Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Hollywood Enlists!
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Edwardsville
STATE: IL
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
Married Patrice Stribling Nelson (a classical pianist); children: two. * http://www.siue.edu/~rdonald/ *
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 99261636
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n99261636
HEADING: Donald, Ralph
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100 1_ |a Donald, Ralph
670 __ |a Donald, Ralph. Fundamentals of television production, 2000: |b CIP t.p. (Ralph Donald) galley (professor and chair of the Dept. of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois Univ. at Edwardsville)
670 __ |a Fundamentals of television production, c2008: |b CIP t.p. (Ralph R. Donald)
670 __ |a Reel men at war, 2011: |b ECIP t.p. (Ralph Donald) data view (b. Jan. 2, 1946; S. Illinois Univ., Edwardsville)
670 __ |a Hollywood enlists! 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Ralph Donald) data view (professor emeritus of mass communication at S. Illinois Univ.)
953 __ |a lg12 |b lg31
PERSONAL
Born January 2, 1946; married Patrice Stribling Nelson (a classical pianist); children: two daughters.
EDUCATION:California State University, Fullerton, B.A., M.A.; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator, writer. Broadcast Education Association, vice chair, then chair of Courses, Curricula, and Administration Division, four years; Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Department of Mass Communications, professor and chair, 1997-2003, named emeritus professor, 2003. Also worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor, radio and television news producer, TV station production manager, and a producer-director of film and video.
MEMBER:Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (president, 2003).
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ralph Donald is a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the author of a number of books on television and film. With over three decades teaching journalism and film at the college level, Donald also brings years of hands-on experience to his books, having worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor, radio and television news producer, TV station production manager, and a producer-director of film and video. In his first book, The Fundamentals of Television Production (published in 2000 and updated in a 2008 edition), Donald and coauthor Thomas Spann offer a textbook on the technical aspects of production, including topics from cameras and lenses to lighting, microphones, and graphics. The authors also look at the aesthetics of shot composition as well as the basics of script writing and directing. Thus, both the technical as well as the creative aspects of television production are introduced. The textbook instructs students to put these skills to practical use in the production processes of a situation comedy, a news story, and a commercial.
Donald has gone on to write three more books dealing with film history and criticism. Working with Karen MacDonald, he produced Reel Men at War: Masculinty and the American War Film and Women in War Films: From Helpless Heroine to G.I. Jane. He is also the author of the 2017 study Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II.
Reel Men at War and Women in War Films
Working with MacDonald, a clinical psychologist, Donald examines the effects that watching war films has on the socialization of young boys in the United States. The authors analyze 143 war movies and television programs to examine issues such as the male stereotypes portrayed and how these films define manly courage, as well as why winning is so highly regarded among males. The authors also look at the costs or war in terms of injury, death in battle, grief, suicide, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and they use Jungian and Freudian theories to examine war and the life of a soldier. Throughout, the authors critically investigate such films for the lessons they teach boys who are in the process of becoming men.
“Clearly there is no argument about the media’s pervasive influence in shaping (or altering) human behavior and this impeccably researched book wisely categorizes the many human traits found in popular photodramas,” commented Robert Fyne in Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Fyne further termed Reel Men at War a “bold, comprehensive, and innovative analysis,” as well as a “wonderful study that opens many doors about the symbiotic relationship between adolescents and Hollywood photoplays.” A somewhat less enthusiastic assessment was offered by online FilmWerk contributor Suzanne King, who noted: “The real worth of this book will be decided by its use in the dissertations of undergraduate film and gender studies students,” adding: “I wouldn’t however say it’s a must for film fans.” King pointed out that “the subject has been well researched and each point is reinforced by referencing a mix of American mainstream war films spanning nearly a hundred years of cinema.”
Again collaborating with MacDonald, the author explores women at war in Women in War Films. While the cinema has been depicting war for over a century, for most of that time, the authors note, war has been shown on the screen as a stereotypical man’s job. If depicted in such films, women were shown in an ancillary role. In this work, Donald and MacDonald look at the representation of women in war movies, from depictions as the patient wife waiting on the home front to battlefield nurses and doctors, and in more modern incarnations, as warriors on the battlefield alongside men. The authors also look at female spies and foreign women who give comfort to homesick U.S. soldiers. The book looks at films from Mata Hari to Mrs. Miniver, and from Casablanca to G.I. Jane and Zero Dark Thirty. Writing in Choice, G.A.Foster felt this “excellent book covers a really important topic.” Foster added: “This is the first text to do so in such detail, and it is a complete success in all respects.”
