ASK a question: What do you want to know in respect to that week's lesson?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR WEEK 10:
- Understand the impact of World War II on Hollywood.
- Recognize the influence of the Office of War Information (OWI) on American film production and its propaganda mandate.
- Examine the technological innovations that allowed for deep-focus cinematography to resume and replace the soft-focus style.
- Recognize how the radio and theater experience of Orson Welles—and the 25-year-old’s creativity and brash self-confidence—contributed to the masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941).
- Understand how Citizen Kane (1941) deviates from the Classic Narrative System and the “success” narratives promoting the American Dream.
- Analyze Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) in terms of themes, multiple layers of meaning, complexity of narrative structure, and visual and aural innovations.
- GO to Discussions to REPLY to another student’s post (1 point). Simply saying, "I agree with you" is not an adequate reply.
Ethan Robles
TuesdayNov 24 at 12:05pmManage Discussion Entry
International war brings huge impacts not only on the countries and nations that are involved, but also the film industries within those nations. At the same time, the film industry and its influence had arguably an affect just as impactful on the war itself. The emergence of Hitler and the nazis in World War II caused for political views and opinions to be thrown in some films. For example, Warner Bros. was highly against the Nazis, like much of the rest of America along with the rest of the world, and openly produced propagandistic films to sway viewers against war involvement as Hitler continued to gain prominence in Europe. Warner Bros was also backed by the government and was the leader of the military's film department. Around the same time in 1942, the Office of War Information (OWI) was established, which aimed to combine purpose and meaning with entertainment through outlets such as film. And despite Hollywood wartime production declining by more than 40% due to rations and short supply, profits remained soaring through the industry in the United States.