Screening Politics: The Politician in American Movies, 1931-2001.(Book Review)

Screening Politics: The Politician in American Movies, 1931-2001. Harry Keyishian. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.

At a recent conference on American cinema, one history professor remarked that too many books were published on film. From the historian's point of view, he complained, many publications were researched haphazardly and lacked the purpose of new and important arguments. I reminded him that the popular and academic audience for such books (regardless of quality) did exist, and the recent explosion of academic film studies has captured more than a few history students. Nevertheless, this history professor has a point.

After reading Harry Keyishian's Screening Politics, I understand much of my colleague's frustration with the glut of film publications. This book is an eclectic anthology about fifty-eight feature films released over a neat seven-decade period. Keyishian constitutes his own film genre based on the films' preoccupation with electoral politics and the dilemmas faced by American politicians. The introduction traces distinct phases in the genre: the classic (1931-1945), revisionist (1946-1989), and revisited classic (1990-2001) periods. The classic period, of course, is recognized by its formulaic "myth of the redeeming hero" (xiv), an inheritance from Ralph Waldo Emerson and a reflection of Americans' struggles with the Great Depression. The revisionist period naturally mirrors the growing public doubt of political integrity polarized by the Vietnam War and Watergate crises. Keyishian attributes this "counter myth" of the flawed film politician to the works of Hawthorn, Melville, and Twain. More recent films re-establish the myth of the idealistic "redeemer," which he believes "represents the core political myth of American culture" (xix).

It may be appropriate to mention that an English professor wrote Screening Politics. The film analyses, particularly of movies falling within the "classic" rubric, are largely descriptions of plots and how the mythic ...