To Investigate The Power Of Film As A Tool Of Propaganda
The purpose of this research is to investigate the power of film as a tool of propaganda. I reviewed four popular highly noted propaganda films: The Eternal Jew, The 49th Parrael, Flying Tigers, and Avatar.
The Eternal Jew (1940)
Nazi propaganda newsreel created by Fritz Hippler uses previously shot documentary film clips edited into carefully orchestrated scenes shot and recorded some time early after the Nazis invaded Poland. The invasion started WII in Europe and this film portrays the three million Polish Jews (nearly ten percent of the country’s population) in stereotypic, derogatory, blatancy. It is obvious to the 21st century viewer this is anti-Semitic but to the people of the mid 20th century, this information reinforces pre-existing stereotypes. This newsreel type of film purposefully through carefully written propaganda provides the viewer with ongoing, incorrect, and clearly biased, historical, comparative, and statistical information making the Jewish culture as appearing insidious, parasitic, and evil. Accomplishing this, Hippler uses carefully filmed and framed shots to accompany the propaganda narrated throughout the film. Throughout the documentary, continuous propaganda builds upon ancient stereotypes of the Jew a s evil, greedy, and vile out to get everyone.
Using historical criteria, The Eternal Jew cites the exploits of Alexander the Great and the Romans (both powerful conquerors) as giving impetus for the “wandering” Jew because of the intercultural trade opportunities for making money (which the film repeatedly emphasizes as the financial woes of the world) these historical subjugators brought to conquered lands. This imposes the sense of superiority of conquerors (meant to imply the superiority of the Nazis and the invasion of Poland) to the viewer. Comparing the Jewish race to vermin and rats – psychology uses the propaganda for substantiating the confiscation of the “parasitic” Jew’s property and putting them in contained ghettos like animals. Adding to the intended use of instilling fear in the viewer from the film’s propaganda technique, the narrator outlines how rats (like Jews and conversely) destroy the world consuming products and spreading disease. “They are cowardly, cunning, and cruel … describe the rats in the film intended for the viewer to absorb this propaganda as the “truth” when the narrator matter of fact announces, just like rats representing the “elements of sneakiness, subterranean destruction among animals, ‘just as the Jews among human kind’ (Hippler, 1940)”.
The 49th Parallel
Before the United States entered WWII, the British released the powerful propaganda film called The 49th Parallel by Michael Powell. The plot sets the stage for the ensuing propaganda scenes filled with supportive dialogue. The international boundary marking the Canadian from the American territories is the 49th parallel referred to in the movie title. According to Antani, the movie points out it is the world’s only undefended national border making it of great benefit to both of the nations.(Antani, Web, 2006)/
Though Powell succeeds in making the Nazis seem enough like the underdog in the group struggle to escape out of Canada into “friendly” America the viewer never loses sight these are the bad guys as each chance meeting with the eclectic array of people they ask for help and are refused makes the reality more layered.
Set behind enemy lines in Canada, surviving crew of a German U-boat attempt to get to the United States which is still neutral and to safety. In the journey, the Nazi sailors meet different types of people in different situations Powell uses to reinforce the values of democracy yet making the humanity of the Nazi sailors gain them viewer sympathy. The movie is a personal statement by Powell according to Antani praising Canada for committing to the fight for freedom against the oppression of the Nazis.
Antani explains the idea of the wrongness of isolationism is what Powell preaches throughout the scenes. Powell points accusingly at America with the message “shame on you America” for not taking sides. “By praising democratic values and warning of the Nazi threat looming over the free world, 49th Parallel was director Michael Powell’s roundabout exhortation to the American people to join the good fight (Antani, 2006)”. Powell stresses this isolationism gives the Nazis the only chance of winning.
Flying Tigers by David Miller
Used for making the American public aware and therefore, ready for war, David Miller’s Flying Tigers has one purpose and that is to get able bodied American young men to sign up for the military. Miller uses contrasts to get the desperate “need” for recruits out to the public. The good guys are “always under-staffed and hurting, and the Japanese forces just seem that more organized, and much more of a real menace (DVD.com, Web, 2011)” and therefore, the dire need for recruits to get over there and save the world.
Hollywood movie of this type in support of the war effort used big names to get the public to the movie. John Wayne makes the perfect hero type and this is not a subtle propaganda message but works on the naïve true blue American psyche. The irony of the John Wayne Hollywood saga of being the eternal war hero is that John Wayne never served in the military like the majority of his peers (including some of the women). Regardless, the propaganda of the name John Wayne alone put the necessary spin on the message intended to draw patriotism from the very corners of a potential recruits very being. Using other scenes Miller portrays the glory of war with special close up action shots of the U.S. making hits on the Japanese pilots depicting never before seen realistic kill shot bloody wounds. At the same time, the film attempts to invoke patriotism by showing the bloody wounds of the Americans when a Japanese enemy bullet gets him.
Avatar
It does not take too long when watching James Cameron’s Avatar to understand this isn’t just another remarkable visual experience but there is a “message” clearly put against tactics to “manifest” the “destiny” of greedy imperialists. The lines between the good guys and the bad guys sometimes get blurred but in the end, “doing what is right” leads to preservation of life over greedy destruction. Aside from the intentional destruction of this planet to gather a desired natural resource, other themes as a message arise within the destructive plot.
According to Lind, Cameron’s Avatar brilliantly takes the finest technology to get across a point so many believe in and yet do not want to have shoved down his/her throats – ecology and preserving the environment. The message clearly says to the viewer that like these beautiful iridescent flora and fauna the bad guys want to destroy, so the same thing continues going on with our own planet and the world better wake up and stop those doing this horrible thing (Lind, Web, 2010).
Geoffrey Dickens cites the NBC Today Show where Meredith Vieira in her interview with Cameron gets him to open up about the underlying messages his “blockbuster” Avatar. Dickens explains how Cameron “told the co-anchor” that Avatar’ “ plot centers on how greed and imperialism “tends to destroy the environment…” and how the human characters in the sci-fi flick “are doing the same thing on another pristine planet that we’ve done on earth (Dickens, Web, 2009)”
Works Cited
Antani, Jay. Michael Powell’s film The 49th Parallell. 2006. Review. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1942/49th-parallel/
Documentary Wire. Fritz Hippler The Eternal Jew. 1940. Film. Web. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.documentarywire.com/the-eternal-jew
DVDcult.com David Miller film Flying Tigers. 2011. Web. Retrieved May 18, 2011 from http://www.dvdcult.com/rev_FlyingTigers.htm
Lind, Harold. Is Avatar Radical Environmental Film? 2010. Web. Retrieved May 18, 2011 from
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/is-avatar-radical-environmental-propaganda
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