Reel to Real:

A Political Reflection of Hollywood Film Posters

 

Fake "movie” posters have inspired the Center for the Study of Political Graphics to create a new poster exhibition, Reel to Real – A Political Reflection of Hollywood Film Posters. Hollywood films have inspired many copies, imitations and/or appropriations in the world of political graphics. Not coincidentally, there are many spoofs of real movie posters in the CSPG archive. They target a hot button issue and present it to the public in the context of familiar Hollywood imagery. Taking advantage of a look-alike poster and humor, the creator is making an attempt to get the general public to look twice at an issue that needs attention.

 

This exhibition will feature posters that use well-known movie themes and imagery to tackle ongoing struggles for social change at home and abroad. They employ satire, mockery and various devices to draw attention to current issues. Posters often ask rhetorical questions, and political ‘movie’ posters answer lavishly. Some are amusing while others are outrageous, and they are often quite over the top. Whether they are protesting the Viet Nam war, exposing Contra-Gate, or drawing our attention to sweatshop labor, these posters provide an offbeat alternative view of reality. In addition, Los Angeles’ unique relationship to the entertainment world makes this exhibition one of the most unusual in the Center’s repertory.

 

The images featured in Reel to Real are sharp:

 • A 1980s poster from England and the United States depicts Ronald Reagan holding Margaret Thatcher in a pose reminiscent of Gone With the Wind. The caption reads:

 "She promised to follow him to the end of the earth. He promised to organize it."

 • A late 1980s poster from Spain shows Laurel and Hardy wielding pick axes under the word, "Demolicion" (Demolition). This poster highlights an annual demonstration in Spain that ultimately led to the closing of the NATO military base.

 

At a time when cultural institutions are competing with commercial attractions for public attendance, an exhibition that offers familiar themes and popular imagery and humor is more likely to engage visitors who would not normally attend an exhibition with political content. This project can draw attention to issues that are underrepresented in the media or in popular culture, and has the potential to spark interest and raise awareness by appropriating the aesthetics of Hollywood.

 

The general population is bombarded daily with media and marketing that gives a limited view of current events and social issues in the United States and abroad. At best, the news media, prime time television shows, commercials, and Hollywood films are designed to entertain. At worst, they replace important reporting and relevant information with escapism, commercialization and general apathy. Now more than ever, the public is escaping into the media madness as a comfortable and familiar form of entertainment that doesn’t challenge their lifestyles or values. CSPG is committed to raising awareness about social issues as diverse as housing and homelessness, globalization, government policies, ecology and war. By presenting these issues to new audiences, CSPG hopes to empower the public to make positive changes. 

 

At once entertaining and empowering, the works in Reel to Real offer the viewer a chance to both participate in the shared pop culture reference and to re-examine their relationship to the world around them. While traditional Hollywood images ask the general public to share a constructed (and often biased) experience of community and to define their roles in these communities as consumers, these spoofs ask the public to look at the world more critically and to redefine their roles as active participants and activists. Posters like “Disney’s 101 Sweatshops” challenge viewers to consider the source of the products they purchase in support of commercial entertainment, while “Condozilla,” a satire of B horror movies, depicts a larger-than-life real estate developer stomping over neighborhoods to make room for condominiums. “The Birth of Feminism” offers a hilarious scenario, with starring roles for Pamela Anderson, Halle Berry and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gloria Steinem, Flo Kennedy and Bella Abzug. The tagline, “They Made Women’s Rights Look Good. Real Good,” illustrates the contradictions that female role models in Hollywood embody. All of these messages are at once engaging, entertaining and very moving.

 

With familiar images and humor, Reel to Real offers ideas and issues not presented in the commercial realm of everyday life. In a non-threatening way, these fake “movie” posters can challenge the average viewer to rethink their role and become an active participant in social change. Through this exhibition, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics intends to “entertain” political ideas that are controversial and may be harder to look at in another format.

 

 

I.  The Show is About to Begin: 

Politics goes to the Movies and Movie Posters Become Political.

