Post I Forgot About

Well I forgot to do my post last week since I turned in my annotated bibliography in early. It threw me off. But better late than never, I suppose.

Meerse, David E. "To Reassure a Nation: Hollywood Presents World War II." Film & History 6.4 (1976): 79-98. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2011.

This article discusses Hollywood’s involvement in creating war-themed movies during the second World War. Neese comments on the seven types of films that Hollywood produced, which include war information films, newsreels, training films, films for combat areas, United Nations films, Good Neighbor films, and staged “war” films (80). He also talks about what the public liked and disliked. Many were critical of Hollywood’s films that emphasized superhuman American soldiers and, at the same time, were also critical of Hollywood’s failure to portray the incredible feats that soldiers were achieving (83). Finally, audiences were dismayed that Hollywood could not create timely films. In response, Hollywood focused on creating timeless films that portrayed American soldiers on a more personal and ethical level (86). The war films portrayed Americans with strong character who could find time to celebrate Christmas in the midst of war, and ignored any negative, lasting changes in character (89). Meerse closes the article with the following quote from Judith Christ: “‘the films of World War II will tell us relatively little about that long-ago conflict. But they do tell us much concerning the beliefs of the American people about the impact of that event upon American society, and at Hollywood’s efforts to reassure the nation’” (90).

I read an article about war time films. The more and more that I read, I realize that there is a lot to look at in terms of audience perception of films. I still want to cap my paper off with analysis of musicals, but I think a lot of my research is going to have to be very generalized. I know that I want my paper to entail a rough history of movies and sound, how the studio system worked, audience perception and influence, the production code and morality issues, race, gender, and sex stereotypes, and an integrated musical analysis using Lester. So that's where this is going...