Monday, June 22, 2009



I'm teaching a summer film class at Portland State called Cold War Hysteria Films that I designed after a class I took at once from Dr. Gwen Foster at the University of Nebraska. Here is the list of films we're going to watch: 

The Red Menace (1949)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Whip Hand (1952)
My Son, John (1952)
War of the Worlds (1953)
I Led Three Lives (1953-56, TV Series)
Them! (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
A Day Called X (1957)
No Down Payment (1957)
Attack of the 50ft Woman (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
Red Nightmare (1962)
Panic in Year Zero (1962)
Last Man on Earth (1964)
Fail-Safe (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)


Any suggestions?
 

10 comments:

jwg said...

What about films pointing the other way, back at the USA? Saw a few of these at the Norwich library
http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=851

elisabeth said...

it might also be interesting to extend into films from the '80s aimed at young boys to get them into science (i.e. prep them for the space race) such as War Games, Real Genius..

Nate said...

Invaders from Mars (1953)? Might be redundant with Body Snatchers, which is much better.
Also, the British movie Village of the Damned might be interesting. Notable for its army of creepy blond aryan kids.

Jeff Morgan said...

What about The Manchurian Cnadidate (1962)?

Jeff Morgan said...

Spelled correctly of course...

sasha fletcher said...

red dawn.

Unknown said...

Yes, Manchurian Candidate is a definite candidate, especially because of its blacklisted actors. I wrote a paper once on its treatment of the concept of Liberty. Hmm...may have to include that. I think I could do a whole other class devoted to 1980's Cold War Hysteria films, so maybe I should just keep the door closed, or at least just show some clips at the very end. But just imagine: War Games, Real Genius, Hunt for Red October, Rambo, Red Dawn, Rocky III...

Zachary Schomburg said...

Oops...didn't know I was signed in as Octopus.

Leah said...

If you need a shortie, old Twilight Zone episodes could do the trick: "Time Enough At Last" or "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." Either that or Rocky IV: "The world will know my name!"

Farrah Field said...

The Day the Earth Stood Still?