Summer 2004, 17 May to 10 June
Film as History: Oliver Stone,
History 404-02
M – Th,
Albertsons 201
Dale Graden
Admin 305 A
telephone: 885-8956
email: Graden@uidaho.edu
www.class.uidaho.edu/Graden
This course focuses on the films of the director Oliver Stone. Emphasis is
placed on how the film maker seeks to depict historical themes and
interpretations.
Please attend the class meetings. We will see three or four films each week, and
discuss some of the films in class.
There are three (3) short essays of two to five pages (2-5 typewritten, double-space and
stapled pages) required in the course. You choose the film(s) and the historical theme(s)
you wish to analyze. Be sure that you incorporate ideas into your essay from the
assigned readings. The three essays are due on Monday 24 May, Tuesday 1 June and
Thursday 10 June. Each essay is worth one-third of the grade for the course.
Readings
Terry H. Anderson, The Sixties, 2nd
edition Pearson/Longman, ISBN 0321156374
Le Ly Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places Plume, reprint edition (Dec
1993) ISBN 0452271681
Claribel
Alegria and Darwin Flakoll, On the Front Line Curbstone ISBN 0915306867
(poetry from El Salvador)
Reading: Toplin, Oliver Stone's USA, 26-39; 93-109, 149-165; Alegria and Flakoll,
On the Front Line. Suggested is Dale T. Graden and James W. Martin, "Oliver
Stone's Salvador (1986): Revolution for the Unacquainted," Film
and History 28 (1998), 18-27, on reserve.
Introduction; Film as History; Oliver Stone's background; as script writer;
worldview. View Midnight Express, Salvador, The Doors. Recommended is Scarface.
Week Two Vietnam
Monday 24th May: first essay due
Reading:
Toplin, 66-90; 110-119; 135-148, 178-87; Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed
Places
Origins of
the US in Vietnam; the war; the antiwar movement; US soldiers return to the US;
postwar Vietnam. View Platoon, Born on the
Fourth of July, Heaven and Earth
Week Three Violence
No class on Monday, 31 May: Memorial Day
Tuesday 1 June: essay number two due
Reading: Toplin, 166-177; 188-216; recommended is Anderson, The Sixties
JFK assassination; the "drug war"; impeachment of Nixon; mass media as violence and
entertainment
View JFK, Nixon, Natural
Born Killers, U-Turn (if there is time)
Week Four Culture, Communication and Consumption
Thursday 10 June: essay number three is due
Reading: Toplin, 120-134
View The People vs. Larry Flint, Talk Radio, Wall Street, Any Given Sunday (if
there is time)
Films
Midnight
Express
Scarface
Salvador
Platoon
Born on the Fourth of July
Heaven and Earth
JFK
Nixon
The Doors
Natural Born Killers
U-Turn
The People vs. Larry Flint
Talk Radio
Wall Street
Any Given Sunday