GRC 311-The Movies Go to War



Syllabus: Fall, 2005 Lost your Syllabus? Download a pdf version. All readings are from Richard Goff, Walter Moss, Janice Terry, and Jiu-Hwa Upshur, The Twentieth Century: A Brief Global History, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill. 2002) (ISBN 0-07-234853-4). "REC" = readings that will help you make sense of the wars, but are not compulsory. Week 1: 1 September TH Introduction to the Course: logistics, texts, films, requirements the question of representation PART 1: Questions of Theory -- Setting up the problem WEEK 2: 6, 8 September TU How to Read a Film: The question of point of view CLASS DISCUSSION: What does it mean to "remember" a war? How does one represent that war? How does one represent the memory of that war? PART 2: World War I: The "War to End all Wars" (The Anti-War War?) TH The "Facts" of the Western War: The End of a Way of Life (download history ppt; maps ppt) READ: Goff, Chapters 7 & 8 REC: Goff, Chapters 1, 2, & 3 CLASS DISCUSSION: Who are the interest groups involved, and what are their motivations for participation? WEEK 3: 13, 15 September TU Four Views of Heroism (download ppt) The Blue Max (U.S. film) Grand Illusion (French) All Quiet on the Western Front (U.S. Film, German anti-war source) Gallipoli (Australian) CLASS DISCUSSION: You'll see one clip from each film. What does a hero look like in each, and whose war is it? Come into class with ideas about what perspective on the war each country would have. PART 3: World War II : "The Good War" in the European Theater . . . TH The War in Europe: Facts of the War (download history ppt; maps ppt) READ: Goff, Chapter 11, 12, 16 & 17 REC: Chapters 9 & 10 CLASS DISCUSSION: How World War I made World War II possible. WEEK 4: 20, 22 September TU Heroes: Stemming Nazi Aggression (download ppt) Bridge at Remagen The Longest Day Where Eagles Dare CLASS DISCUSSION: These three films were made when World War II was still a very live memory. How do we recognize an American war hero? Clips in class as basis for discussion. *WORLD WAR I QUIZ CLOSED TH Soldiers as Victims (stereotypes of concentration camp internees) (download ppt) Stalag 17* Hart's War CLASS DISCUSSION: These two films both deal with US soldiers held as POWs (prisoners of war) in Europe. Stalag 17 was made when the memory of WWII was fresh; Hart's War, long after. Can concentration or POW camps be represented metaphors? *FILM PRÉCIS 1 DUE WEEK 5: 27, 29 September TU Two Sides of One War: Unwilling Heroes (download ppt) READ: Goff, Chapter 18 Das Boot* (German film) U-571 CLASS DISCUSSION: Submarine crews are in a different kind of war. What differences are there in stereotypes of various services? PART 3a: . . in the East: Pearl Harbor and Beyond, The "Yellow Peril" TH When the Sleeping Giant Rises (download ppt; maps ppt) From Here to Eternity Pearl Harbor CLASS DISCUSSION: Both these films recreate the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the start of US participation in WW II. What differences in point of view are there in the attack sequences? WEEK 6: 4, 6 October TU POWs and the Other (download ppt) READ: Goff, Chapter 13 King Rat (British film, based on a novel by James Clavell) Bridge on the River Kwai CLASS DISCUSSION: The treatment of POWs in the Pacific Theater was used to justify the bombing of Hiroshima. Do these Allies' films show the same war? *WORLD WAR II QUIZ CLOSED PART 4. Aftermath TH Still-Open Wounds from Europe (download ppt) Open City* (Italian film, the first made in Allied Zones) Germany Year Zero Best Years of Our Lives White Christmas CLASS DISCUSSION: Each of these films has a message of "normalization" required. What does each scene show about the on-going clean-up of the war? WEEK 7: 11, 13 October TU Review for midterm Set up project partnerships TH Midterm PART 5. Rethinking WW II: Re-Presenting Victims, Not Heroes WEEK 8: 18, 20 October TU Normal People . . . (download ppt) Seventh Cross (Hollywood movie made from a leftist German novel of the war era) Schindler's List CLASS DISCUSSION: Each film dramatizes