ABSTRACT
The contention of Film and the American Presidency is that over the twentieth century the cinema has been a silent partner in setting the parameters of what we might call the presidential imaginary. This volume surveys the partnership in its longevity, placing stress on especially iconic presidents such as Lincoln and FDR. The contributions to this collection probe the rich interactions between these high institutions of culture and politics—Hollywood and the presidency—and argue that not only did Hollywood acting become an idiom for presidential style, but that Hollywood early on understood its own identity through the presidency’s peculiar mix of national epic and unified protagonist. Additionally, they contend that studios often made their films to sway political outcomes; that the performance of presidential personae has been constrained by the kinds of bodies (for so long, white and male) that have occupied the office, such that presidential embodiment obscures the body politic; and that Hollywood and the presidency may finally be nothing more than two privileged figures of media-age power.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|80 pages
Early Cinema and the Classicalizing of the Presidential Image
chapter 3|16 pages
“So Typically Southern”
part II|36 pages
FDR and the Mediated President
part III|60 pages
Postclassical Presidents
part IV|40 pages
Beyond the Reaganite Presidential Imaginary
part V|34 pages
The Mise-en-Scene of the Presidency