Hollywood Enlists!
Writing on his own, Donald examines the propaganda films of World War II in Hollywood Enlists! The work looks at how Hollywood helped to shape the war message and rally the United States behind World War II. Propaganda films presented the enemy in black-and-white terms, demonizing them as has been done in wars from ancient times to modern. The films also promoted nationalism and ensured viewers that wartime sacrifices on everybody’s part would lead to victory. Such efforts were encouraged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been trying to get the reluctant country in back of the war effort before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
As a result, Hollywood turned out hundreds of propaganda films during the war, and Donald contends that the propaganda strategies employed in these were quite sophisticated and have been overlooked by scholars. The author divides his work into six chapters, sandwiched by an introduction to American propaganda and a conclusion that questions whether or not Americans currently live in a post-propaganda world. The chapters include “Hollywood and Washington,” “The Guilt Appeal: Who Started It,” “Defining the Bad Guys: The Satanism Appeal,” “We Will Win! The Illusion of Victory Appeal,” “God Is on Our Side! The Apocalyptic/Biblical Appeals,” and “Defending Our Homes: The Territorial Appeal.” Donald also includes an extensive filmography; among the films Donald reviews are The Flying Tigers, Mrs. Miniver, Sergeant York, They Were Expendable, Casablanca, and numerous others.
Library Journal reviewer Stephen Rees had a varied assessment of Hollywood Enlists!, noting: “Numerous cinematic presentations of fictional or real Axis atrocities and racial invective becomes repetitive and numbing, and some readers may question conclusions about the continuing influence of war film propaganda.” Further criticism was leveled by a Publishers Weekly critic, who observed: “Unfortunately for non-specialists, Donald doesn’t describe the plots of most of the films he covers, and he doesn’t devote much time to most individual titles.” Booklist contributor Candace Smith, however, found more to like, commenting: “Movie buffs will love the detailed references, but others may be more inclined to sample the entries. … This is a handy volume for film collections.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2017, Candace Smith, review of Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II, p. 14.
Choice, November, 2014, G.A. Foster, review of Women in War Films: From Helpless Heroine to G.I. Jane, p. 452.
Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, spring, 2012, Robert Fyne, review of Reel Men at War: Masculinity and the American War Film, p. 39.
Library Journal, March 1, 2017, Stephen Rees, review of Hollywood Enlists!, p. 83.
Publishers Weekly, January 16, 2017, review of Hollywood Enlists!, p. 52.
ONLINE
FilmWerk, http://www.filmwerk.co.uk/ (August 10, 2011), Suzanne King, review of Reel Men at War.
Southern Illinois University Website, http://www.siue.edu/ (September 11, 2017), “Ralph Donald.”*
Ralph Donald, Professor
(Ph.D., Communication, The University of Massachusetts, Amherst; M.A. and B.A., Communications, California State University, Fullerton)
Chair of the Mass Communications Department from 1997 to 2003, Ralph Donald has taught broadcasting, journalism and film at the college level for 34 years. His professional credits include jobs as a newspaper reporter and copy editor, radio and television news producer, TV station production manager, and a producer-director of film and video. Dr. Donald’s research interests include film and television propaganda, motion picture history, gender-related studies in film and television, pedagogical and curriculum issues in mass communications. Leadership in national academic organizations includes serving since 1990 on the executive board of the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association, one term as MAPACA’s president, and as founding editor of that organization’s journal, the Mid-AtlanticAlmanack. He also served as vice-chair and then chair of the Courses, Curricula and Administration Division of the Broadcast Education Association for four years. Dr. Donald resides in Edwardsville, IL. He has two married daughters and two grandchildren.
QUOTE:
Numerous cinematic
presentations of fictional or real Axis atrocities and racial invective becomes repetitive and numbing, and some readers
may question conclusions about the continuing influence of war film propaganda.
9/28/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1506654618915 1/3
Print Marked Items
Donald, Ralph. Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda
Films of World War II
Stephen Rees
Library Journal.
