Hollywood and America HIST/HRS 169 Section 01 Tuesday and Thursday Noon 1:15 pm Del Norte Hall rm. 1010 California State University, Sacramento Fall 2018 Instructor: Dr. Peter Gough peter.gough@csus.edu Office: 217 Brighton Hall Office hours: 10:30 to Noon Tuesday and Thursday and by appointment Catalog Description HIST/HRS 169. Hollywood and America. 3 Units Chronological survey of American films and their cultural significance from the 1890's to the present. Focus on films produced in Hollywood, the contexts in which they were created, and the impact of Hollywood as a mythical place in the development of American culture. The course fulfills Area C4 of the CSUS GE Program. Students will write about 2500 words. As the tests and final paper requires substantial amounts of writing, this course is not recommended for Freshman.
Course Description This course examines crucial events and the chronological evolution of American history, from the 1890s to the present, through the lens of Hollywood film and other media. We will consider how these visual representations have influenced our present understanding of key matters such as the country s social and cultural development, presidential politics, religion, racial and class tensions, gender relationships, and war-making. Material to be viewed includes The Patriot, Gettysburg, Gold Diggers of 1933, The Best Years of Our Lives, West Side Story, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. We will conduct an historical poetics of contemporary American cinema, as we seek to understand the historical conditions that enabled modern American cinema to assume the form it has. We will consider all of the major topics discussed by historians of the period, including the break-up of the motion picture studios, demographic changes, the film ratings system, the blockbuster syndrome, the event film, independent filmmaking, home video, market globalization, and other stuff like that. We will not, however, cover such topics systematically. If instead we allow the particulars of particular movies to invite commentary, you are less likely than you might otherwise be to come away with pat knowledge of matters about which one can only pretend to understand completely. That way of operating will work fine, except that members of the class cannot know what they missed if they miss a class, and asking another student probably will not help: Those who attend the class in question are liable to have an understandable but invalid belief that nothing happened. Therefore, all members of the class must attend all of every class. Throughout, we will study movies as movies as experiences for spectators and we will never stray far from our central question and the only question about the cinema that I care much about: What is it about the movies people like that makes people like them? This course surveys some of the significant social issues and important historical moments of the last century as they were portrayed in films of the era by Anglo America, Asian American, African American, and Native American directors. We'll explore the ways in which Hollywood portrayed poverty, racism, immigration, sex, addiction, and violence, and we will also discuss the Great Depression (my specific area of research) the rise of gangster culture in the 1920s, the Hollywood Production Code, the star system, film noir, and other features important to an understanding of film during this period. A consistent theme in the pictures we'll see is the idea of the American dream: the ways in which it is defined by people in different decades, the events that cause it to seem possible (or impossible), and the ways in which films present the obstacles that prevent people from achieving it. To facilitate our discussions of the films, class members will be expected to read short pieces (essays or short stories) related to the film for that week, and most weeks there will be student presentations related to the content of the film. Course Objectives: To critically analyze, interpret, and evaluate a number of films and to ground that interpretation in the context of American film history, including directors, the star system, the Pre-Code era, and so forth. To analyze the way in which films convey the concerns, social problems, and stylistic features of their respective eras, and to see those features as reflecting the culture in which they were produced To search for instances of how American film culture, historically conceived, influences contemporary culture and to assess the ways in which films affect our current perspectives on such issues as race, class, gender, poverty, and sexuality. To produce papers, multimodal compositions, and other means of disseminating the results of focused student inquiry and research, including blogs, reports, and group presentations.
