After World War II, a political, ideological and strategic war called the Cold War broke out between the United States and Western European countries, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the remaining communist countries. The period between 1948-1963 was accepted as the years when the effect of this war was seen the most. II. After World War II, socialist, totalitarian systems were established in all Eastern European countries with the influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and special efforts were made by the two great powers to include many former colonies in their bloc. These efforts were mostly intended to support the efforts of the newly liberated countries to become a nation-state and secure the national security of those states. During the Cold War, the two superpower democracies continued their existence at two different poles in terms of state-society relations. However, the control mechanism created by the countries that are party to their poles over the societies with the perception of the threat of war is similar. The states that are party to the two superpowers have also increased their national security levels with the perception of enemy threat.
Purpose and Method
This study aims to examine how the social and political events experienced during the Cold War Period took place in the cinema and determine how the dominant ideology in this context affected the language of cinema. For this purpose, an ideological analysis will be applied to the examined film. The ideological analysis assumes that artistic works are made for social groups within specific historical contexts such as film, television, and literature (Özden, 2004, p. 169). As in all cultural representations, social reality in cinema is constructed by the internalization of cultural representations. After the information and positioning process conveyed by the filmic narrative, the cinema audience internalizes the cultural representations given to them and assimilates the value system that belongs to them, and enters under ideological conditioning and positioning. Thus, movies make it possible to create a false consciousness that prevents people from changing the foundations of the social order in which they exist (Özden, 2004, p. 170).
Moreover, it is possible to determine the ideological positions of the films by looking at their attitudes towards the opposite vital institutions and values. The contrasts Gianetti identified are as follows: Democracy vs. Hierarchy, Environment vs. Heredity, Relativity vs. Precision, Future vs. Past, Unity vs. Competition, Outsiders vs. Insiders, Universals vs. Nationalists. The films on the first side of these contracts are on the left of the ideological spectrum, and the second one is on the right (Güçhan, 1999, p. 197). The film, which was taken as a sample of this study, will be analyzed within the framework of the following questions, and it will be tried to determine which social positions and ideological reflections they reproduce by associating them with the political period they are in.
The questions to be answered in the analysis are listed below:
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How does the relationship between people progress in the movie? Are there friendships in relationships, or are relationships in superior-subordinate relationships?
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How is the relationship between the private and state institutions and the characters in the movie progressing?
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What are moral values endorsed or particularly emphasized in the movie?
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Are there any religious values emphasized or especially emphasized in the film?
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Is there an emphasis on class structure in the film?
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What is the class positioning of the protagonists in the movie?
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Where does the film sit on the ideological spectrum?