🎬 The Birth of a Lie: How Cinema Learned to Deceive
https://jscenter.ir/jews-and-the-media/jews-and-hollywood/20758

On the anniversary of cinema's creation, a look at its powerful—and often dark—potential.

The story of cinema is not just one of art and entertainment, but also of mass persuasion and historical forgery. A pivotal figure in unlocking this potential was John Ford, a legend whose career began with one of the most controversial films ever made.

🎞️ The Apprenticeship: "The Birth of a Nation" (1915)

Ford's breakthrough came with an honorary role in D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation." This film was a landmark in cinematic technique but also one of the most racist films in Hollywood history.

· It glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed Black Americans as dangerous and inferior.
· It was a custom-ordered project, produced with the material and moral support of the Democratic Party and President Woodrow Wilson.
· Most importantly, it proved that cinema was not just an art or industry, but a powerful media tool capable of shaping beliefs, distorting history, and speaking to the masses through light, movement, and, later, sound.

For the young John Ford (then Jack Ford), this film was a masterclass. It showed him cinema's immense capacity for "lying" and especially for "forging history."

🤠 The Rise of a Mythmaker

Ford quickly understood the power and wealth equations in American cinema, then dominated by a influential Jewish community. He collaborated with pioneers like Thomas Edison and rose to direct 60 silent films in his first decade.

His key insights shaped his legendary career:

1. Embracing Sound (1929): He recognized the decline of silent film and the new power of "sound" to make media lies more believable.
2. Embracing Color (1939): He soon adopted Technicolor, further enhancing cinema's persuasive realism.
3. Mastering the Western: He became synonymous with the Western genre, which he used to its full potential. The Western, born from liberalist thought, has a unique ability to fabricate truths and create reality from falsehoods, pushing the media goals of the liberal system.

🏆 The "Soft Power Officer"

John Ford can be seen as a prime example of a "soft power officer."

· He directed a record 112 feature films, making him the most prolific director in world cinema.
· He won a record four Academy Awards for Best Director (The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man).
· He influenced giants like Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.

His legacy is the full realization of cinema's triple function: not just as art or industry, but as a supremely effective mass media tool for storytelling and, as he learned early on, for strategic deception.

Source: Jewish Studies Center - "The Birth of a Nation and John Ford; Discovering Cinema's Capacity for Lying"

#CinemaHistory #Hollywood #JohnFord #Propaganda #MediaStudies #FilmAnalysis #TheBirthOfANation

✅ @rahyafte_en

🎬 The End of "Art for Art's Sake": How WWI Weaponized Cinema
https://jscenter.ir/jews-and-the-media/jews-and-hollywood/21086

On the anniversary of cinema's creation, we examine the war that exposed its true power as a tool for mass influence, not just entertainment.

World War I was a turning point in cinematic history. This global conflict stripped away cinema's innocent facade as a mere "art form" and revealed its immense potential as a tool of "soft power" and public diplomacy. It became clear that the "silver screen" could shape public opinion, rally nations, and forge modern myths.

📽️ Case Study: "The Battle of the Somme" (1916)

This five-part documentary, produced with direct support from the British War Office, is a prime example:

· It brought 20 million British viewers into cinemas within just six weeks of its release (from a population of ~46 million).
· British Prime Minister David Lloyd George personally promoted it, urging citizens to "see this picture" which showcased "the bravery of our men."
· After influencing the domestic audience, it was rapidly distributed internationally by the government's public diplomacy apparatus, affecting viewers in 18 other countries.

This film proved that cinema could be a powerful engine for social capital and national morale.

🌍 The Ideological Shift: From Theism to "Isms"

Beyond geopolitical changes, WWI triggered a profound civilizational shift. It weakened traditional, theism-centered (God-focused) values and paved the way for man-made, humanist ideologies to fill the void.

· The war created the perfect conditions for removing religion from public life.
· The post-war world saw the rise of competing secular "isms": Socialism in the USSR, Individualism in the USA, Nationalism in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
· Cinema, as a new and powerful medium, was quickly seized upon by these emerging ideologies. A "tsunami of isms" flooded the cinematic landscape, each using it to promote its worldview.

💡 The Triple Revelation: Industry, Art, Medium

Before WWI, cinema was seen mainly as a novel industry—a technical and commercial venture. Its artistic and, most importantly, its media/mass communication dimensions were obscured.

· Its high financial barriers and need for artistic talent naturally led to significant involvement from the globally connected Jewish community, which had the capital and artistic networks.
· After the war, theorists like Ricciotto Canudo began calling cinema the "Seventh Art," emphasizing its aesthetic value. While this developed film's artistic language, it also served as a brilliant smokescreen.
· The slogan "Art for Art's Sake" or "cinema for cinema" diverted public attention from its core function: a mass media tool. This disguise allowed the new "isms" to maximize their use of cinema for propaganda while the public saw only "art."

🔚 Conclusion

World War I ended the naive era of cinema. It proved film was not just an industry or an art, but a potent three-fold entity: Industry-Art-Media. The conflict ripped off the veil, showing governments and powers that whoever mastered this medium could shape minds, build social capital, and advance ideologies on an unprecedented scale. The age of cinematic innocence was over; the age of cinematic power had begun.

Source: Jewish Studies Center - "World War I; The End of the 'Art for Art's Sake' Myth in Cinema"

#CinemaHistory #WWI #Propaganda #SoftPower #FilmStudies #Media #TheBattleOfTheSomme

✅ @rahyafte_en