 

1. The Bamboo Prison

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., and National Screen Service Corp.

Lithograph, 1954

United States

20985

 

The only actual film poster in Reel to Real, this poster is no less political than the other posters in this exhibition.  Although not as well known as Invasion of the Body-Snatchers (1956), the classic anti-communist Hollywood production, the Bamboo Curtain is one of the earliest films to raise the issue of brainwashing. The concept of brainwashing developed during the Korean War, and was used to explain why 21 American GIs refused to accept repatriation to the US, and chose to remain in China. P  People choosing communism over capitalism was a major ideological conflict for the US government, and Hollywood came to the rescue to help explain how it could happen.

 

2.  Welcome to America

THINK AGAIN

Offset, 1999

San Francisco, California

10219

 

3.  This Attraction Is In Your Neighborhood

Robert Schmitt

Offset, 1991

St. Paul, Minnesota

9762

 

4.  Huey P. Newton in Peacock Chair

Black Panther Party

Offset, 1967

Emeryville, California

3194

 

5.  Huey P. Newton in Peacock Chair

"Panther" film poster, Polygram Films

Offset, 1994

Los Angeles, California

2064

 

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Panther Party USA (BPP) used dramatic posters of armed party members to call attention to their organization and its goals. Mario van Peebles’ 1995 film Panther  recreates one of the most famous and iconic BPP posters. The original poster of Huey Newton, co-founder and Minister of Defense of the BPP, is on the left while actor Marcus Chong is on the right.   It is interesting to note that despite a faithful recreation of all the props and pose, the lighting is so different that Huey appears menacing in the real BPP poster, but timid in the film poster.

 

 

II. Real Protest in Reel Format – Protest Posters Imitate Movie Posters

 

6. Vietnam

Artist: Nordahl

Issuing Agency: Gross National Product

Offset, 1968

Wayzata, Minnesota

5665

 

 

7.  Rally Against Reefer Madness!

Dana Franzen

Offset, 1985

New York, New York

705

 

Reefer Madness (­­­­­1938­­­) was originally produced as an anti-marijuana propaganda film that claimed the drug made people go insane.  Since then it has become a cult classic.  This poster appropriates the title of the movie but redirects the accusation of “madness” to legal prohibitions against marijuana.  One of the demands, “Stop the Witch Hunt” shows First Lady Nancy Reagan riding on a pig, dressed in her signature “Reagan Red” high couture, and zapping an array of counter culture characters including Groucho Marx, writer Tom Wolf, and stoner-comic “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” Phineas, Fat Freddie, and Frank.  The Smoke-In that the poster announces took place in 1985 during Ronald Reagan’s “war on drugs” and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign.  The sign-off “YiPPiE” stands for the Youth International Party founded by Jerry Rubin, Abby Hoffman, and others.

 

8.  Bedtime for Brezhnev

Eighty-Two Corporation

Offset, 1981

Boston, Massachusetts

6079

 

The title refers to the 1951 film, Bedtime For Bonzo, starring Ronald Reagan at the height of his acting career.  When this poster was made in 1981, Reagan was President of the U.S. and Leonid Ilich Brezhnev was the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  The US and Soviet space and missile programs were highly competitive, and each spurred the other country to make increasingly expensive investments.  The poster names the “film’s” production company, Free Enterprise, referring to capitalism’s preference for a free market economy, and the Old West style of the poster refers both to the East versus West element of the Cold War, while playing into Reagan’s familiar cowboy roles.

 

9.  Gone with the Wind

Bob Light and John Houston

Offset, 1980s

Hampton, Connecticut

6468

 

Based on 1982 poster produced by Light and Houston for the Socialist Workers Party (London). 

 

10.  Der Letze Aller Filme!

[The Film to End All Films]

Artist Unknown

Offset, 1983

Germany

11978

German version of the Bob Light and John Houston poster.

