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Ideology

Define ideology

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Ideology

A body of ideasreflecting the socialneeds andaspirations of anindividual, group,class or culture

These are present inany humanenterprise includingfilmmaking

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Ideology

Art to give pleasure

vs. art to teach

Examples Documentary

Propaganda

Commercials

Pretty Woman

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Ideology

Even the most light-

hearted film has an

ideologicalperspective - one

side is right, more

attractive than the

other

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Ideology

What varies in films

is how explicit the

ideology ispresented

Leni Riefenstahl directing

Triumph of the Will

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Ideology

Neutral

Entertainment for

entertainments sake

Harold & Kumar

Go to White Castle

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Ideology

Implicit

Slanted but nobody

spells out the moralof the story

Must infer what

characters stand for

Majority of films

Splash

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Ideology

Explicit

Job is to teach and

persuade besidesentertain

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Ideology

Stars can tell us

what the value

system of a film is

Dirty Harry

Training Day

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Ideology

Left - Center- Right

Philadelphia, Cinema Paradiso & Rambo

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Ideology Left

Collective and communal

Human behavior is learned and can be changed

Flexible in judgments

Religion & sex are private - often skeptical or critical of organizedreligion

Future = hope

Cooperative effort to make progress

Identify with poor and disenfranchised - romanticize gangsters &

outsiders Global perspective

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Ideology

Right Emphasize the difference among people - respect authority

Character is inherited

Absolute in judgment Religion accorded privileged status

Veneration of the past

Open market and competition as opposed to collective effort

Identify with the establishment

Patriotic

Family is sacred

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Ideology

Other factors:

Culture

Censored in the

Middle East:

Syriana &Brokeback Mountain

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Ideology Other factors:

Religion

The Last Temptation of Christ, & The Chronicles of Narnia & The Passion of

the Christ

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Ideology

Other factors:

Ethnicity

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Ideology

Other factors:

Feminism

Thelma & Louise

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Ideology

Other factors:

LBGT Sensibility

As Good As It Gets, The L Word, The Talented Mr. Ripley

& To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

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Ideology

Tone

Manner of

presentation and

general atmosphere

Elf

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Ideology

Acting style

Genre

Voice-over

Music

L.A. Confidential &

Battle of Algiers

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Ideology

Acting style

Genre

Voice-over Music

Goodfellas &

Dances with Wolves

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Ideology Degree of explicitness? How to tell the good guys from the bad?

Use of stars?

Cinematic techniques?

Is protagonist left, center or right? Cultural values?

Ethnicity?

Religion?

Sex? Women?

Genre conventions?

Does the film reinforce the characters beliefs or mock

them?

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Ideology

Network, 1976Directed by Sidney Lumet & written

by Paddy Chayefsky, both of whom

worked extensively in television - not

a satire according to themFilm starts out looking like a

documentary and get slicker as it

goes alongUnited Artists thought the film too

controversial but ended up co-

producing it w/MGMOne of two films to win three Oscars

for Acting - also won Best

ScreenplayPeter Finchs role declined by Gene

Hackman & Henry Fonda