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Teaching About Fascism With Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

Michael A. Genovese*
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University

Extract

The further removed we are from World War II the more difficult it is to teach about fascism. It is difficult enough for those who went through the war to understand the rise of fascism, its appeal to the masses and to the business community, the ideology behind it and what conditions may have led to its rise. But now we face students born after World War II whose knowledge of fascism may be limited to the caricatures presented in “ B “ war movies.

In fact, today's students probably know more about fascism through films than all other learning sources combined. But is this film image accurate? And, how might we better teach about fascism by using films?

There are several characteristics of fascism which can be brought out to students through film.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1984

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References

1 Kegan, Norman: The War Film (New York; Jove, 1974)Google Scholar

2 Herzstein, Robert E.: The War That Hitter Won (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1978)Google Scholar; Maynard, Richard A: Propaganda on Film (Rochelle Park: N.J. Hayden, 1975)Google Scholar; Philips, Baxter: Swastika: Cinema of Oppression (New York: Warner, 1976)Google Scholar.

3 Barsam, Richard M.: Filmguide to Triumph of the Will (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Infield, Glenn B.: Leni Riefenstahl (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Co., 1976)Google Scholar; Kelman, Ken, “Propaganda as Vision: Triumph of the Will,” Film Culture, September 1973Google Scholar.

4 Eisner, Lotte H.: The Haunted Screen, translated by Greaves, Roger, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969)Google Scholar; Hall, David: Film in the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973)Google Scholar; Kracauer, Siegfried: From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Erwin Leiser: Nazi Cinema (New York: Collier, 1974); Marcorelles, Louis, “The Nazi Cinema,Sight and Sound, Autumn, 1955Google Scholar.

5 Mellen, JoanFascism in the Contemporary Film”, Film Quarterly, Summer, 1971CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mellen, , Big Bad Wolves: Masculinity in the American Film (New York: Pantheon, 1977)Google Scholar.