 

 

11.  Disney's 101 Sweatshops

Mike Konopacki

Offset, circa 1996

New York

11718

 

101 Dalmations, originally released as a feature cartoon in 1961, was reissued several times.  This poster refers to the live action version released in 1996, starring Meryl Streep and Pierse Brosnan. It refers to a line in Disney’s press release stating, “Our Animals Were Treated Better Than Most Humans.”

 

 

12.  The Birth of Feminism

Guerrilla Girls

Silkscreen, 2001

Los Angeles, California

17610

 

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of women artists, writers, performers, and filmmakers who fight discrimination. Dubbing themselves the conscience of culture, they declare themselves counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. They wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than their personalities. They use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny.

 

“The Birth of Feminism” mocks the movie industry, which avoids substantive portrayals of women in favor of sexualizing their bodies.  The “film” pays homage to feminist vanguards—Gloria Steinem, Flo Kennedy, and Bella Abzug but has them played by sexy bathing suit clad actresses wearing the feminists’ trademark oversize hats (Abzug and Kennedy) and oversize glasses (Steinem). Gloria Steinem was one of the founding editors of Ms. Magazine.  Flo Kennedy (who frequently wore cowboy hats with pink sunglasses) was one of the first black women to graduate from Columbia Law School.  As a lawyer, she represented Black Panther members.  As an activist, she led a mass urination at Harvard to protest the shortage of women’s restrooms.  After graduating from Columbia Law School, Bella Abzug took cases supporting civil rights and civil liberties as well as other social causes.  She opposed U.S. and Soviet nuclear testing and opposed the war in Viet Nam.  In 1970, Abzug was elected to Congress, and was one of only a handful of women Representatives.

 

 

13.  Nightmare on Bush Street

Clinton-Gore '92

Offset, 1992

Little Rock, Arkansas

5849

 

 

14.  Solidarnosc

Tomasz Sarnecki

Offset, 1999 (copy of 1989 original)

Warszawa, Poland

11004

 

The Poles have a special affinity for US Westerns. Not only because a single courageous individual often takes on the corrupt system and the good guy usually wins, but also because cowboy films epitomize the “West”, capitalism, free enterprise, and rugged individualism, and are thus seen in direct opposition to communism. The image of Gary Cooper from “High Noon” (1952) is consistent with this formula of the lone marshal combating dangerous outlaws in a small town—where everyone is afraid to support him.   The use of this film is ironic, however, because Carl Foreman wrote “High Noon” as a parable for the House UnAmerican Activities Committee’s (HUAC) anticommunist attacks on Hollywood, and the timidity of the film industry to support its community.

 

Cooper is holding a ballot for the forthcoming election, the union’s logo is both above his badge and above his head. It is important to note that Cooper’s gun was deleted from the poster because guns in Poland were often seen as representing cold-blooded killers, Nazis, or Stalinists.   

 

Sarnecki was a 23 year-old art student in Poland, working on a class project using collage from U.S. Western films.  His teacher called in an organizer from Solidarnosc  (Solidarity) to see his work.  The organizer picked one of his several mockups and took it with her, without giving any indication why. That was the last time Tomasz saw his art until the Sunday of the 1989 elections. While visiting Los Angeles in 1999, Sarnecki described the following event:  “ I was walking to church with my parents, with whom I lived in Warsaw, and suddenly saw my poster everywhere. My breath was taken away and my knees started to buckle.”  Ten years later, the poster was reprinted on the cover of the Polish version of "Time Magazine" and titled, “The Poster that ended Communism in Poland.” When Tomasz called the magazine to say he was the artist, they responded, "this poster belongs to Poland" and hung up on him.  Not until the Autry Museum of Western Heritage produced an exhibition on “Polish Poster Art and the Western” (1999) did Sarnecki receive recognition for his poster.

 

Thousands of copies of “High Noon for Poland” were printed in Italy, airdropped into Warsaw in the middle of the night, and wheat-pasted everywhere.  Since Polish Solidarity did not have the resources to carry out this level of action, it is assumed that the CIA or another agency of the U.S. government was involved.  This critical election helped bring the outlawed Solidarity Union and its leader, Lech Walesa, to power.

