Y200 Politics and Film
Midterm Examination
March 4, 2009
This exam is in two parts. The first part is multiple choice and answers must be marked on the computer sheet. The second part is an essay question. The essay must be written in one or more blue books. Be sure to write your name at the top of the computer sheet and on all of your bluebooks.
Circle the letter (a, b, c, or d) with the best answer on your examination sheets. Then mark the corresponding letter on the computer sheet.
1. Who was the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association official responsible for administering the Production Code?
a. Will Hays
b. Jack Valenti
c. Joseph Breen
d. Walt Disney
2. The role of _____ in Citizen Kane was played by Orson Welles.
a. Mr. Bernstein
b. John Foster Kane
c. Jedediah Leland
d. Walter Thatcher
3. Which of the following studios was an early adopter of sound technology for talking pictures?
a. Universal
b. RKO
c. MGM
d. United Artists
4. Why do film distributors spend so much money advertising new films?
a. They like spending money.
b. Star’s contracts say how much should be spent on advertising.
c. Box office returns in the first few weeks determine whether a film will succeed or fail financially.
d. They get big discounts from the TV networks for movie ads.
5. In Dr. Strangelove, who said “Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.”?
a. General Buck Turgidson
b. General Jack Ripper
c. President Merkin Muffley
d. Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky
6. The Battle over Citizen Kane argues that Welles thought he could take on Hearst because Hearst was ______.
a. soft on communism
b. too old and broke to put up much of a fight
c. afraid of the movie industry
d. in love with Marion Davies
7. What did the sled in Citizen Kane symbolize to Kane?
a. his mother
b. Jedediah’s friendship
c. his lost childhood
d. his love for Susan
8. What did it cost to make the average movie negative in the year 2005?
a. $600,000
b. $6,000,000
c. $60,000,000
d. $600,000,000
9. Which character did Peter Sellers not play in Dr. Strangelove?
a. President Merkin Muffley
b. Major T.J. “King” Kong
c. Colonel Lionel Mandrake
d. Dr. Strangelove
10. Why was Francis Ford Coppola upset with Marlon Brando when the latter arrived on the set for Apocalypse Now?
a. He wouldn’t accept his fee.
b. He didn’t know his lines.
c. He brought all his friends from Tahiti with him.
d. He was fat and did not look like Kurtz was supposed to look.
11. One of the
reasons
a. make sure that only high quality films were made
b. keep people from illegally copying films
c. prevent further censorship on the part of state and local governments
d. break the iron grip of Thomas Edison over the film industry
12. What is the main reason for the expansion in the number of multi-cinemas in the United States?
a. To decrease the total number of screens
b. To provide greater flexibility in case some films were more popular than others
c. To make it easier to clean theaters at the end of the day
d. To increase the number of jobs for projectionists at theaters
13. Which character in The Battle of Algiers does the director want you to dislike the most (even though your might admire his intelligence)?
a. Colonel Mathieu
b. Djafar
c. Ali La Pointe
d. Petit Omar
14. One of the tactics that Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee used was to force people to _______ in order to avoid contempt charges and possible prison sentences.
a. read books by J. Edgar Hoover
b. claim the fourth amendment
c. name other Communist sympathizers
d. make movies about drug addiction
15. Which of
the following major
a.
b.
c. MCA/Universal Pictures
d. 20th Century Fox
16. The ________ is an organization that criticizes Hollywood filmmakers for making anti-religious films.
a.
b. Motion Picture Association of America
c. Democratic Party
d. Roman Catholic Church
17. At the end of Charlie Wilson’s War, Charlie and Gust are angry that the U.S. government decided not to provide _______to Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets.
a. weapons
b. economic aid
c. human rights training
d. opium
18. The visible use of brand-name products in movies in exchange for money is called ________.
a. product placement
b. second money
c. subliminal advertising
d. collateral damage
19. Motion picture studios invented and built movie palaces in the 1920s partly to make going to the movies more attractive to the _________.
a. aristocracy
b. working classes
c. middle classes
d. homeless
20. In Munich, terrorist tactics (e.g., bombing) are used by both the ____ and the ____.
a. Israelis, Palestinians
b. French, Algerians
c. Americans, Russians
d. Germans, French
21. What do Orson Welles and Francis Ford Coppola have in common?
a. made movies about the Mafia
b. went to Harvard
c. wanted to make a movie based on the Heart of Darkness
d. enjoyed the music of “The Doors”
22. Which of the following directors was the main subject of the documentary film, Hearts of Darkness?
a. Orson Welles
b. Martin Scorsese
c.
d. Francis Ford Coppola
23. The Hollywood Production Code was replaced in 1968 by _______.
a. a voluntary system of ratings by the studios themselves
b. federal censorship
c. local and state censorship
d. a new production code
24. Why did soldiers riding helicopters in the Vietnam War sit on their helmets?
a. commitment to military life
b. reduction in vibration
c. good luck
d. protection for private parts
25. What is one of the main reasons why the studios like to cast established stars in movies?
a. It reduces the cost of production.
b. It takes some of the risk out of investing in a film.
c. Stars own most of the studios.
d. The stars are under restrictive contracts that they cannot break.
26. A majority
of Americans favored the war in
a. 1958
b. 1968
c. 1978
d. 1988
27. What Congressional hearings marked the end of the McCarthy era?
a. Smoot-Hawley tariff
b. Civil rights act
c. Un-American activities committee
d. Army-McCarthy
28. Which of the following directors was not one of the movie brats of the 1970s and 1980s?
a. Francis Ford Coppola
b. Mike Nichols
c. George Lucas
d. Steven Spielberg
29. RKO delayed the release of Citizen Kane because of pressure from _______.
a. J. Edgar Hoover
b. the Production Code Administration
c. Orson Welles
d. William Randolph Hearst
30. In guerrilla warfare, ___________.
a. the distinction between combatants and civilians is sometimes blurred
b. both sides are equally matched in terms of technology
c. guerrillas wear uniforms that make it easy to identify them
d. only men do the fighting
Part II. Choose one essay (30 minutes). Write your essay in blue books.
31. According to Christensen and Haas, “historically, political forces have had a profound impact on the making of films.” (page ix) Do you agree with this statement? Use historical examples to support your arguments.
32. Compare and contrast the directorial styles of two of the following directors based on the films we have seen so far: 1) Orson Welles, 2) Stanley Kubrick, 3) Francis Ford Coppola, 4) Oliver Stone. How did these directors handle the political content of their films? Who did you think was most successful and why?
33. In Hearts of Darkness, there is a clip of Francis Ford Coppola at the Cannes Festival saying the following about Apocalypse Now: “My movie is not about Vietnam... my movie is Vietnam.” Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
34. We saw three films this semester that dealt with American foreign policies during the Cold War: Dr. Strangelove, Apocalypse Now, and Charlie Wilson’s War. Two films dealt primarily with terrorism: The Battle of Algiers and Munich. Are the two topics related to each other? In your essay, say why you think they are or are not related.