Required Text Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. Course Requirements Exams There will be three exams. The three exams will primarily be in essay form, but may also include multiple-choice questions. The second of the three exams will have a take home component which needs to be typed. Final Essay There will be one 7-9 pg. final essay One priority of this course is to improve the writing skills of all students. I recently read a poll taken where Americans were asked from what source of information are you most likely to believe what you learn about history? Number ONE on the list was museums and number TWO was motion pictures! Given that this course involves the cross-section of Hollywood film and American history and culture, I would like the final essay project to reflect this area of enquiry. With this in mind, I am going to have you watch a motion picture of an historical era. I am then going to have you research at least THREE sources, scholarly books or articles, and see what conclusions are drawn about the same time period in history. This SHOULD be fun and interesting, and I will talk about this much more as the class progresses. I strongly suggest using JSTOR articles or books from our CSUS Library. A) Watch a film from the period which is covered in our class, OR an earlier period -- America and the colonial period to the Civil War. Be aware of the points the film is making; what are its major arguments? What do you think the filmmaker intends the audience to glean from this film? What struck you most about the film? Did you actually like this movie? Watching it through the first time, do you think it was accurate and true to the historical period it was representing? Do you think the historical time-period in which the film was made was simply a background for which to tell the story OR do you think the film was ABOUT the historical time-period? What do you think audiences found/find most appealing about this movie? These are just a few ideas and things of which to be aware when watching the film. After watching and thinking about the film, I would like you to find at least 3 scholarly articles or books that relate to the same time period as the film. Briefly describe the article, and the points it is making. Are there points of intersection with the film, or points of contradiction? Do not just be aware of the facts of history (sometimes filmmakers have to take justifiable liberties and make changes to make their presentation) but
rather be aware of the overall themes and ideas and theses that are made by both the film and the articles. Have a thesis or argument or point to your essay! On the first page you need to have your name, a staple in the upper left-hand corner and then the title of the film, and then a brief bibliographic entry for the articles/books: author, title, publisher, and date of publication. NO URLs!!! Examples: Journal article: James, Russell. "Billion-dollar Treasures at the Bottom of the Sea." Mechanix Illustrated. Vol. 78, July 1982, pp. 62-64, 88-89. Books: Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: New American Library, 1959. I would like to get a prospectus on what you will be doing before Thanksgiving break. For your Prospectus (optional but suggested) I would simply like to have: 1) The name and year of the film you will watch and be referencing (if you are doing this option.) 2) A bibliographical list of the articles and/or books you will be citing or referencing. Please have them in standard bibliographic form, including author, title, date, name of periodical, volume, publisher, etc. 3) A brief discussion of what you plan to discuss and proposed thesis (argument of point) of your essay. This can change before the completed essay is turned in, but you NEED to start thinking of it now! This is the first time I have made this assignment. You should try your best to be original, and demonstrate and understanding and thoughtfulness about the material. You can give me the prospectus following the last test on May 13 And, above all, HAVE FUN!!! Class Attendance 20 pts. Missed 0-1 25 pts. + 5 pts. extra-credit 2-3 25 4-5 20 6-7 15 8-9 10 10 5 >10 0 GRADING: Exam #1-50 pts. Final Essay 100 pts. Exam #2-100 pts. Attendance 25 pts. Exam #3 100 pts. Prospectus 25 pts TOTAL = 400 pts.
WEEKLY CALENDAR Week 1 THE RISE OF MOVIE CULTURE Aug. 28 Introduction: What can Hollywood tell us about US Society? Read: Preface, pgs. ix xi 30 The Birth of a Mass Medium Read: pgs. 3-17 Week 2 Sept. 4 Nickel Madness Read: pgs. 18-32 6 Edison s Trust and How it Got Busted Read: pgs. 33-47 Week 3 Sept. 11 D.W. Griffith and the Forging of Motion Picture Art Read: pgs. 48-62 13 Film Week 4 Sept. 18 EXAM # 1 THE MOVIES IN THE AGE OF MASS CULUTRE 20 Hollywood and the Dawning of the Aquarian Age Read: pgs. 67-85 Week 5 Sept. 25 The Silent Film and the Passionate Life Read: pgs. 86-103 27 Chaos, Magic, Physical Genius and the Art of Silent Comedy Read: pgs. 104-121 Week 6 Oct. 2 Movie-Made Children Read: pgs. 122-140 4 The House that Adolph Zukor Built Read: pgs. 141-157
Week 7 MASS CULTURE IN THE AGE OF MOVIES Oct. 9 The Moguls at Bay and the Censors Triumph Read: pgs. 161-174 11 The Golden Age of Turbulence and the Golden Age of Order Read: pgs. 174-194 Week 8 Oct. 16 The Making of Cultural Myths: Walt Disney and Frank Capra Read: pgs. 195-214 18 Film Week 9 Oct. 23 Selling Movies Overseas Read: pgs. 215-227 25 The Hollywood Gold Rush Read: pgs. 228-246 Week 10 Oct. 30 Exam # 2 THE DECLINE OF MOVIE CULTURE Nov. 1 Hollywood at War for America and at War with Itself Read: pgs. 249-268 Week 11 Nov. 6 The Disappearing Audience and the Television Crisis Read: pgs. 269-285 8 Hollywood s Collapse Read: pgs. 286-304 Week 12 Nov. 13 The Promise of Personal Film Read: pgs. 305-317 THE ENDURING MEDIUM 15 Nadir and Revival Read: pgs. 321-338
Week 13 Nov 20 Film (Prospectus due) 22 THANKSGIVING NO CLASS Week 14 Nov. 27 Hollywood and the Age of Reagan Read: pgs. 339-356 29 From Myth to Memory Read: pgs. 357-372 Week 15 Dec 4 Independent Images Read: pgs. 373-382 6 Exam #3 Final Essay and Presentation: Monday Dec. 11 12:45-2:45PM