 

15.  Protesta a la DNC  (Democratic National Convention)

Sandra de la Loza

Offset, 2000

Los Angeles, California

17169

 

Translation:  All Latinos, Protest the DNC–Democratic National Convention, Rise Up for Justice, Festival of Resistance, Direct Action, No Violence!  Monday to Thursday, August 14-17.  Come together everyday in Pershing Square in the center of Los Angeles.  Yes to Human Needs, No to Corporate Greed.  March August 14, 4 pm in Pershing Square. 

 

Protesting the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, this poster spoofs a popular Mexican film, "Juan Charrasqueado" ("Scarface" Juan) (1948), starring Pedro Armendariz, Miroslava, Fernando Soto Mantequilla, and Conchita Carracedo. Directed by Ernesto Cortazar.

 

 

16.  Ley Ciega [Blind Law]

Adriαn Rubio

Computer generated, 2004

Mιxico

21024

 

Translation: The Law is Blind. The Municipal Police see nothing hear nothing. The Murdered Women of Juarez Demand Justice. Kill me with impunity (without punishment).

 

Since 1993, hundreds of women in the Mexican bordertown of Juαrez have been kidnapped, raped, murdered and grotesquely maimed. After years of official apathy and police incompetence towards solving and ending these brutal murders, a group of graphic designers from Mexico City invited colleagues to express their concern and outrage by designing posters around the slogan The Women of Juαrez Demand Justice!.  This poster is one of 60 large-format digital images traveling throughout Mexico, educating about the murders and forcing the authorities to become involved. The complete set can be seen on www.politicalgraphics.org

 

 

17.  River Of No Return

Die Grόnen

Offset, Date Unknown

Frankfurt, Germany

20635

 

Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, Basf, and Hoechst AG (listed as the film’s producers), are pharmaceutical and chemical companies based in Germany.  In the banner across the bottom, Die Grόnen (the German Green Party) makes its stand as environmental advocates with the claim, “We drop this film!”

 

Marilyn Monroe starred in River Of No Return (1954), a western/adventure film. Die Grόnen, appropriated the title to refer to water pollution and to support environmental protections.

 

18.  Economic Disaster II

Labour Party

London, United Kingdom

Offset

Date Unknown

21014

 

Available soon.

 

19.  The Repossessed

Labour Party

London, United Kingdom

Offset

Date Unknown

21013

 

Available soon.

 

20.  Towering Interest Rates

Labour Party

London, United Kingdom

Offset

Date Unknown

21012

 

Available soon.

 

21.  The Mexican

Lalo Alcaraz

Computer generated, 2001

East Los Angeles, California

21026

 

The Mexican is the name given to a gun that Brad Pitt’s character is hired to bring across the border in the 2001 film by the same name.  Lalo Alcaraz spoof’s the border crossing by comparing it to immigrants crossing the border. 

 

 

22.  Phantoms of the DNC (Democratic National Committee)

Sandra de la Loza

Computer generated, 2000

Los Angeles, California

21027

 

The 2000 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party, also known as the DNC, nominated Vice President Al Gore for President and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman as his Vice President. The convention was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California from August 14 to August 17, 2000, and was confronted daily with colorful and spirited demonstrations. The poster spoofs the “Phantom of the Opera”, and the figures include artist Frida Kahlo, actor/comedian Cantinflas, and the Zapatistas, revolutionaries from Chiapas, Mexico.

 

23.  The Day the DNC Came to LA

Sandra de la Loza

Computer generated, 2000

Los Angeles, California

21028

 

This poster protests the 2000 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Los Angeles by spoofing the classic 1951 anti-war science fiction film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”  The original film was made during the Cold War, and starred an alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort).  Gort is shown carrying a screaming scantily dressed woman a la King Kong, whose hand can be seen holding the world.

