Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2026

Department 1

GLI History

Abstract

The films of the American film industry produced and released during the Cold War are as varied as the complex events that occurred throughout the entirety of the conflict. These films can provide an understanding of how the feelings and attitudes of the American people shifted and evolved as the Cold War progressed. This work will examine a small sample of these films, focusing on one film from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. By providing critiques and reviews of the film from the time of its original release, information about the motives of the director of the films being examined and analyzed, contextual history about significant events that occurred prior to the production and release of the films, and analysis of the films concentrating on cinematography, lighting, and other storytelling devices, this work will provide evidence to demonstrate that American films of the Cold War era can provide insight into the era and an understanding of the attitudes and feelings of the America people. Focusing on one film per decade will allow for a more in-depth understanding of how the contextual history provided in this work had an effect on the films being examined and analyzed. In addition, the contextual history will also provide insight into why certain storytelling devices and other stylistic choices were made in order to tell the story within the film.

The films that will be examined are The Day the Earth Stood Still, released in 1951, The Manchurian Candidate, released in 1962, The Parallax View, released in 1974, and WarGames, released in 1983. Each film was chosen for its artistic merit, relationship to the contextual history, stylistic choices of the filmmakers, storytelling devices used, and effectiveness in understanding the American attitudes, feelings, and overall experience during the Cold War, as well as the observable shift and evolution of those beliefs between each film and decade of the Cold War.

Comments

Written for AMHI 699: Capstone in American History

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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