In my Media and Culture class that I am taking this semester, we are discussing the history and impact of the film industry on the world. During one particular lesson, my professor discussed what the USSR was doing with movies when film began to reach its “Golden Age”.
Below is a picture of my professor’s PowerPoint during his lecture:
As you can see, using film to influence audiences is not a new concept. It has been around almost since the inception of movies and television. Even Soviet leaders and dictators saw the potential that it had to influence the population in the ways they wanted to.
This gets even more interesting when we look at how movies where treated during the World War II era.
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, wanted to use movies to flood Europe with pro-Nazi propaganda. Unfortunately, American studios still wanted to make money in the German market, so they censored their own movies in order to appeal to that area of the world. Warner Brothers was one of the only studios to completely withdraw from the German market in order to show their indignation to Nazi ideals. They were also the first studio to make a film which was anti-Nazi (Confessions of a Nazi Spy).
However, this action by Warner Bros. brought on an investigation from the US government who thought that this type of film violated the Neutrality Acts. Due to a court decision called Mutual v. Ohio in 1915, movies where seen as a business first, causing the courts to determine that they did not fall under First Amendment Protection. Thus, it was easy for film to be censored to abide by the Neutrality Acts.
However, once Pearl Harbor was bombed, all of this shifted. The US had finally entered the war, which caused the inception of The Office of War Information. This office contained a Bureau for Motion Pictures which screened movie scripts and suggested that studios apply 7 questions to their films. One of these questions was as follows, “Will this movie help us win the war?”
Here we can see the obvious shift from the clamor for neutrality to the clamor for battle. Film was instrumental in carrying out this shift from the government to the American population. Film was used to manipulate the public from thinking that war was detestable to desirable, and it succeeded in its endeavor.
The US government later made the Office of Censorship, which, as the name implies, screened domestic broadcasts, news publications, and Hollywood films to ensure that they aligned with the pro-war sentiment. Once Russia joined the Allies, even pro-Soviet propaganda could be seen in addition to staunch anti-Axis films. This, again, is in direct contrast to how America behaved before they entered the war.
The American government did all this under the guise that unity over the war was most important, not the freedom of speech. Humans became clay in the hands of film studios.
As the agendas of governments change over time, the pattern can be seen in the distribution and censorship of mass media. What types of films are being distributed? What is being censored? The answer to those questions will show you the agenda of your government.
All this to say, no one is safe from propaganda, not even US citizens. The American government used film just as Soviet dictators did, and there is no question that they are continuing to do so. Just look at how woke our movies have become, namely movies that are targeted to a younger audience.
I don’t know about you, but this makes me extremely wary about paying attention to what I watch.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t watch movies or enjoy TV shows. I’m not even saying that all propaganda is bad. Some propaganda can be used for good. But I am saying that you should watch with the knowledge that everything is written to influence you in some way. Watch with your values at the forefront of your mind, and if you see something that tries to persuade you away from your beliefs, I encourage you to turn it off. Do not let your beliefs be eroded by letting your guard down. After all, that is how film propaganda works. They lure you into a state of relaxation and vulnerability, then begin to fill your mind with the ideas that they want you to think on.
Watch with an active mind that questions everything it sees.
For, as the amazing Candace Owens once said, “It is impossible to enslave an educated mind.”
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