·
President
Eisenhower wanted his Emergency Fund for International Affairs to “demonstrate
the superiority of the products and cultural values of our system of free
enterprise.” Did the United States’
cultural exports—from ballet troupes to modern art to Radio Liberty—actually
demonstrate what he hoped they would?
Monday, March 16, 2015
No culture?
·
Eisenhower
also hoped that his Emergency Fund would “offset worldwide Communist propaganda
charges that the United States has no culture and that its industrial
production is oriented toward war.” Do
you think those who viewed American cultural exports would necessarily come to
the conclusion Eisenhower wanted them to?
Why or why not?
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur
Chelsea, Jesse, Phil
The 212-minute Biblical epic Ben-Hur (1959) was the most expensive film made up to that point, with a budget of $15 million. MGM gambled on the expensive film, which eventually saved them from bankruptcy, trying to capitalize on the success of The Ten Commandments (1956) and reprise Charlton Heston as a Moses-figure. The film grossed $147 million on its initial release, making it the second highest-grossing film at that time. The nine-minute chariot race sequence is still revered as one of the most technically impressive film scenes of all time; the scene is also a testament to the amount of work that went into the film, requiring an eighteen-acre lot, $1 million, a year of pre-production work, and five weeks of shooting. Winning 11 of the 12 Academy Awards it was nominated for, Ben-Hur remains one of the most successful films of all time. Over the course of the film, Prince Judah Ben-Hur of Judea grows angry with his childhood friend Messala, now a Roman garrison commander, who tries to use Judah to put down the Jewish religious rebellion beginning in Judea. When Judah chooses his people over Messala, Messala becomes vindictive and imprisons Judah, his sister Tirzah and their mother Miriam, for trying to kill a Roman guard when he knew the situation was an accident. Messala condemns Judah to life rowing in the galleys of a ship so that he will be seen as ruthless; however, when the enemy rams the ship, Judah saves the new commander after he went overboard. As repayment, the commander, Quintus Arius, adopts Judah as his son, giving him his name and inheritance. Now that he is free and rich again, Judah returns to Judea to enact his sworn revenge on Messala and to discover the fates of his sister and mother. Judah is told his mother and sister are dead, but after defeating Messala in the epic chariot race, Messala on his deathbed tells Judah that Tirzah and Miriam are alive in the Valley of the Lepers. After finally being persuaded by his love interest and former slave Esther who attended Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, Judah tries to bring Tirzah and Miriam to see Jesus but they arrive as Jesus is carrying his cross to the spot of his crucifixion. When Jesus falls, Judah tries to give him water, the same way Jesus had when Judah fell in the desert on his march to his ship. When Jesus dies, a great storm comes, bringing life to the desert, curing Tirzah and Miriam of their leprosy, and Judah of his desire for revenge by killing Pontius Pilate, the new Governor, who had offered Judah Roman citizenship following his victory in the chariot race, which Judah had found disgusting.
This movie has two topics that it mainly focuses on. The first of the topics dealt with is conformity. Through out the movie Judah finds himself being constantly being pressured into accepting Roman culture over his Jewish heritage. This is similar to and it was believed to be commentating on how conforming to the ideals of American society was strongly encouraged during the decade leading up to the release of the film. The second topic is the necessity of faith to save yourself. This topics presents itself in multiple instances throughout the course of the movie; several examples include when Christ gives Judah water while he is heading to the galleys, or when Judah's family is cured of their leprosy through Judah's faith in God and Christ. This trend of necessity of faith is a core ideal of what America was during the Cold War, and the active encouragement of the faith we observe during the film.
The film Ben-Hur relates to the Cold War through several ideologies. Throughout the movie, a resistance to the conformity of Rome is strongly promoted, a parallel to the American people's own resistance to the conformity of the Soviet Union. Judah Ben-Hur argues on behalf of his people for religious freedom, a cause that hits close to home for any American. The film also shames some elements of McCarthyism from the previous decade. When Masala demands the names of the Jewish patriots, Judah resists and this is shown to be a heroic action on his part. The film goes on to showcase ideas also supported in the books The Ugly American and The Spiritual-Industrial Complex. These readings argue that religion and Communism are mutually exclusive, and that the best way to defeat the Communist threat is through faith. Finally, we asked the class if they think that America remains religiously focused and whether or not such a film could push America to return to such a religious bend. The class seemed to agree that America was not nearly as religious as it once was, and that it would be less impacted by such a film now as the morals were less powerful in our society as they once were.
Sources
Thursday, March 5, 2015
South Pacific
South Pacific
Rachel, Olivia, and Julia
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific was directed by Joshua Logan and released on March 19, 1958. Set on a US Navy base in the South Pacific islands, the musical follows Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, played by Mitzi Gaynor, in her struggles to accept the interracial marriage of the man she is in love with, Frenchman Emile de Becque, played by Rossano Brazzi. Nellie must also deal with the disapproval she is met with from the other nurses for being with an older, foreign man who had to flee his homeland for killing a man. Meanwhile US Marine Lt. Joe Cable is on a secret mission to get behind enemy lines in order to radio information back to the Navy. Cable deals with romantic issues of his own as he falls in love with the daughter of the mysterious Bloody Mary, played by Juanita Hall from the musical’s original cast. The film had an estimated budget of about 6 million dollars and grossed about $36,800,000. Logan’s main regret was the use of color filters due to his fear that the tropical landscapes of Hawaii would not translate well into Technicolor. Logan stated that this was the biggest mistake he made in his career.
There are two main themes that can be interpreted from South Pacific. The first is the issue of racism. The film tries to expose American racism towards Asians but is in some ways accidentally racist. Cable has a problem marrying Liat because she is Polynesian. Nellie almost has more of a problem with the fact that de Becque has a Polynesian ex wife then she does with the fact that he killed a man. In the song "You must be carefully taught" Cable explains why he and Nellie feel how they do. In the end Nellie overcomes her racism and is going to be a mother of an interracial family. The second theme is sex and gender roles. The gender roles that are seen in the film are very similar to what we have talked about in class so far. Women are very feminine. They dress to accentuate their feminine features and hold "female" jobs (e.g. nurses). Nellie also went to work during the war and gave up her job to be a mother and wife. The men are depicted very masculine and are the ones in control.
Throughout the movie there were many connections to the classic 1950’s lifestyle we have been discussing in class. In the very beginning of the movie, we see the lifestyle of the soldiers as a very homosocial environment and this was one of the main concerns for men during this decade. Another point would be that the women in this movie are always dressed to perfection. Their outfits are incredibly feminine and when Nellie found herself “inappropriately dressed” she apologized to the men for not being dressed up in front of them. Nellie believes she is in love with Emile and she doesn’t want to tell her girlfriends because being in love with a man was an unrealistic ideal in the 1950’s. Marriage is shown to be a business deal through both Nellie and Lieutenant Cable. Lieutenant Cable mentions that a women is waiting to marry him in Philadelphia so he can get a good business deal with his uncle, so this means he won’t marry the love of his life. One of my last points was about how Asians were treated in this movie. They were seen as native, but gentle people, however neither Nellie nor Cable wants an interracial family. Interracial families were not accepted in that society. The question we asked the class was “how would the society at the time take and interracial marriage?” The class discussed how racism was both at its peak and at its end at this time. It was said that this movie was both making fun of racism purposefully, but also there were parts of the movie that were racist by accident which shows the conflicting views during the 1950’s.
Works Cited
"South Pacific." Questia. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. <https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-19658857/south-pacific>.
“South Pacific” Turner Classic Movies <http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90961/South-Pacific/full-credits.html>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)