Essay on Tarantino: Genius or Violence-Obsessed?

The 1940’s were a time of war and then prosperity for Americans, not only in wealth but in a chance for a better education and social economic status. Films went from patriotic during the war to a more realistic portrayal towards the end of the war in 1945. By the second half of the 1940's, with an injection of expatriate directors trained in the German visual evocation of emotion to the French poetic realistic films, a new style of films were about to emerge. A similar change was also happening in reality, from the hope of the formation of the United Nations to the start of the Cold War.

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was founded in 1938. Its original purpose was to find Nazi and Fascist sympathizers in Hollywood. After the war was over, the committee began targeting Communists. The government believed that the Communist uprising would begin in Hollywood because of the influential power of motion pictures on the American people. Directors, writers, producers, and actors could easily insert subliminal messages into their films to sway

The Hollywood Ten happened in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The Hollywood Ten is where there was a communist influence in the American motion picture business. Screenwriters and Directors in Hollywood Known as the Hollywood Ten received jail time and were blacklisted, meaning they could not work for major Hollywood studios. The ten people include Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Orntiz, Robert Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. These ten people denounced the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) anti-communist hearings as a violation of their civil rights.

At the end of the 1940’s and the beginning of the 1950’s, the United States were in the midst of the Second Red Scare and a fear that Communism might over throw the American way of life. Cold War tensions were at an all time high, which only fueled the widespread fears of Communist subversion. It was here that Senator Joseph McCarthy became a public face when he began making claims that the U.S. Government, as well as many other areas of the country, including the entertainment industry, had been invaded by Soviet and Communist spies, looking to destroy America from within. Hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood Blacklisting, and anti-communist activity from the FBI soon followed. McCarthy was under intense analysis

At this time both the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union believed that successful advancements in technology would enable them to assert strength and superiority. According to Achieve 3000, “Case Against Rosenberg Falls Apart,” “In 1949, The Soviet Union test-launched an atomic bomb, an act that raised suspicions within the U.S. government” (1). Also, the thought of the Soviet Union having the ability to relinquish such a devastating weapon on the United States frightened the people of America as well. When the Cold War developed in the late 1040s the U.S. government again feared that the communist revolution in the Soviet Union would influence many people in the U.S. to do the same. According to the text,”The fear of communism even spread towards Hollywood when a congressional group called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated communist influence in the entertainment industry, issuing subpoenas to writers, actors, directors, and studio executives and asking them, ‘Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist party’”(1).

In the 1930s and 1940s many Hollywood writers, actors, producers, and directors were suspected for communist affiliations. During this time, communism was a popular political movement in the United States, especially among young liberals. There was a growing fear of communism invading American society. By the end of World War Two an event known as the Red Scare resulted in communism become increasingly feared and hated by many in the United States. The Hollywood blacklist caused the Hollywood industry a lot of harm in its business and reputation.

Within the media, one realizes that McCarthyism not only ran down different market players in Hollywood, but was also a prominent feature of productions. Since the inception of McCarthyism, action movies will normally include a sleeper agent whose work is to infiltrate government offices and inform to enemy states on the status of the security. Although this is not a direct result of McCarthyism, media has carried over this aspect of the historical period which forms the background of the McCarthy movement

In the later years of the 1940s to the late 1950s a Senator named Joseph McCarthy suspected major Hollywood actors, screen writers, directors and producers, government officials and thousands of noncommercial people of being communists or communist sympathizers.

The second Red Scare, or often referred to as “McCarthyism”, was the fear of communism from the late 1940’s through the 1950’s. McCarthyism, regularly known for its practice of accusing without appropriate regard, heightened political repression against communism (“Senator Joseph McCarthy”). “McCarthy launched a campaign based on fears, innuendo, and smears to track down Communist in government.”(Young). McCarthy launched several committees, such as the Senate Investigatory Committee that investigated government employees, or the House Un-American Activities Committee that investigated Hollywood for communism (“Senator Joseph McCarthy”). These committees were a violation of the people’s freedom since it was an invasion of privacy. No one was safe to think for himself or herself, and accusation of communism ruined many lives. For example, Alger Hiss was a high-ranking government employee accused of being communist, although he was not found guilty, his reputation was ruined. (Wall) In conclusion, America had little freedom because of the fear of Communism; they were not entitled to their independence. Furthermore, egalistatianism, another characteristic that makes America “Exceptional” was absent through this decade.

He was blacklisted because he was associated with the communist party and the Hollywood blacklist in which also excluded many of his coworkers. In fact, as one author put it”the blacklist robbed the studios of significant talent, but more important it fluid and then fed to suspicions that Hollywood was turning out pro-Communist subversive products"33. He was named in the House Un-American Activities Committee, second committee during the 1950s and was subsequently was compelled to directing TV shows.

The outbreak of the Cold War, a production of conflicting political ideologies between the United States and the Soviet Union, led to a dramatic increase in both anti-American and anti-Soviet propaganda film productions. Why an increase in film production during the war? In fact, film is a unique form of propaganda in that it presents a combination of moving images and sound. At times, film conveys message through silence and one doesn't necessarily have to be a literate or highly educated to understand its motif. The US successfully used film to adversely mold its people’s perception about communism. Now, let’s divide the types of film that the US used to prevent the spread of communism: First, films that arouse a sense of fear, second, films

Firstly, Elia Kazan was an American director, producer that was accused of being a part of the communist party, back in the 1950s. He then and then testified against the party in which he brought to light the people that were in the movie making business whom were also within

Simultaneously, McCarthyism took shape in the United States. It was started by the then the United States Senator Joe McCarthy and gripped fear across the country. He highlighted how people in America could be communist sympathizers, spies or communist themselves. Through scrutiny of the film, many people comprehend the theme differently. Communism, McCarthyism and the key ideas of thinking and conformity are all speculated, but they come together in a manner that disproves the ideologies of the 1950s.

In 1950, Edward Dmytryk came forward and “testified at a HUAC hearing and provided the names of more than 20 industry colleagues he claimed were communists” (Hollywood Ten, 2013). This led to the beginning of a movie industry blacklist, “studio executive did not want their business to be associated with radical politics in the minds of the movie-going public and therefore agreed they would not employ anyone suspected of being affiliated with the Communist Party” (Hollywood Ten, 2013). After the hearings in 1951, others such as Elia Kazan began to cooperate with HUAC by providing names. A list of 324 names became available to HUAC, “Names of those cited as communists by cooperative witnesses were listed alphabetically. Everyone cited was blacklisted in the studios”. (Cogley, 1985, p. 492)