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September 14, 2004
Movies as Political Puppets
Via Metaphilm: David Sterritt's CSM article, "Movies as Political Puppets." Sterritt lines up all the usual suspects, Team America, Silver City, and F9/11, but he mentions one film that I didn't know, The September Tapes, which "blends nonfiction footage with staged scenes to create a thriller about a journalist who is searching for Osama bin Laden." I like the idea of blending nonfiction and staged footage, and the investigation plot could serve the film well. Sterritt primarily considers whether or not the "political cycle" will affect the upcoming election, a question I've visited on several (too many?) occasions.
What I find interesting about the article (and I'm blogging between classes, so I'll be brief) is the discussion of the role of film or popular entertainment in convincing people to vote for a particular candidate, or to hold a particular set of beliefs. Susan Zeig notes that any impact Moore's film (or other "political" films) might have cannot be measured very easily. Aside from the fact that the effect of a political documentary will depend on an audience member's preconceptions, it seems almost impossible to identify a single event (a film, a talk radio show, a conversation) that would determine one's vote. Also, in a sense, the article doesn't really explain that these decisions aren't always rational, as this now famous New Yorker article points out.
I'm also trying to think through the article's combined focus on documentary/non-fiction and fiction films. I'd assume that audiences go into a documentary film with a much different set of expectations (that there will be an argument, that the director will use factual information) than a feature film. And many of the fiction films may not have an overt goal of defeating Bush this fall. Team America probably doesn't have this goal, while Sayles openly states he'd like Bush to lose.
Perhaps the most interesting point in the article is raised by Robert Merrill, editor of Baltimore's Maisonneuve Press:
The election of Ronald Reagan was the moment when entertainment overwhelmed politics. [...] His media advisers were entertainment and advertising experts.... It's the same for Arnold Schwarzenegger, and George W. Bush clearly sees himself as playing a role in a drama.I've been talking in passing with my students about the short films played before each candidate accepted his nomination, including Bush's, which placed him in a very clear narrative about confronting the war on terror, culminating somewhat oddly in his throwing out the first pitch of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium soon after 9/11. I'm not sure how that event resolves the tension raised by the short film (the need for leadership), or more importantly, the problems raised by the September 11 attacks. But, the main point is that these films are usually fairly transparent attempts to organize a narrative around the candidate, and I think that's what makes them interesting as cultural artifacts.
Not sure how to bring these fragments into a narrative myself, but some of these questions have been on my mind lately. I'm in processing mode right now, so many of these ideas may be attached to questions that aren't apparent in this blog entry.
Posted by chuck at September 14, 2004 1:13 PM
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