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Politics and Politicians in American Film. By Phillip L. Gianos. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. 232p. $59.95.
This book examines the interaction between the American film business and the political system by focusing on how politicians and politics are portrayed in movies. Political scientists can approach movies and politics from many different levels. One is to describe the politics within movies to see what effect political movies have in political socialization. The key question is how political film shapes political opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about politics among the consumers (viewers) of political film. Another approach is to look at political film as reflecting what goes on in society. The key question is how the political culture and the political behavior of politicians and citizens affect the process of making movies and the final product. A third approach is to describe and review political representations in classic American films and to describe the interaction between the film world and the political world.
Gianos takes the latter approach. He tries to survey the history of film and politics by using the representations in classic movies to tell his story. He completes his task in a well-written, thoughtful manner.
For Gianos, political movies can be discussed in terms of subject, genre, and conventions. Political films often are characterized by movie conventions that emphasize sugarcoating, personalizing, allegory, ambivalence, safe political topics, and the "everyman"...