Ideology

• Define ideology
 Ideology
• A body of ideas
reflecting the social
needs and
aspirations of an
individual, group,
class or culture
• These are present in
any human
enterprise including
filmmaking
 Ideology
• Art to give pleasure
vs. art to teach
– Examples
• Documentary
• Propaganda
• Commercials
• Pretty Woman
 Ideology
• Even the most light-
hearted film has an
ideological
perspective - one
side is right, more
attractive than the
other
 Ideology
• What varies in films
is how explicit the
ideology is
presented

Leni Riefenstahl directing

Triumph of the Will
 Ideology
• Neutral
– Entertainment for
entertainment’s sake

Harold & Kumar

Go to White Castle
 Ideology
• Implicit
– Slanted but nobody
spells out the moral
of the story
– Must infer what
characters stand for
– Majority of films

Splash
 Ideology
• Explicit
– Job is to teach and
persuade besides
entertain
 Ideology
• Stars can tell us
what the value
system of a film is

Dirty Harry

Training Day
 Ideology
• Left - Center- Right

Philadelphia, Cinema Paradiso & “Rambo

 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 organized
religion
– Future = hope
– Cooperative effort to make progress
– Identify with poor and disenfranchised - romanticize gangsters &
outsiders
– Global perspective
 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
 Ideology
• Center
– Can learn from both
sides

Cinema Paradiso
 Ideology
• Other factors:
– Culture

Censored in the
Middle East:
Syriana &
Brokeback Mountain
 Ideology
• Other factors:
– Culture

Husbands and Wives & Madea’s Family Reunion

 Ideology
• Other factors:
– Religion

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

• Other factors:
– Ethnicity
 Ideology
• Other factors:
– Feminism

Thelma & Louise

 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
 Ideology
• Tone
– Manner of
presentation and
general atmosphere

Elf
 Ideology
• Acting style
• Genre
• Voice-over
• Music

L.A. Confidential &

Battle of Algiers
 Ideology
• Acting style
• Genre
• Voice-over
• Music

Goodfellas &
Dances with Wolves
 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 character’s beliefs or mock
them?
Ideology
•Network, 1976
•Directed by Sidney Lumet & written
by Paddy Chayefsky, both of whom
worked extensively in television - not
a satire according to them
•Film starts out looking like a
documentary and get “slicker” as it
goes along
•United Artists thought the film “too
controversial” but ended up co-
producing it w/MGM
•One of two films to win three Oscars
for Acting - also won Best
Screenplay
•Peter Finch’s role declined by Gene
Hackman & Henry Fonda