A Hollywood Perspective of the Cold War.

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Jackie Porter

February 17, 2003

Words: 3 867

Title:  A Hollywood Perspective of the Cold War

Ayn Rand claimed in her 1950’s Screen Guide for Americans that “the purpose of the Communists in Hollywood is not the production of political movies openly advocating Communism…[but] …making people absorb the basic principles of Collectivism by indirection and implication.’  This statement illustrates the fact that during this period, fear combined with politics limited the scope of films made by Hollywood. The movie industry became a part of the Cold War in 1947 when the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) descended upon Hollywood. HCUA’s hearings resulted in ten filmmakers going to jail for contempt of Congress.  In addition, hundreds of actors, writers, and directors were put on an unofficial industry blacklist.  The result was an environment where many film producers felt it was safer to produce films without any political or economic themes or implications at all.   However, while some producers focused much less on producing films about social problems, others embraced the new regime.  For example, between 1947 and 1954 almost forty explicitly propagandistic anti-Communist films were made in Hollywood.  It was not until the 1960’s after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, and the end of blacklisting, that Hollywood created a more sophisticated view of the Cold War.  When audiences were growing, the banks loaned money for film projects often.  However, after the war audiences began to turn to television instead of movies.  This meant that films did not necessarily make a profit.  Thus, as the banks became more cautious, they got more involved in monitoring the content of films, pushing for conservative, safe ventures. However, other forces were working against censorship and tight studio control. Imported foreign films and independent productions distributed through Hollywood began to bypass the Production Code Administration.  As films seen in the United States were produced increasingly by non-Hollywood workers, their content changed.  Distributors, whether Hollywood studios or not recognized that these films would make a great deal of money. The showing of these movies in turn created new and separate interests in the audience as it splintered from one mass group into several smaller specialized groups.  Hence, movies like Dr. Strangelove, and Fail Safe, changed the way Hollywood portrayed the Cold War. This new portrayal also encouraged directors to create movies that took a cynical view of both sides.  In this respect, espionage movies such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and From Russia With Love were produced.   By this time, it was also possible for American movies to show Russians in a favorable light.  During the 1970’s and 1980’s Hollywood movies took the view that only a few renegades threatened world peace and that men of goodwill on both sides could work together towards peace.  During this time movies like Red Dawn and The Fourth Protocol were produced.  In these films, small groups of people worked to counter or to help communism.  Three major themes emerged about the Cold War period of 1947-1987.  Film producers explored issues about the potential nuclear holocaust, the tension between military leaders and politicians, and also produced propagandist films presenting American democratic values in direct opposition to U.S.S.R communist values in order to persuade audiences while entertaining them.  

The first dominant theme that resulted from the newly founded political freedom in post 1962 film was the worldwide concern of the nature for modern technological warfare.   Movie directors were aware that a single or series of flaws in a machine could result in the outbreak of nuclear war.  This fear originated from the simple and obvious realization that the Russians would retaliate to any attack that the U.S organized against them.  

The movie Dr. Strangelovei  illustrates the dangers of modern technology.  The film begins with the narrator telling the audience in a straightforward manner that ‘ominous rumors have been privately circulating among high-level western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the Ultimate Weapon, a Doomsday device…’  This doomsday device becomes an increasingly significant factor in the movie when Group Captain Mandrake receives a call from Strategic Air Command General Jack D. Ripper.  Ripper has convinced himself that there has been a Russian sneak attack. The theme of imperfect technology becomes evident when Major T.J King Kong is informed of the Wing attack order for Plan R.  Major King expresses his disbelief in the order telling his crew " I don't want no horsin' around on the airplane?"i  In other words, the very fact that King believes a crew member could make such a joke by tampering with one of the machines demonstrates a huge flaw in technology as it is inadvertently dependent upon the intelligence and maturity of the operator.

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The fact that Ripper’s fanatical actions set off the chain of events which may lead to a nuclear war demonstrate the same theme.  In the Pentagon, President Muffley is briefed on the situation by General Buck Turgidson Eventually, Turgidson admits that General Ripper “exceeded his authority”i and the President can do nothing to stop the attack.  Buck admits that the Plan R "retaliatory safeguard"i lacks "the human element"i.  The audience then learns the true nature of the doomsday machine as the Russian Ambassador proclaims,

“…the mad fools...The Doomsday Machine...A device which will destroy all human and animal life on earth… The ...

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