| From their
earliest years, motion pictures have been widely recognized as a powerful
and influential cultural force in American society. As such, films
have been scrutinized by public and civic officials and endured official
and unofficial censorship campaigns; many have used films to generate sympathy
for cherished causes; many others have rallied to protect alleged moral
or patriotic threats among controversial films. This course will closely
examine the history of cinema by viewing a select number of motion pictures--
everything from comedy to war films. We will view, analyze and discuss
these films as documents that tell us about their times and the people
who made them. We will thus use cinema as an important window to
view the changing social landscape of the United States in the twentieth
cinema. |