1. Ideology What do we mean by ideology? It’s a system of ideas, which functions within a given society to make its institutions, customs, practices, and beliefs appear “normal” or “natural.” Because they are constantly reinforced within the society, members have a great deal of difficulty seeing and analyzing their own ideologies, much as it must be hard for a fish to see water.

2. Ideology What does ideology have to do with Hollywood movies? They reinforce the dominant ideology in order to keep the viewer engaged with the illusion on screen. In entertaining an audience, the movie may use “the story, the star or the music” to distract audiences from real social problems. Sullivan’s Travels Singin’ in the Rain Why did Hollywood become so unwilling to take on political issues?

3. Ideology Even “social problem movies,” which often contained a conflict between the individual and the structures of society, staged them within “the context of a fundamentally just society which offered the individual, even under the most extreme circumstances, the chance to reestablish himself... “ Why did Hollywood become so unwilling to take on political issues?

4. Why, indeed? Federal Regulation entertainment (a commodity), not speech Hays Office (MPPDA--1932) “entertainment unadulterated, unsullied by any infiltration of propaganda” The Quigley Amendment (1932) “No motion picture shall be produced which shall advocate or create sympathy for political theories alien to, and subversive of American institutions.”

5. And then there was... The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)  Cold War paranoia about Communist messages in mass entertainment  Congress formed House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC)  1941 and 1947 HUAC hearings were "witch hunts" to remove so-called subversives from the industry (most famously led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy)

6. Effect of HUAC hearings  The blacklisting of talented members of the Hollywood community  created a climate of fear and dampened creativity within the industry, and  the controversies over people’s roles in the investigation continue even today (1999 Elia Kazan Oscar controversy)

7. What got lost in the post-war years? When you exclude ideological positions as a source of conflict in movie plots, you reduce them (as we generally have) to self-interest: “the bad guys act out of greed or ambition and the good guys act to stop the bad guys.” The political/economic system is seen as essentially good, with an occasional few “bad apples” whose removal restores the system to health and smooth operation.

8. Social Problem Movies Why are they so hard to get right? Case Study: Mississippi Burning “Both by what it includes and by its exclusions, hesitations and absences, the movie remains equivocal, not about the rights and wrongs of racism, so much as about how a movie can make its discourse about racism entertaining, and what an entertainment movie can say about racism.” Case Study: Do the Right Thing