feeling empathy, but acting on this empathy. George W. Bush and his campaign staff knew this and employed it very successfully in the 2000 election with his slogan “the compassionate conservative.” And while John Kerry and the Democratic Party may have forgotten this essential point of politics, Hollywood remembers vividly the formula of the classic liberal narrative and this has led to the creation of many films which are the quintessence of the liberal tale.
The liberal narrative existed in the heyday of the Hollywood silver screen, and no better example exists than John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. Ford’s classic tale, based on John Steinbeck’s novel of the same title, immediately begins its liberal narrative. Early in the film when Henry Fonda’s character Tom Joad asks a truck driver for a ride, which is not allowed by the driver’s boss indicated by a sticker saying “no riders allowed/inst...
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...to their feet. The liberal narrative is a staple in achieving political victory; and if someone wants to learn how to successfully create one, he or she need look no further than these films. They contain the heart and soul of the liberal campaign; and if the liberals create more films of this breed and of this caliber, there is no telling how much their support will grow.
Works Cited
12 Angry Men. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Prod. Henry Fonda and Reginald Rose. By Reginald Rose and Kenyon Hopkins. Perf. Henry Fonda. United Artists Corp., 1956.
Erin Brockovich. Dir. Steven Soderbergh. By Susannah Grant. Perf. Julia Roberts. Jersey Films, 2000.
The Grapes of Wrath. Dir. John Ford. Perf. Henry Fonda. Twentieth Century-Fox, 1940.
Lakoff, George. The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain. New York: Viking, 2008. Print.
Melissa Ames and Chris Hedges address the similar theme of political apathy in America, but deviate starkly in their respective audiences, tones, subjects, and methods of delivery. Because the authors possess differing viewpoints about the future of the country, are shaped by distinctive backgrounds and experiences, and have explored various unique concepts, one can detect a great degree of dissimilarity between the works in question. Even so, a thoughtful reader can also grasp quite a few similarities between their articles, “American Psychosis” and “Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents.”
...ce, left to every man or women. The correlations prove to be undeniable. Just as Johnson turned to Rochester and its revival to make sense of the political complexities of that time, so can Americans, to further understand their nation, society and possibly even their personal beliefs. Then, perhaps, Americans can work to diminish this political divide for the generations yet to come.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
It is very common in the United States’ political sphere to rely heavily on T.V. commercials during election season; this is after all the most effective way to spread a message to millions of voters in order to gain their support. The presidential election of 2008 was not the exception; candidates and interest groups spent $2.6 billion on advertising that year, from which $2 billion was used exclusively for broadcast television (Seelye 2008). Although the effectiveness of these advertisements is relatively small compared to the money spent on them (Liasson 2012), it is important for American voters to think critically about the information and arguments presented by these ads. An analysis of the rhetoric in four of the political campaign commercials of the 2008 presidential election reveals the different informal fallacies utilized to gain support for one of the candidates or misguide the public about the opposing candidate. Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who belongs to the Democratic Party, broadcast the first commercial we will analyze, the title is “Seven” referring to the seven houses his opponent John McCain owns; Barack Obama tries to engage pathos which refers to the audience of the message (Ramage et Al. 2012) utilizing a form of fallacy known as “appeal to pity”, this fallacy tries to “appeal to the audience’s sympathetic feelings in order to support a claim that should be decided on more relevant or objective grounds” (Ramage et al.
...Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. Knopf, New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Print.
Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (New York: Random House Publishing, 1973).
Fonda, Henry, perf. 12 Angry Men. Screenplay by Reginald Rose. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Prod. Reginald Rose and Henry Fonda. United Artists, 1957. Film.
middle of paper ... ... This comment suggests that the current idea, liberalism, may just be a phase in human ideology that has spread worldwide. Though he made a compelling argument and posed thought provoking questions that supported his argument, the flaws in his argument, after stringent analysis, contradict his main points. Works Cited Ferguson, C. (Director).
Grace Abbott, Ph.M. (Political Science) 1909 [SSA Centennial Celebration Profiles of Distinction Series]. (n.d.). In Chicago/SSA/Centenial. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from The University of Chicago website: http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/features/features-abbott-grace.shtml
Dye, Thomas R. , L. Tucker Gibson Jr., and Clay Robinson. Politics In America. Brief Texas Edition ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Cited 12 Angry Men. Director, Sidney Lumet. 1957. DVD. To Kill a Mockingbird. Director, Robert Mulligan.1962.
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelly II, Barbara A. Bardes. American Government and Politics Today: 2010-2011 Brief Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011
A Raisin in the Sun. Dir. Daniel Petrie. Perf. Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee and John Fiedler. Columbia Pictures, 1961.
Strauss, Leo, and Joseph Cropsey. History of Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.