142.4 (Mar. 1, 2017): p83.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Donald, Ralph. Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II. Rowman & Littlefield. Mar. 2017.252p. photos,
filmog. bibliog. ISBN 9781442277267. $38. FILM
In the late 1930s, Congress, much of the American public, and Hollywood (with the exception of Warner Bros, studio)
remained skeptical of foreign entanglements, instead favoring an isolationist "America first" policy. After Pearl Harbor,
encouraged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to persuade and entertain the American public, studios churned out
hundreds of wartime propaganda films. This "critical chronicle" shows how Hollywood's often crude but effective
feature films defined the bad guys, called to defend the homeland, and claimed God's support and the inevitability of an
Allied victory. The military provided advice, equipment, and officer commissions to many studio bosses. An unsavory
aspect of these films was the flagrant racial and ethnic stereotyping--Germans were unfeeling, the Japanese were almost
subhuman. (However, Nazi Germany led the way with films that scorned Jews.) Donald (emeritus, mass
communications, Southern Illinois Univ.; Women in War Films) categorizes these films by propaganda techniques and
concludes that the wartime mind-set continues to influence America's worldview. VERDICT Numerous cinematic
presentations of fictional or real Axis atrocities and racial invective becomes repetitive and numbing, and some readers
may question conclusions about the continuing influence of war film propaganda. Although solidly researched, this is a
strong optional purchase.--Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Rees, Stephen. "Donald, Ralph. Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II." Library Journal, 1 Mar. 2017,
p. 83+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA483702123&it=r&asid=5733676269c3c7f2450d3515622487dc.
Accessed 28 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A483702123
---
QUOTE:
Movie buffs will love the detailed references, but others may be more inclined to sample the
entries.
9/28/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1506654618915 2/3
Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World
War II
Candace Smith
Booklist.
113.12 (Feb. 15, 2017): p14.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II. By Ralph Donald. Mar. 2017. 252p. Rowman & Littlefield, $38
(9781442277267); e-book, $37.99 (9781442277274). 791.4.
Propaganda by definition is the use of mass media to call an audience to action. Although it has an evil connotation, it's
also been used to educate and motivate target groups about important causes. Between 1941 and 1945, Hollywood
produced hundreds of films intended to unify the country for the war effort. In addition to feature films, movie studios
turned out training footage, newsreels, and fundraisers. Focusing on the feature films, Donald uses the five appeals of
propaganda (guilt, satanism, illusion of victory, biblical, territorial) to analyze and categorize more than 50 of these
movies. The author lists the tenets for each appeal and then uses examples from these movies as illustrations. For
example, Donald uses the plot and dialogue from Casablanca to demonstrate how guilt motivates Humphrey Bogart's
character, Rick Blaine. Movie buffs will love the detailed references, but others may be more inclined to sample the
entries. Of particular interest is the annotated list of analyzed films, which includes plot summaries, film information,
and propaganda appeals. This is a handy volume for film collections.--Candace Smith
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Smith, Candace. "Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 14. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485442458&it=r&asid=69a507213b48b710d5b5cd5e3b7bf4b4.
Accessed 28 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485442458
QUOTE:
Unfortunately for non-specialists,
Donald doesn't describe the plots of most of the films he covers, and he doesn't devote much time to most individual
titles.
9/28/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1506654618915 3/3
Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World
War II
Publishers Weekly.
264.3 (Jan. 16, 2017): p52.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II
Ralph Donald. Rowman & Littlefield, $38 (252p) ISBN 978-1-4422-7726-7
Donald (Women in War Films), a mass communications professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University,
Edwardsville, returns to a subject he knows well: war films. This study examines propaganda within Hollywood fiction
feature films produced during and related to American involvement in WWII. This specific focus omits documentaries,
newsreels, and cartoons. After an opening chapter discussing the relationship between the American government and
the film industry, Donald breaks down five "appeals," categories of Hollywood propaganda. These include the "guilt
appeal," which stressed that the enemy was the aggressor and dragged our peaceful nation into war; the "Satanism
appeal," wherein the enemy is defined through negative, dehumanizing characteristics; the "illusion of victory appeal,"
which assures that our victory is predetermined; the "apocalyptic/Biblical appeals," the former being a direct invocation
of the Biblical books of Revelations and Daniel, and the latter a more general "God is on our side" message; and the
"territorial appeal," meant to convince the public that the country itself is at risk. Unfortunately for non-specialists,
Donald doesn't describe the plots of most of the films he covers, and he doesn't devote much time to most individual
titles. The resulting book, despite some intriguing ideas, isn't ideal for either scholars or general readers. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II." Publishers Weekly, 16 Jan. 2017, p. 52+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA478405304&it=r&asid=eb2c2ac19d9023f96a75ba4596523025.
