The first film that I would like to analyze is the DreamWorks 2000 production, The Contender, staring Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, written and directed by Rob Lurie. This political thriller takes place shortly after the vice president dies, and the search for a new Vice President has begun. President Jackson Evans (Bridges) chooses Senator Laine Hanson (Allen) as his first choice for the place of vice president, much to the surprise of the nation since the nations choice was Senator Jack Hathaway (CSI�s William Petersen) due to his heroic attempts to save a woman from a car on it�s journey to the bottom of a river. Now that a woman has become the vice president designee, over a well respected and liked senator, she must meet the challenges of the man who holds the head chair in the approval committee, Congressman Sheldon Runion (Oldman) who is dead set against Laine becoming the first woman vice president.
The moral that the audience can receive by watching The Contender can come in many forms. First we have the story of the Woman becoming the vice president and the opposition that she faces. The every day man or woman can read into this lesson as �if we stick to what we know is right, then good will always win over evil�. One of the most interesting morals that an individual can take for the film hides in the fact that Senator Hanson keeps the truth of the sex scandal to herself for the entire picture with the acceptation of the final 10 minutes of the film. �Not all fact, no matter how important, will be reveled.� If we take a look at the issue of the sex scandal the viewer can read into this issue as �keep you record clean then nothing can be brought up against you�. But there is also a second meaning to the meaning in the sex scandal. �Women cannot be sexual with out becoming items of ridicule and immorality�. This is unfortunately a major double standard and this in my opinion is one of the most important of morals that the viewer can take from the film. The final moral that I believe that the viewer can take from the film is in idea that the government cannot be trusted completely. There are always going to be individuals who have a set mindset on who and how this government is to be run. As Senator Jack Hathaway, and Shelly Runion finds out, that all moral injustices will be found and punished.
The second film that I will be applying these theories too is Rob Reiner�s Warner Brothers 1995 release, The American President. This romantic comedy reminiscent of the optimistic classic Hollywood style stars Michael Douglas, Annette Bening Michael J Fox Richard Dreyfuss, and Martin Sheen. The story starts off with President Shepard (Douglas), who is a widowed president is approaching reelection, while at the same time raising his daughter Lucy (Shawna Waldron), and at the same time reaching a point in his life where he begins to feel longing for a romantic relationship. His collage best friend AJ (Sheen) is his chief advisor and his staff including Luis (Fox) is forced to jump to political action when a woman catches the president�s eye. Sidney Ellen Wade (Benning) is a sharp environmental lobbyist, and is also longing for a romantic relationship, while at the same time trying to balance moving into Washington DC and starting a new career and making a good impression on her new coworkers. As the relationship starts, heads are turned and pressures are pressed on Sidney to use her relationship with the president to manipulate him into making political change for the better of the association that she works for. More pressure is added by the running apposition for the presidency Bob Rumson (Dreyfuss), as he calls into question moral issues of the relationship with Mrs. Wade. When these pressures don�t seem bad enough, old photos of Sydney attending a civil rally. While at the rally she practiced her freedom of speech in the form of burning an American flag. Now the slander moves from the president to the woman that he has entered the relationship with. Does the President choose to risk continuing the relationship in order to save face or will he choose to love the woman he chooses and accept the gunfire that comes with the relationship?
The film The American President is in essence a romantic comedy with undertones of serious issues. The film in many ways makes the audience understand that President is a person who shares all of the same needs, wants, and wishes as everyone else in this country. The president wants to do many things like a normal person does, buy flowers at a local flower shop, drive a car, and even have a romantic dinner for a date. �The president is a normal person just like the rest of us.� The next moral that a person can receive is in the idea of the flag burning at the rally. Once again if you don�t do anything that can make a blemish on your record, then nothing will nor can come back to haunt you. Viewers can receive the moral in the relationship between the president and Mrs. Waid that no matter how extreme the terms of the relationship are, any relationship can work. The most important moral that can be learned is in the interactions of the president with all of his workers, and how intimate they are with each other. �All the officials in power are just people doing what they believe is right for the country, and �American People��. One other major moral this film brings to light is that the government isn�t always evil unlike what most other films give cause to believe.
�Why does a dog wag it�s tail? Because the dog is smarter than it�s tail. If the tail were smarter, the tail would wag the dog.� The third film that I will be analyzing is Warner Brothers 1997 release, Wag the Dog. This Barry Levinson film stars Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harelson and Denis Leary.
In this political satire comedy, the president (Michael Belson) faces re-election in two weeks, he is accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a Girl Scout in the oval office. The Presidential Advisor Winfred Ames (Heche) springs into action to keep the news media from knowing about the scandal and making transforming it into a fiasco. Ames then turns to Spin Doctor Conrad Brean (De Nero) who specializes in political salvage operations. The plan is simply to create a war in order to distract the publics attention from the real issue of the sex scandal. They then turn to Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) to produce the war, using the latest in Hollywood special effects, to create footage that would be released to CNN and many other news programs, to make the public believe that the war was real. The process in making the war included hiring Fad King (Leary) to set into motion trends to support the illusion and song writer Johnny Green (Willie Nelson) to create a hit song �The American Dream� that will rally the population into support of the effort. One of the final details needed was a war hero, provided by Psychotic Sgt. William Schumann (Harrelson). All of these ingredients are mixed together to create a convincing political media based war with all the fixins, but with only two real casualties.
Wag the Dog is a satire film and will make fun of issues that are very real, and many lessons can be taken found. In this film not all of the lessons learned are political. The introduction of the Fad King, suggests that everything that is popular in pop culture is set in motion by a few individuals. �We are all sheep being lead by one speared.� (No religious meaning intended.) The usage of the producer, and song writer suggests that everything that we do and say, and believe are the result of what we are told to say, think and do. �Our minds are no longer strictly our own.� The ironic thing about this is film is that it was directly mirrored in real life. Two weeks after the release of the film, Ex-President Bill Clinton�s sex scandal hit the news. Immediately after bombing raids where ordered in several small countries. The news media themselves, mixed with political analysts used phrases like �is the president wagging the dog?�. The moral that the public can receive from this lesson in real life is that the political arena can and will do anything necessary to cover up there tracks in wrong doings, no matter how obvious.�
Application of theory
�economic structure of society-the real foundation, on which raise legal and political superstructures and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.� (Marx).
One example of Marx�s reality structure in economic standings is obvious in The Contender when Senator Hathaway pays an ex military woman to drive her car off a bridge so he can try to save her with the intent that his heroic act would increase his approval ratings and would guarantee his position as the vice president. Even though this example doesn�t sound like it may have all that much meaning to it if we break down the manipulative aspects of it we can see certain aspects of class and social consciousness arising.