History 414: History and
Film, The Americas since the 1950s
Summer 2016 online course, May 16 through June 24
Dale Graden
History and Film: The Americas since the 1950s offers historical perspectives on five countries since the middle of the twentieth century: Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and the United States. Emphasis is placed on the impact of the Cold War on popular culture.
The world view of Cold Warriors can be traced to a series of articles published during World War Two and its immediate aftermath. In a famous tract entitled “The American Century” that appeared in Life Magazine on February 17, 1941, the famed journalistic entrepreneur Henry Luce wrote that “We [the United States] are the inheritors of all the great principles of Western Civilization. It now becomes our time to be the powerhouse.” Five years later (in June 1946) after war had ended, future Secretary of State John Foster Dulles penned a two-part series entitled “Thoughts on Soviet Conduct and What to do About It.” Dulles affirmed “that Soviet leaders had launched a worldwide campaign that aimed to subjugate the West; they sought to eliminate what are, to us, the essentials of a free society; and to impose on conquered peoples a system repugnant to our ideals of humanity and fair play. Never in history have a few men in a single country achieved such world-wide influence.” As a result, “Soviet communism had become the unseen force directing nationalist movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America” (Kinzer, The Brothers, p. 80).
Such ideas had a profound impact on the histories and cultures of the Americas in the second half of the twentieth century. They contributed to the emergence of McCarthyism, repression of domestic dissent, National Security States, and a pervasive distrust of liberal ideas and internationalism.
Most historians and observers point to the fall of the "Iron Curtain" in 1990-91 as the end of the Cold War. Because of the disintegration of the Soviet empire, many believe that the United States "won" the Cold War. Revisionist scholars have questioned many of these interpretations. Certainly heightened tensions in 2014-16 between the United States and Russia related to Crimea, the Ukraine and Syria suggest that the Cold War continues in many ways.
For further perspectives on this resurgent Cold War, see interviews with Professor of Political Science Columbia University Emeritus Robert Legvold, easily accessible at youtube.
Week one, May 16-22: The
United States and the Cold War
Films:
Good Night and Good Luck (2005, directed by George Clooney)
Far from Heaven (2002, directed by Todd Haynes) or Trumbo (2015, directed by Jay Roach)
The US vs John Lennon (2006, directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld)
Reading: Stephen Kinzer, The
Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
Highly recommended: Stephen G. Rabe, The Killing Zone: The United States
Wages War in Latin America
Also recommended: Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing: The United
States and Latin America
Required Assignment by end of week one: Two film reviews are due by May 25: your choice from Good Night and Good Luck, Far from Heaven, and The US vs John Lennon
Please also note that a great book/film(s) critique could focus on the Kinzer book and many of the films to be seen in this course.
Week two, May 23-May 29: The Cuban Revolution 1955-1959 and its legacies
Films:
Che part one (2008, directed by Stephen Soderbergh)
Before Night Falls (2000, directed by Julian Schnabel)
Strawberry and Chocolate (1993, directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio)
Reading: Anthony DePalma,
The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of the New
York Times
Recommended reading: Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United
States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution
Week three, May 30-June 5: Chile, Salvador Allende and a Military-Security State
Machuca (2004, directed by Andres Wood)
Missing (1982, directed by Costa-Gavras)
Tony Manero (2008, directed by Pablo Larrain)
Reading: Mary Helen Spooner,
Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile
Recommended: Joan Jara, An Unfinished Song: The Life of Victor Jara
Required assignment at end of week three: please submit the first book / film critique on any of the books and film (s) of your choosing (from the complete syllabus)
Week four, June 6-June 12: Mexico and the United States
Lone Star (1996, directed by John Sayles)
Traffic (2000, directed by Stephen Soderbergh)
Savages (2012, directed by Oliver Stone)
Reading: Enrique Krauze,
Redeemers: Ideas and Power in Latin
America
Lots of other options, for example
Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway and Sandra Cisneros,
Caramelo
Recommended: Jason De Leon and Michael Wells, The Land of Open Graves:
Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
Week five, June 13-June 19: Brazil
Four Days in September (1997, directed by Bruno Barreto)
Elite Squad (2007, directed by Jose Padilha, original title in Portuguese is Tropa de Elite)
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010, directed by Jose Padilha, original title in Portuguese is Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo agora e Otro)
Reading: Lina Penna Sattamini,
A Mother’s Cry: A Memoir of Politics, Prison, and Torture under the Brazilian
Military Dictatorship
Recommended: Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and
Revolution in Brazil
Recommended: Andrew J. Kirkendall, Paulo Freire and the Cold War
Politics of Literacy
Week six, June 20-26: Conclusions
By the end of this week six, the FIVE (5) film reviews and TWO (2) film/ book critiques have been submitted.
Please note: all of the films and books are on reserve at UI library. All of the films and books are easily and inexpensively accessible.
Some recommended films
Cold War
Dr. Stranglove, Bridge of Spies, Good-by Lenin, Charlie Wilson's War, Fog of
War, Lives of Others, I Am my Own Woman, Cradle Will Rock, J. Edgar, Thirteen
Days, Salvador, Romero, Carol, Breach, The Quiet American (2002), October Sky,
Moscow on the Hudson, JFK, The Good German, The Red Menace
Cuba
I am Cuba, Memories of Underdevelopment, Memories of Overdevelopment, 90 Miles, Fidel! (director Saul Landau), Motorcycle Diaries
Chile
No, The Battle of Chile, Violeta Went to Heaven, Nostalgia for the Light, The House of the Spirits
Mexico
Miss Bala, Cartel Land, 600 Miles, Babel, Narcocultura, Frida, I Paint What I See, La ley de Herodes, La dictadura perfecta
Brasil
City of God, Central Station, Pixote, Behind the Sun, Wasteland, Madame Sata, Manda Bala, South of the Border
Further recommended readings!
Stewart Brewer, Latin American History Goes to the Movies:
Understanding Latin America's Past Through Film
Greg Grandin and Gilbert M. Joseph, eds., A Century of Revolution:
Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence During Latin America's Long Cold War
Marcia Esparza et. al., State Violence and Genocide in Latin America:
The Cold War Years