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genres, presenting odd juxtapositions.... [and] creating temporal jumps' - as in the filmWalker (1987) - or creating fiction as fact, bears little relation to an historical text.41 Careshould also be taken to ensure that reading history films is consistent with the political andsocial context. We cannot impose a connection with, or an interpretation that links to, thefuture, if there is no contemporary reference. 42 Films must be sensitive to the period and tothe context.Using this methodology the complex inter-action of the Cold War and the Civil RightsMovement on Hollywood's Civil War has been mapped. As Hollywood continuallyreassessed its position in relation to current events significant discontinuities, such as itsattitude to the centennial, have been identified. But changes in cultural attitudes andrepresentation do not follow a straight line. They are like a scatter diagram, where the lineof best fit indicates the trend. So older representations, though gradually decreasing after1945, continued alongside newer ones. That is why Hollywood's representation of theCivil War is sometimes contradictory and ambiguous as it reflected the differing influencesin tone and effect of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. This contrasts to theperiod before World War II when Hollywood had maintained a more or less consistent pro-South representation of the Civil War. However while Hollywood picks up the Zeitgeist,there is a tension between cultural perception and Hollywood's main purpose of profit andentertainment. Hollywood, therefore, see-sawed in its attitude towards events bysometimes following the dominant cultural force - as with the anti-communism in the early1950s - sometimes picking up early on cultural change - following Brown in the mid-1950s and the commitment to civil rights in the mid-1960s - and sometimes following itsown course - as at the centennial.It was World War II that brought civil rights into Hollywood and into the Civil War filmbut it was the Civil Rights Movement that influenced Hollywood to re-interpret its mythsand to admit African Americans into that unique white experience of nation building. Thedemands of the African Americans for their civil rights in the 1950 and 1960s contrastedsharply with their acceptance of the racial order in the 1900s and 1910s. By the late 1960sAfrican Americans were not only present in Civil War films, as in society, but were shownto share the same American values as whites. The original myths had been overturned. Inrewriting its own myths Hollywood was in tune not only with popular culture but also with152
those historians who were contesting the more traditional approaches to history and to theAfrican American experience.Whilst the effects of the Cold War on Hollywood have been extensively discussed by filmand cultural historians, surprisingly, they have not dealt in the same manner with theimpact of the Civil Rights Movement. 43 They do not offer a similar nuanced account andgenerally only note the main events and outcomes of the civil rights struggle - often inrelation to an individual film. The overall context and the place of the Civil RightsMovement in relation to popular culture are overlooked. A systematic approach to CivilWar films demonstrates that Hollywood had a cyclical relationship with the genre - seeAppendices 1 and 2. Why these cycles start and finish and why there are gaps in Civil Warfilm production is rarely commented on by film historians. Yet from 1945, Hollywood'sproduction of Civil War films closely mirrors the struggle over civil rights. After Brownthe Civil Rights Movement was reinvigorated and Hollywood produced a number of filmsthat questioned the status and identity of African Americans. But the white backlashleading to violent confrontations in the late 1950s halted these pro-civil rights films andstopped the Civil War cycle. They resumed in 1964 after the Civil Rights Movement hadpersuaded the Kennedy administration that legislation was the only solution to achievingequality and civil rights for African Americans. In the middle of this period came thecentennial celebrations.Judging by past experience the centennial should have been an era of celebration andprofit for Hollywood and especially so, as at the end of the 1950s, Hollywood neededsuccessful films to match the challenge of television and to win back its audience. ButHollywood barely participated -just a dozen films in six years and no blockbuster. Filmhistorians do not seem to notice this hiatus even though the memory of the Civil Warbecame an area of cultural contention. They give no explanation as to why, in a period ofnational celebration about the most emotive event in American history, and used to sucheffect by Hollywood in the past, Civil War films should dramatically reduce and thenresume again. There is also no overall analysis of why Civil War films ceased in the mid-1970s - yet historians can point to significant events with regard to America's position andimage in the world. By not taking a systematic approach, film historians failed to see thecyclical nature of Hollywood's relationship to the Civil War. Historians look for trends and153
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Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
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REEL WARS: COLD WAR, CIVIL RIGHTSAN
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ABSTRACTThis study is an examinatio
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ABBREVIATIONSAMPASAHRBirthCommissio
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Historians using film as a resource
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dominated America's foreign policy
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Mary L. Dudziak explores this relat
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pure and simple' and were therefore
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historical texts. Hayden White comp
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Historians, history films and film
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How have sympathetic film historian
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Therefore historians can, with over