 

24.  Estar Wars

Lalo Alcaraz

Offset, 2002

East Los Angeles, California

21029

 

25.  bin Laden

Lalo Alcaraz

Offset, 2001

East Los Angeles, California

21030

 

26.  Gulf Wars Episode II

Artists: Arie Kaplan and Scott Sonneborn

Issuing Agency: MAD Magazine

Offset, 2002

United States

20968

 

 

III. Movie Icons in Roles that Will Surprise You

 

27.  Demolicion

Artist Unknown

Offset, 1980s

Spain

12481

 

Translation: 

Demolition  8th march to Torrejon  Sunday 13 March, depart 10:30 

No Treaty with the U.S. 

Get them all out  NO NATO! Bases Out

 

In the 1930s, slapstick film duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy rose to stardom by routinely bumbling their way through misadventures. This 1980s poster protests the US NATO base in Torrejon, near Madrid. The US closed the base in 1993.

 

28.  Beauty Overcomes the Beasts

Steff Geissbuhler

Silkscreen, Circa 1985

New York, New York

12506

 

29.  Condozilla

Josh MacPhee

Spray painting & stencil, 2000

Chicago, Illinois

14851

 

30.  We Create Our Own Monsters

Josh MacPhee

Spray painting & stencil, 2001

Chicago, Illinois

16979

 

31.  When Did the War in the Persian Gulf Really End?

Artists for Limited Military Spending

New York, New York

Offset, Circa 1992

6343

 

32.  Hi-Yo-Nader

David Willardson

Offset, 1974

Los Angeles, California

20634

 

The masked man and “Hi-yo-Nader” derive from the mask wearing Lone Ranger and his trademark call, “Hi-yo-Silver”.  The Lone Ranger was a popular radio, film and television hero, first seen in 1949.  He maintained his anonymity while saving the west from greedy evil doers. 

 

In 1974, decades before running for President, Ralph Nader was frequently compared to the Lone Ranger. He was widely regarded as the protector of the worker and consumer and the enemy of the automobile companies and other corporations.  Nader’s work over the years has included the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

 

 

33.  Pete Wilson

Mike Konopacki

Offset, 1994

California

20636

 

When Pete Wilson was mayor of San Diego (1971–1982) and during his first term as governor of California (1990–1994), he supported moderate to liberal views on poverty and the criminal justice system. However, because of the state's declining economy and the rise in popular anger about crime, Wilson reinvented himself as a tough crime fighter and successfully turned around his failing 1994 election campaign by supporting Three Strikes (Proposition 184) on the 1994 California ballot.  He was re-elected Governor and served until 1999. 

Three Strikes requires the California state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. The concept swiftly spread to other states, but none of them chose to adopt a law as sweeping as California's, where a third felony conviction brings a sentence of life in prison, with no parole possible until a long period of time, most commonly twenty-five years, has been served.

 

34.  Pete

Robbie Conal

California

Offset, Circa 1994

3302

 

35.  Dickey Mouse

Artist Unknown

Offset, Circa 1971

United States

12603

 

36.  El SIDA Va Con Todos Es Tu Salud Entιrate

Comision Anti-SIDA De Alava

Offset, 1990s

Spain

20966

 

37.  No a la intervenciσn en Centroamιrica

Artists: A. Ruiz and I. Bustos

Issuing Agency: Evangelical Committee for Agrarian Advancement

Offset, 1980s

Nicaragua

6756

 

Translation:

 

No Intervention in Central American

God chose the weak in the world to shame the strong— Ist Corinthians 1.27

Nicaragua will be victorious, will neither be sold nor surrender.

 

 

IV. Ronald Reagan: From Hollywood to the White House

 

Prior to serving as governor of California (1967-1975) or President of the U.S. (1981-89), Ronald Reagan spent years before the camera, both as a film actor and in commercials selling a range of items including shirts, laundry products, and cigarettes.  His many performances and commercials provided an abundance of visual material to parody.

