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Contesting Olivier and JFK: The Opposition to Wartime Propaganda in Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight

Contesting Olivier and JFK: The Opposition to Wartime Propaganda in Orson Welles’s Chimes at... <p>This article demonstrates how Orson Welles responds critically to wartime propaganda with his 1965 film <i>Chimes at Midnight</i>. More specifically, it examines the film’s engagement with Laurence Oliviers propagandistic film adaptation of <i>Henry V</i> (1944), revealing Welles’s opposition to Oliviers nationalist idealizations of soldiers as “bands of brothers,” or noble fraternities with deep bonds. And it demonstrates how Welles’s film resists the rhetoric of military elitism that President Kennedy used to spur military recruitment to support U.S. involvement in the Vietnam struggle. Opposing nationalist idealizations of soldiers as noble fraternities with deep bonds and as uncommon individuals with singular abilities, <i>Chimes at Midnight</i>, I argue, depicts martial communities as disunited and inept, and makes clear the collective human cost of elite military individualism.</p> http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Interdisciplinary Literary Studies Penn State University Press

Contesting Olivier and JFK: The Opposition to Wartime Propaganda in Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight

Hilb, Benjamin
Interdisciplinary Literary Studies , Volume 17 (2) – Sep 1, 2015
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Publisher
Penn State University Press
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University.
ISSN
2161-427X

Abstract

<p>This article demonstrates how Orson Welles responds critically to wartime propaganda with his 1965 film <i>Chimes at Midnight</i>. More specifically, it examines the film’s engagement with Laurence Oliviers propagandistic film adaptation of <i>Henry V</i> (1944), revealing Welles’s opposition to Oliviers nationalist idealizations of soldiers as “bands of brothers,” or noble fraternities with deep bonds. And it demonstrates how Welles’s film resists the rhetoric of military elitism that President Kennedy used to spur military recruitment to support U.S. involvement in the Vietnam struggle. Opposing nationalist idealizations of soldiers as noble fraternities with deep bonds and as uncommon individuals with singular abilities, <i>Chimes at Midnight</i>, I argue, depicts martial communities as disunited and inept, and makes clear the collective human cost of elite military individualism.</p>

Journal

Interdisciplinary Literary Studies – Penn State University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2015

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