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identity and these were taken as th
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21 George F. Custen, 'Hollywood and
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63 Rosenstone, The Historical Film,
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of Honor dedicated to, and listing,
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War.....[it] defined us as to what
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The Civil War and popular cultureJu
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memory,53 the place where Union and
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Despite being a new medium Hollywoo
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From the late 1940s Hollywood was u
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1 William Faulkner, Requiem for a N
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36 Blight, Race and Reunion, 77, 81
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mainly composed of members of the w
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there was cowardice, it was either
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This was another Lost Cause myth -
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stuff with plenty of clothes, rich
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women into or within slavery. 47 Th
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departure when, in the discussion o
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1 William Dean Howells, Los Angeles
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37 Melvyn Stokes, The Civil War in
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All races and religions, that's Ame
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Hollywood almost abandoned Civil Wa
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charged with disloyalty and silence
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ecover from the HUAC investigations
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a living. The daughters grow up to
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Gettysburg. 'You know,' says Henry,
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combining two great myths, which co
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(1948), Tom Dunson's style of autoc
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Patriotism became a white attribute
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In the absence of African Americans
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(Horizons West) and businessmen (An
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year later, and there was no lead f
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20 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War, Civil
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56 Richard White, 'Western History'
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7 have seen the promised land.' 'Th
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those between whites and African Am
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change, to forget what made him, he
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eported that the film had 'already
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campaigning for Lincoln. John's rea
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lack/white relationships, in Civil
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McCarthy discredited and a more rel
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dispute which once divided our nati
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Page 115 and 116: creativity. The Confederates use a
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Page 119 and 120: 1 Martin Luther King Jr.'s, speech,
Page 121 and 122: 44 Blight, Race and Reunion, 8-11,
Page 123 and 124: - self-belief, reasons for fighting
Page 125 and 126: Sexploitation - which reversed the
Page 127 and 128: would surely recognise the Mexicans
Page 129 and 130: There are similar examples in Major
Page 131 and 132: on working class whites nor receive
Page 133 and 134: The conflict between civil rights a
Page 135 and 136: e trusted from the wiles of the mis
Page 137 and 138: field-hands are too valuable an inv
Page 139 and 140: moving the civil rights agenda to a
Page 141 and 142: McBurney, even though he is wounded
Page 143 and 144: Most reviewers were sympathetic, se
Page 145 and 146: conservatism,' as a natural ally fo
Page 147 and 148: By the early 1970s, Hollywood's opt
Page 149 and 150: 20 Enoch, in Friendly Persuasion (1
Page 151 and 152: 62 Johnson called what happened the
Page 153 and 154: The world is white no longer; and i
Page 155 and 156: proceed with civil rights legislati
Page 157 and 158: would have been counter to the poli
Page 159: mid-1990s was rejected as the compa
Page 163 and 164: 1 James Baldwin, Stranger in the Vi
Page 165 and 166: 39 Robert Brent Toplin, Reel Histor
Page 167 and 168: 1210mmmto3sCT>The number of America
Page 169 and 170: There is a third problem - that of
Page 171 and 172: the Library of Congress and the Uni
Page 173 and 174: mainly contain copies of correspond
Page 175 and 176: killing. There were two other areas
Page 177 and 178: are 'no compensating moral values a
Page 179 and 180: epresented.' 32 However, this was t
Page 181 and 182: Reference has already been made to
Page 183 and 184: It is in the final period that anti
Page 185 and 186: 22 Letter from Shurlock to William
Page 187 and 188: Year Director Company190819091910Ba
Page 189 and 190: 191119121912Grant and LincolnHe Fou
Page 191 and 192: 19131913Call to Arms, TheCarpenter,
Page 193 and 194: 1915 Birth of a Nation, TheColonel
Page 195 and 196: 19341935193619371938193919401941194
Page 197 and 198: Searchers, TheShowdown at AbileneTh
Page 199 and 200: Alien, Robert C., and Douglas Gomer
Page 201 and 202: Cassidy, John M., Civil War Cinema:
Page 203 and 204: Foner, Eric, Who Owns History, (New
Page 205 and 206: Landy, Marcia, (ed.), The Historica
Page 207 and 208: Prince, Stephen, A New Pot of Gold:
Page 209 and 210: Sternsher, Bernard, Consensus, Conf
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