Accessed 28 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A478405304
QUOTE:
bold, comprehensive, and innovative analysis, Reel Men at War: Masculinity and the American War Film, a wonderful study that opens many doors about the symbiotic relationship between adolescents and Hollywood photoplays.
Clearly there is no argument about the media’s pervasive influence in shaping (or altering) human behavior and this impeccably researched book wisely categorizes the many human traits found in popular photodramas.
Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Reviewed by
Robert Fyne
Ralph Donald and Karen MacDonald Reel Men at War: Masculinity and the American War Film Scarecrow Press; 2011; 268 pages; $49.95
inline graphic
In describing the exploits of the untried Henry V, William Shakespeare—no stranger to historical drama—places the newly-crowned monarch in the thick of conflict, first at the French port of Harfleur, and then, a few scenes later, a stone’s throw away from the impending Agincourt assault. Here the outspoken king, full of youthful bravado, exhorts his outnumbered troops, his happy band of brothers, to impending victory, bragging that fewer men bring the greater share of honor. But even more important, Henry resounds, pity all absent Englishmen, now asleep in their beds across the Channel, who—because they did not fight this St. Crispin’s Day battle—must forever hold their manhoods cheap.
Certainly, no young man wants a diminished manhood and Shakespeare’s dramatic recreation reiterates an obvious point: stand up and fight to avoid the label of substandard male, that is, an individual devoid of strength, reduced to asexuality, rendered into a nondescript, eunuchal mush. And while this Henry V passage probably inspired some Elizabethan male theatergoers to come forward for God, King, and country (after all, the play’s [End Page 39] the thing to catch the conscience of the youthful), modern audiences are no longer confined to one medium. Unlike the Sixteenth Century, the media—in its many formats—shapes, molds, and encapsulates human behavior and thought. In contemporary American society how do young men discover self-identity? What creates their masculine image, their rugged idealism? Who sets the parameters required for manhood?
According to a mass communications professor and a clinical psychologist, young American males cannot shake their vulnerability because most of their formative years are spent watching action films (which, for the most part, glamorize warfare) either on television or in the theaters, while twenty-first century adolescents—to keep the combat pot boiling—play realistic battle games on laptops or handheld devices experiencing the vicarious thrill of victory. Whether conscious or half-asleep, generations of John Wayne, go-get-‘em Americans, with a little help from the Marlboro man, forge a subliminal identity. This is the premise of a bold, comprehensive, and innovative analysis, Reel Men at War: Masculinity and the American War Film, a wonderful study that opens many doors about the symbiotic relationship between adolescents and Hollywood photoplays.
Is it feasible that war pictures affect, delineate, and define our nation’s culture, creating a discernible moral code? How is this possible? To answer these questions Ralph Donald scrutinized dozens of war films, citing the shaky liaison between cinematic context and viewer awareness, while Karen MacDonald interpreted numerous cause-and-effect psychological reports explaining the hand-in-glove link between contemporary motion pictures and adult (male) behavior. For example, look at a young man’s first exposure to boot camp; where did he hear, “Count cadence, count”? On a training base? Hardly. Years earlier, these marching commands blared from movie screens or television sets teaching the uninitiated the impending military facts of life. Or how about group loyalty? How is this learned? Look no further than Sands of Iwo Jima.
Other attributes emanate from the same sources. Patton, Air Force, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo restate the winning-is-the-only-thing credo while Wake Island, Pork Chop Hill, and Gallipoli bear out the doctrine that combat survival necessitates a buddy system. Likewise, Twelve O’Clock High, Flying Leathernecks, and U-571 validate that command decisions, while difficult and replete with moral ambiguities, require unflappable leadership while Saving Private Ryan, Windtalkers, and A Walk in the Sun affirm that real (reel?) men carry out orders unflinchingly. As for hero worship, many screenplays—including Flying Tigers, Destination Tokyo, and Band of Brothers—offer tangible proof of American prowess.
