Cinema as weapon: the classic cinema in its various genres in McCarthyite war against Communism, 1947-1954.

• Grant number: 10/08983-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: February 28, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Robert Sean Purdy
• Grantee: Nanci Espinosa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Based on the analysis of anti-communist movies of different genres in the classical cinema, entered into the period known as McCarthyism (1947-1954), we shall endeavor to discuss how the American film industry designed in such different ways the creation the image of communism, also seeking to deal with the plurality of public, contributing to the construction of the anti-communist ideology of the Cold War. Noting further the dialogue of those movies with the speeches of Churchill and George Kennan and the Truman Doctrine, linked to government policy, which laid the foundations of ideology and politics of the Cold War, so we can discuss the interaction of official actions and unofficial, of traditional political groups and conservative elite, in the ideological construction of the Cold War.