American Imperialism & Cinema
Since I have spent most of my life surrounded by politicians and filmmakers, I have to come to realise to relationship between the two, and how one can use the other to further its own insidious ways. But as much I would have you believe it, I am not the first person to correlate the two, before me came Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States and a basic disappointment when it came to war matters.
The darling democrat was trying to involve the nation in the first World War, which had broken out in Europe. Initially avoiding the war, eventually America wanted in, but the people were not so keen. And so Woody needed public support, whatever would he do? Call on Buzz Lightyear? No, no, kind reader, instead he visited Hollywood, where he and his people persuaded the head-honchos to create films that demonized the Germans, so that the public would see what brutes they were and decide that yes, they did want war.
The thing is, as with movies as it is with politics, they are both devices of fiction, what is on the screen is rarely true and this is particularly the dreaded case regarding politicians, especially in America, where one cannot go a day without spouting a lie. It's in the air. America was up until 1914 a developing country, reliant on outside investment and even three years later they still needed the global economy to work for them to function and so their belated entry in April of '17 was fuelled by the movies, thank-you Hollywood.
Following the ensuing war, millions of lives were lost, some Americans, but the war gave America a boosting economy which started its track as a global Empire, which would die September 16th 1985 with the announcement that America had become a debtor nation.
Following the war the cinema scene saw a massive increase, with names like D.W. Griffiths and Charlie Chaplin taking centre-stage. Through Executive Order 2594 on April 13, 1917, Woodrow Wilson set up the Committee on Public Information, which was charged over a period of 28 months to make use of every single medium available to their hand, in the hope of demonising the enemy they were facing and create enthusiasm for engaging in violent confrontations with the demonised nations.
Savage Hun was a frequent phrase used against the Germans in American propaganda fed out by the Committee. The CPI was humorously called the Committee on Public Misinformation by the New York Times, and has gained itself a mainly negative reception from its critics and observers. Myself greatly included. America had officially begun as a massive propaganda nation, and it continues today, this very second a million people in some State are listening to how bad the economy is and how we all need to group together, well, excuse me, was it we citizens, or you politicians who got us into this mess? With your illegal wars and federal crimes.
There was a popular image used by the states during the war by Louis D. Fancher which I have included below:
Once the war was announced propaganda began feeding out like polluted oxygen with the creation of entire departments by Universal Studios for the making of war films like Uncle Sam at Work. Since most studio bosses were immigrants, many from Germany with whom the war was being fought, they were going to do anything they could to have Wilson on their side, even though it was Wilson who wanted them, not the other way around.
Film is a supremely powerful medium as all readers of WhatCulture! should and will know. Even in the seemingly primitive days of Wartime America they were thinking of new and inventive ways to rally public support behind their wars. They still do it now, with many Americans accepting what they are told because they don't know enough to dig deeper. Shocking really.
I could go on, but I am saving my own history of the United States for a future essay, which might be too long to publish anywhere on the internet. I'm talking War and Peace long.
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