Clearly there is no argument about the media’s pervasive influence in shaping (or altering) human behavior and this impeccably researched book wisely categorizes the many human traits found in popular photodramas. In all, Donald and MacDonald have listed 143 war titles, elucidating how specific [End Page 40] scenes, either directly or indirectly, knead, shape, and inculcate...
Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Volume 42.1 (Spring 2012)
pp. 39-41 |
QUOTE:
This excellent book covers a really important topic: women in war films. To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, this is the first text to do so in such detail, and it is a complete success in all respects.
Choice
G.A. FOster
This excellent book covers a really important topic: women in war films. To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, this is the first text to do so in such detail, and it is a complete success in all respects. Covering a wide range of films in chronological order, with a 60-page annotated bibliography at the end of book, Women in War Films is thoughtfully organized from start to finish. Covering many of the basic archetypes of women in the war film--Madonna figures; ‘loose women’; the insolent, tough ‘Hawksian woman’ (in the films of Howard Hawks); ‘GI Janes’; spies; nurses; doctors; and other familiar figures in war films-- the book moves smoothly through hundreds of films, offering careful analysis throughout. From Starship Troopers to Back to Bataan and all the stops in between, Women in War Films covers the constantly changing roles of women on the cinematic battlefield with verve and style. A companion piece to the authors' Reel Men at War, this is an encyclopedic, knowledgeable, and accessible book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. (CHOICE)
QUOTE:
The subject has been well researched and each point is reinforced by referencing a mix of American mainstream war films spanning nearly a hundred years of cinema,
he real worth of this book will be decided by its use in the dissertations of undergraduate film and gender studies students, I wouldn’t however say it’s a must for film fans.
Reel Men At War: Masculinity and the American War Film.
Authors: Ralph Donald and Karen MacDonald
To be honest, I’m not sure where to start with this review. It feels slightly like I’m critiquing someone’s PhD thesis. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the book had started its life as such before it got expanded into 250+ pages of bulky hardback, the central thesis of which is that war movies reinforce gender stereotypes of “masculinity”.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock since the 1960s’ or have been so engrossed in the feminism aspect of gender theory that you don’t know what traditional male gender stereotypes are, here is a really quick guide. In the US, men must be fearless, strong, brave and willing to fight (and die) to protect truth, justice and the American way. Failure to do so means that you are not a man.
To be fair to the authors, this argument is doggedly maintained throughout and is presently clearly if not concisely. The subject has been well researched and each point is reinforced by referencing a mix of American mainstream war films spanning nearly a hundred years of cinema, from 1915’s opus to white supremacy Birth of a Nation to 2009’s Oscar winning The Hurt Locker.
Despite the sub-title I do feel it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that the authors chose to focus their discussions on America alone. It would have made for a far more interesting narrative had they had juxtaposed ideas of American masculinity in cinema against their global counterparts. But I’m willing to accept that would have been a different (and much longer) book. It would also have been useful had there been some discussion of war films produced during times of war verses war films produced in peace times. Do films made during war times, for propaganda reasons go out of their way to reinforce gender stereotypes more than their peace time equivalents? Sadly, we’ll never know.
Structurally the book is sound, although as I said reads like a PhD thesis, which at times can make it heavy going. You would expect to be able to dip in and out of a book of film criticism, with each chapter able to stand alone. I didn’t feel able to do that here, perhaps because the central argument was so doggedly maintained, in order to drive the narrative you always needed to have read the preceding chapter.
Ultimately, the best bit of this book is the very thorough annotated filmography at the end. Each film is listed alphabetically for ease of reference and gives the director, writer, cast, distributor, and plot summary (I need never watch another war film again). Moreover there is a quick note regarding the film’s treatment of masculinity which is quite interesting and shows the amount of research the authors put in here. The real worth of this book will be decided by its use in the dissertations of undergraduate film and gender studies students, I wouldn’t however say it’s a must for film fans.
Suzanne King