victims and victimizers. What is the point of each? TH Children Victims (download ppt) Tin Drum (German film from a novel by Günter Grass) Au revoir, les enfants (French film) Empire of the Sun CLASS DISCUSSION: Children are swept up in the wars and forced into lives apart. What do they become? What cases are being made? WEEK 9: 25, 27 October TU Soldier Victims: Rethinking the War (download ppt) The Ogre Saving Private Ryan CLASS DISCUSSION: These are two films made in the 1990s. They show unheroic soldiers and the insanity of war. What in each looks like earlier films, and what is new? PART 6. Rewriting the History of WW II: Once Memories dim . . . TH "Documenting" the Unthinkable, or What Never Existed (download ppt) Mein Krieg (German documentary) The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl Max (international art film) CLASS DISCUSSION: These three films span the space from documentary to mockumentary (Max, which completely fictionalizes Hitler's biography). What kinds of memory are reworked in each? What audience factors play in? PART 7. Endgame: After the "Greatest Generation" Passes WEEK 10: 1, 3 November TU When the Details are gone: Two "Memorials" to War (download ppt) Stalingrad (German film) Enemy at the Gate (European movie with US star) CLASS DISCUSSION: Both films are about Germany's devastating loss at Stalingrad - with huge casualties on both sides. What does each do to "package" the war for its respective viewers? ** GROUP PROJECT POSTING DUE PART 8. The "Cold War": War as Governmental Lunacy, Spy versus Spy TH The "Facts": From Russia through the "Korean Police Action" (download history ppt; maps ppt) READ: Goff, Chapters 20, 22, & 26 WEEK 11: 8, 10 November TU Governments gone mad: Wars that aren't wars (download ppt) Manchurian Candidate MASH* CLASS DISCUSSION: Manchurian Candidate was so threatening it was essentially supporessed; MASH was about Korea, but made after Vietnam. How did the Cold War function at home (remember "duck and cover"), and how did these movies intervene? TH Spy versus Spy: Manufacturing Threat (download ppt) From Russia with Love* ("Bond, James Bond") Dr. Strangelove (British) CLASS DISCUSSION: Both deal with saving the world from "the threat." What does each film, its super-heroes and super-villains, tell us? PART 9. Vietnam: The Dirty War WEEK 12: 15, 17 November TU Asia after WW II READ: Goff, Chapters 27, 28, & 29 TH Homefront: Vietnam and the Protests (download ppt) Born on the Fourth of July Berkeley in the 60s CLASS DISCUSSION: How to speak to a divided nation about Vietnam. *FILM PRÉCIS 2 DUE WEEK 13: 22, 24 November (+ Thanksgiving TU (download ppt) Full Metal Jacket* Apocalypse Now CLASS DISCUSSION: These two films are about soldiers trapped in the insanity of an unwinnable war; both are made long after Vietnam. What do they tell the homefront about the war? Who are the "good soldiers" in these films -- compare these representations with older stereotypes. TH Thanksgiving PART 10: Be all that you can be: The New Armed Forces WEEK 14: 29 November, 1 December T "An Army of One" (downoad ppt on films; ppt on history; maps ppt) READ: Goff, Chapter 31 Top Gun CLASS DISCUSSION: Who is the new hero? Compare the film to armed forces recruitment today, and to earlier hero representations. *KOREA, VIETNAM, COLD WAR QUIZ CLOSES TH US as the World's Policemen (Mideast and Africa) (downoad ppt) READ: Goff, Chapter 15, 24, & 25 Black Hawk Down* CLASS DISCUSSION: What is the new army? What differences emerge in representing soldiers from the time of WW II and Vietnam? WEEK 15: 6, 8 December T Where the Real Wars Are: Media Realities (downoad ppt) Three Kings Wag the Dog CLASS DISCUSSION: In these two films, Gulf and Balkan wars are used as excuses for other deeds to be done. What do you see in the visual grammar of each? TH Closing discussion FILM TERMINOLOGY QUIZ CLOSED FINAL EXAM: Thursday, 15 December, 9am to 12 noon** This page was last updated: 18 August 2005 Website maintained by: webmaster [Accessibility Information][website established July 15, 2004]

Syllabus: Fall, 2005