Review: Thriumph of the Will

Wow.

From the art and film standpoint, I can see why this film is often considered one of the best films. The cinematography is great and the techniques the director uses are perfectly executed. But then you remember the content and message of the film and it gives you chills down your spine.

It tries to seduce us into seeing the Nazi movement as not so bad. And then you have to slap yourself to come back to reality. It IS very effective as a propaganda piece, as it sells the political party as a gift of the gods, but this one is hard to judge without being completely objective. After all, as we all know, the Nazi party was far from a heavenly gift. Perhaps the exact opposite. Living here, today, and watching this was truly scary, but if you put yourself in the shoes of a german boy watching this...this would have been frikkin' inspiring to them. And that's the really scary part! They were geniuses for making and using this film...evil, evil geniuses.

While this is a great film to learn from when it comes to techniques and film language, it made me uncomfortable. That, and you can probably put your DVD player on 4x speed and see the whole thing like that. It DOES tend to drag on.

Question: As an artist, where do we draw the line? And on what set of morals should our work be judged?

Any Bonds Today?

Here is a link to "Any Bonds Today?", a Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoon from 1942.



This short has ofted been banned for its use of blackface by Bugs Bunny (Well, it IS racist!). The purpose of this short was to bring people together into buying war bonds to support the effort in World War II. Using the Warner Bros characters, who wouldn't want to do so? This is a cartoon example of transfer techniques and bandwagon jumping, using the patriotic theme to bring people together.

It does raise the question... How effective was this cartoon with African Americans? They were not, perhaps, the group being targeted by the ad, but I am pretty sure they were very insulted by this, and with every right too!

Reading: Art, Propaganda, and Facism

This was a good read, focusing on the use of propaganda in fascists dictatorships during and around the World Wars. Not only pro-war, but anti war as well.

Interestingly enough, we see the two philosophies. While Germany was trying to go back to classic greek art and to their roots, keeping a traditional style, Italy was more interested in futurism and industrialization (A car being more beautiful than those ol' paintings, they said). In both, though, the messages were clear: to trust in their government, to deitify their rulers, and to make sure people lived for their nation. Of course, we see a few examples of art opposing the war (not much, though).

Both facist governments used propaganda to reinforce their ideals of war and a "perfect race" and its superiority. They effectively used art to unite the country into believing their ideals and fight a horrible war which they thought was good.

Such is the power of images!

Gunga-Din Review

Gunga-Din... what an interesting movie! It was definitely entertaining and I was glad I saw it. I tended to get lost in the movie and forgot what I had to pay attention to: to analize it for class.. But now I took a step back and thought more about it.

This is not a historically accurate film, no matter how much the movie tries to tell us it was. The main characters were no Gunga-Din himself but three British soliders who were portrayed as supermen. Gunga-Din, in turn, was merely a sidekick character, stereotypically played by another white actor with make-up. Deep inside, Gunga-Din wanted the respect of the white men of the west, portraying the western culture as the good and civilized one.

The bad guys where Indian nationalists, worshippers of Kali. For being the world's "best mountain fighters", they were portrayed as cowards, except for the leader, whom I thought was pretty well played and gave the Kali worshippers a smart leader to follow. Of course, he dies.

But, it was still an entertaining movie. I would watch it again! For such an old film it was well made, the battle scenes were well coreographed for the time (yeah, the punches looked fake. But that shouldn;t take away from the film.)

Good times, old chap.

Obama Splash Page

This is the image in the splash page for Barack Obama's campaing site (www.obama.com). Here we see him with his wife and daughter, as a cote family group. They smile, and are low on the ground. They seem like people you'd like having a picnic with, and are just approachable and friendly. A very effective Common Person ad. The word Change in bold letters reminds us of the core of Mr Obama's campaing, and by placing it with their tender family portrait, tells us that change will be good, friendly, and quite nice. It tells us he is Change.

How Art Made the World review

Episode 3,
The Art of Persuasion.

This documentary shows us how propaganda has been around for longer than we think, dating back to Stonehenge, quite possibly, and takes us on a journey through time to visit the techniques invented by Darius the Great, Alexander the Great, and Augustus.

While the topic is interesting (I love ancient history), the show itself was rather...odd? For starters it is overly dramatized to get the point across. They edited it in a way to make it seem epic, and the narrator uses repetition of the same words to drill them into our head. (He seems to have a grudge against Augustus). Sinister is perhaps the word most used in this film!

The message is clear though; to show us that the art of persuasion dates far back, beyond American politics and the World Wars. It is a neutral tool that can be used for good or bad. If anything, it is a reminder that we shouldn;t believe everything we see or hear in the media without researching and seeing what all the sides of the issue are. And as an artist, it is a reminder of the power we have when it comes to shaping the world.

Campaign 2008 - Bandwagon Jumping.

Here we see a cohesive Common Person ad. It gives us ownership of the elections (which is true after all!). By stating that everyone is doing it as well, it invites us to document how we are spending and participating in the election process and submit our films (Bandwagon jumping).

Common Person and Bandwagon Jumping seem to be really popular techniques nowadays!

Bandwagon Jumping - Common Person

Here is an example of bandwagon jumping and common person techniques used in a web advertisement from Chevron, seen in ccn.com.


Here we see a normal everyday Joe. He is not happy, nor sad. His expression sets the tone for a serious message. "I will use less energy," he states inviting us to join in the effort to save energy. We can also seem to relate to the man, feeling he is "one of us" rather than some hotshot in the Big Oil industry.

An effective ad, and certainly makes Chevron look like they care about the energy crisis, although it is not clear if it is an environment standpoint or economical one. Could be both as well! It definitely tells us that the solution isn't only in the hands of Big Oil. But then again, are they just passing the torch to us?