Film as a Tool of Ideology | ||
| هرمس | ||
| Article 5, Volume 12, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 31-63 PDF (471.13 K) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/herms.2023.354093 | ||
| Author | ||
| Asmaa Shehab | ||
| Faculty of Art - Cairo University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Film is a powerful ideological instrument utilized by the ruling classes to disseminate the dominant system of thought and secure their interests. With its form, narrative and representation, film plays a major role in aligning the spectators, instilling certain values and encouraging the adoption of certain beliefs. In this sense, a film is more than just entertainment. Films are political. Many film theories lay bare the ways films affect viewers. They also explain how films help maintain the status quo. This main objective of this paper is to explain why film is a successful and powerful tool of ideology. The paper is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background, demonstrating how various regimes used film as a propaganda tool to cement their ideals and construct national memory and identity. The second part presents different film theories – the psychoanalytic and cognitive film theories– to demonstrate how films affect viewers' psyches and engage people's minds and emotions and explain how this makes ideological conditioning possible. The third part focuses on the link between genre, the "depiction of reality" and ideology. Different Hollywood films from various time periods are referred to in order to demonstrate how they supported and promoted the dominant ideology of the time. The final part of the paper examines counter-ideological film genres, particularly the dystopian genre, to demonstrate how they challenge the ideological domination of mainstream films. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Propaganda; psychoanalytic film theory; cognitive film theory; emotions and ideology; the dystopian genre | ||
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