Propaganda And Racial Profiling In Film

Propaganda and Racial Profiling In the Film Gone With The Wind Popular modern film has developed in such a way that propaganda and racial issues plague the screen. Gone With The Wind is a popular example of a film that has been affected by these malpractices. The film, released in theaters in 1939, has gone down in history as one of the most successful and well-known movies of all time. One specific article on listverse.com calls Gone With The Wind a “romanticized portrayal of the South during and after the Civil War.” In light of its success, the negative depiction of African Americans in the film has drawn much attention from critics over the years. In this project I will first discuss the films success and general plotline as applied
The article begins by stating that modern film production has become progressive in nature. The article specifically mentions a type of film dubbed the “magical negro” film. This type of cinema harps on lower-class uneducated black characters that transform and influence broken white characters around them. Hughey remarks that in a sense, these films actually do well to praise these black characters rather than racially profile them. The issue with such practice arises when the viewer analyzes the situation the black characters are often placed in. In order for these characters to rise to the occasion, they are usually placed in subservient positions where their white counterparts are racially superior. Unfortunately, cinema of this type simply reaffirms racial stereotypes by placing blacks in the lower rungs of
A 1939 New York Times article authored by Frank S. Nugent (written the day after the movie release) offers an array of detail that was otherwise lost in many modern analyses of the film. One unique argument this article has to offer is that the film is extremely unlike its Hollywood predecessors. Arguments made by authors such as Adorno and Zinn infer that Hollywood productions are recycled from old ideas, and are, in general, anything but unique. The characterization in the film as well as its intricacy clearly set it apart from run-of-the-mill productions. From the start, critics and journalists alike realized the significance of the movie and its impact on societal views. Nugent calls the film “the greatest motion mural we have seen and the most ambitious film-making venture in Hollywood’s spectacular history.” The first aspect that sets the film apart from typical Hollywood ventures is its impeccable following of the book. The New York Times claims that the cinematic version of Gone With The Wind matches the novel “almost scene for scene with a literalness that not even Shakespeare or Dickens were accorded in Hollywood.” Secondly, Frank Nugent commends the producers of the film on their tremendous bravery. He writes, “To have treated so long a book with such astonishing fidelity required courage.” Granted, Nugent does infer that certain minor flaws