Download (3483kB) - Greenwich Academic Literature Archive ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

are, at heart, patriotic - but patriotism has to be seen in context. When America was at warpatriotism became propaganda and needed to be demonstrated throughout the film.Patriotism in Civil War films came at the end through reconciliation and unity preceded bya narrative of conflict and disunity. When America was not at war conflict leading to unitywas acceptable, as the audience knew the outcome. Most Civil War films showed asoftened version of the past, which promoted patriotism regardless of the scenes ofconflict, as all the participants were Americans.44 Very few films are centred on the warand the years of Reconstruction in the Old South. The dead and wounded are rarely talkedabout or appear. Instead Hollywood provided small episodes of conflict, either at the endof the war or between veterans in the post-Civil War period generally located in the West.One film however stands out in its approach to the war and in its representation ofpatriotism - John Houston's The Red Badge of Courage (1951).The Red Badge of Courage is about Henry, a new young recruit, who runs away from hisfirst skirmish but returns after a series of encounters with other soldiers, fired up with guiltthat he has deserted his comrades in their hour of need. He realises that there are moreimportant things than saving his own life - his comrades and his country. In the battle thefollowing day Henry shows reckless courage. When the Union flag-bearer falls, Henrypicks up the flag and leads the charge. The flag becomes the symbol of Henry'sredemption, his courage and his patriotism. The Confederates surrender and Henrycaptures their flag. After the engagement the Union and Confederate troops talk togetherfinding out where they have come from, finding out about America - just as the GIs did inWorld War II. 'I never spoke to nobody from Ohio before,' says a Rebel soldier, 'I neverspoke to nobody from Tennessee' replies a Union soldier. The story,' says one reviewer,'is about a GI with the clock rolled back a hundred years.' The book is a definition of anAmerican, says another. However Vie Hentschy wondered why 'in these troubled timesHouston would film a pic [sic] that shows cowardice, fear, raw emotion and terrors of war-even if it is the Civil War...... It is not easy to sit and watch a young American boy as acoward: then as a savage killer of his own countrymen.' 45 The 'troubled times' referred tothe threat of communism at home and abroad and the mounting American casualties in theKorean War. Nevertheless, the ending of the film is reconciliatory and patriotic. Henry andhis friend Tom march off with the regiment carrying the Union and Confederate flags sideby side echoing the two flags side by side at the semi-centennial celebrations at66
Gettysburg. 'You know,' says Henry, 'it's a mighty pretty country round here.'Reconciliation and patriotism hand in hand.America's racial arrangements proved a fertile propaganda target for the Soviet Union, inits Cold War battle with America. It continually raised inter-racial incidents at the UnitedNations as examples of America's hypocrisy. These incidents also came under intensescrutiny by the world's press.46 The NAACP and African American leaders tried to exploitthis situation both by encouraging external criticism and using international organisationsto express their disapproval and by emphasisising their own patriotic and anti-communistcredentials. As A. Philip Randolph, the African American civil rights' leader, told acongressional committee in 1948, 'racial segregation is the greatest single propaganda andpolitical weapon in the hands of Russia and international communism today.' 47Whilst the State Department was well aware of America's racialised image abroad thegathering strength of anti-communism at home and Republican control of Congressprevented any civil rights legislation. Returning African American veterans soon learnedthat the South had not changed. Attempts at voter registration campaigns, although initiallysuccessful, were met with intimidation and murder. Segregationists used the anti-communist hysteria to argue that any attempt to change Jim Crow would not onlyundermine the fabric of American society but was a communist plot.48 The attempt by theCongress of Industrial Organizations, which had a good record in supporting civil rights, tounionise the workforce in the South met with the same reaction - as it found out when itlaunched 'Operation Dixie.' 49 Truman trod a pragmatic path, promising much but unableto deliver, except by Executive Order.Truman led the anti-communist crusade despite vetoing the Taft-Hartley and McCarranActs. 50 He introduced the federal employee loyalty oath, prosecuted and jailed the leadersof the Communist Party, used tough rhetoric to scare the American people and gavefinancial help to pro-US governments facing communist subversion - the TrumanDoctrine. 51 This was posed in ideological and moral terms - a 'free' society versus atyrannical one. Alongside the anti-communist legislation and the various high profilecongressional inquiries, all citizens were encouraged to report anyone whom they felt wasa communist or showed, or had shown, pro-communist sympathies. In 1949 fifteen statespassed anti-subversion laws. 52 By the early 1950s the 'Red Scare' had stifled dissent and67
Page 1 and 2:
Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
Page 3:
REEL WARS: COLD WAR, CIVIL RIGHTSAN
Page 6 and 7:
ABSTRACTThis study is an examinatio
Page 8 and 9:
ABBREVIATIONSAMPASAHRBirthCommissio
Page 10 and 11:
Historians using film as a resource
Page 12 and 13:
dominated America's foreign policy
Page 14 and 15:
Mary L. Dudziak explores this relat
Page 17 and 18:
pure and simple' and were therefore
Page 19 and 20:
historical texts. Hayden White comp
Page 21 and 22:
Historians, history films and film
Page 23 and 24: How have sympathetic film historian
Page 25 and 26: Therefore historians can, with over
Page 27 and 28: identity and these were taken as th
Page 29 and 30: 21 George F. Custen, 'Hollywood and
Page 31 and 32: 63 Rosenstone, The Historical Film,
Page 33 and 34: of Honor dedicated to, and listing,
Page 35 and 36: War.....[it] defined us as to what
Page 37 and 38: The Civil War and popular cultureJu
Page 39 and 40: memory,53 the place where Union and
Page 41 and 42: Despite being a new medium Hollywoo
Page 43 and 44: From the late 1940s Hollywood was u
Page 45 and 46: 1 William Faulkner, Requiem for a N
Page 47 and 48: 36 Blight, Race and Reunion, 77, 81
Page 49 and 50: mainly composed of members of the w
Page 51 and 52: there was cowardice, it was either
Page 53 and 54: This was another Lost Cause myth -
Page 55 and 56: stuff with plenty of clothes, rich
Page 57 and 58: women into or within slavery. 47 Th
Page 59 and 60: departure when, in the discussion o
Page 61 and 62: 1 William Dean Howells, Los Angeles
Page 63 and 64: 37 Melvyn Stokes, The Civil War in
Page 65 and 66: All races and religions, that's Ame
Page 67 and 68: Hollywood almost abandoned Civil Wa
Page 69 and 70: charged with disloyalty and silence
Page 71 and 72: ecover from the HUAC investigations
Page 73: a living. The daughters grow up to
Page 77 and 78: combining two great myths, which co
Page 79 and 80: (1948), Tom Dunson's style of autoc
Page 81 and 82: Patriotism became a white attribute
Page 83 and 84: In the absence of African Americans
Page 85 and 86: (Horizons West) and businessmen (An
Page 87 and 88: year later, and there was no lead f
Page 89 and 90: 20 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War, Civil
Page 91 and 92: 56 Richard White, 'Western History'
Page 93 and 94: 7 have seen the promised land.' 'Th
Page 95 and 96: those between whites and African Am
Page 97 and 98: change, to forget what made him, he
Page 99 and 100: eported that the film had 'already
Page 101 and 102: campaigning for Lincoln. John's rea
Page 103 and 104: lack/white relationships, in Civil
Page 105 and 106: McCarthy discredited and a more rel
Page 107 and 108: dispute which once divided our nati
Page 109 and 110: pressure, continued to hold. The me
Page 111 and 112: discrimination, attempts at univers
Page 113 and 114: talks about Lincoln pleading that '
Page 115 and 116: creativity. The Confederates use a
Page 117 and 118: police in Birmingham and Kennedy's
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 and 160:
mid-1990s was rejected as the compa
Page 161 and 162:
those historians who were contestin
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
show all

Download (3483kB) - Greenwich Academic Literature Archive ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?