 

 

38.  Reaganstein

Dan Thibodeau

Offset, 1983

United States

12614

 

39.  Son of Reaganstein

Matt Wuerker

Offset, 1988

Minneapolis, Minnesota

3113

 

40.  Ronocchio

Artist: Dan Thibodeau

Issuing Agency: Utopia Graphics

Offset, 1985

Austin, Texas

737

 

41.  Iran to the Contras

Three to Make Ready Graphics

New York, New York

Offset, 1987

12096

 

42.  Todos Contra El Visitante

Comite Regional de Madrid and Partido Comunista

Madrid, Spain

Offset, 1985

708

 

Translation: Everyone against the Visitor — For National Sovereignty — Communist Party —  Madrid Regional Committee

 

Produced for Reagan’s 1985 visit to Spain, this poster is a take-off of the U.S. television series "V", which is about reptile aliens disguised as humans who want to colonize the earth and use humans as a food source.

 

43.  America's Desperate Journey

Gilman Street Books

Offset, Date Unknown

Madison, Wisconsin

20593

 

44.  Reaganbusters

Kristin Prentice and Andrea Kantrowitz

Offset, 1980s

Berkeley, California

12607

 

45.  Wanted for Terrorism

Artist Unknown

Silkscreen, 1980s

United States

6008

 

Throughout the 1980s, the Reagan administration created and funded the "Contras," a mercenary army aimed at destroying the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. In 1986, the U.S. bombed Libya.  The text on the poster "from the Nicaraguan border to the shores of Tripoli" is the beginning of the U.S. Marine Corps hymn written in the 19th century. In the 1980s this had very contemporary meaning, as under President Reagan, the U.S. attacked both Nicaragua and Libya.

 

46.  Glasnost

Artist Unknown

Offset, Late 1980s

Soviet Union

6651

 

47.  The Fascist Gun in the West

Vic Dinnerstein

Offset, 1980

Los Angeles, California

9470

 

Designed in 1966 when Reagan was governor of California, and reissued during the 1980 presidential campaign.  This poster was in an exhibition traveling in Mexico in 1981.  When the exhibition returned to the U.S., this poster was confiscated by customs agents as “treasonous.”

 

48.  The Gipper

Artist: C. Pysher

Issuing Agency: Students For America

Offset, 1984

Raleigh, North Carolina

20538

 

49.  ReaganHood Wants You!

Artist: Horsman

Issuing Agency: Carter Productions

Offset, 1981

United States

741

 

50.  Reagan, Reagan He's No Good

Jon Mustard

Offset, 1980s

United States

14126

 

REAGAN, REAGAN HE’S NO GOOD

President Reagan is represented as Major Kong, the anti-Communist cowboy of Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964), riding a missile to its Soviet target.  The poster is in response to the Cold War and arms race that brought the world close to using nuclear weapons. “Reagan, Reagan, he’s no good, send him back to Hollywood” was a popular chant yelled in demonstrations opposing Reagan’s policies.

 

 

V. Deleted Scenes: Politicians Get the Hollywood Treatment

 

51.  Russians Are Coming!

Artist: Tape

Issuing Agency: World Peace Council

Offset, 1981

United States

738

 

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) film satirizes the paranoia of the Cold War.  The poster plays on this theme, and questions the validity of the roles played by U.S. officials by depicting President Reagan, Vice President George Bush, and Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger in Soviet garb. The image directly parodies a famous 19th century Russian painting by Ilya Repin, "The Volga River Boatmen", showing Russian peasants reduced to animal labor.

 

52.  Die Russen Kommen!

Artist: Tape

Offset, 1981

Germany

11983

 

The German version of Tape’s The Russians Are Coming!  The poster differs from the English version by presenting Ronald Reagan and George Bush with Secretary of State Alexander Haig instead of Caspar Weinberger.

 

 

53.  Nixon's Peace

Lazaro Abreu

Offset, 1972

Cuba

4661

 

This is another reference to “Dr. Strangelove”

 

54.  Uneasy Riders

Celestial Arts

Offset, 1970

San Francisco, California

12605

 

“Easy Rider” (1969) was a popular counter culture film starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as motorcyclists out to find America. President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew are now the bikers, and “We Blew It” refers to their failure to end the Viet Nam War.

 

 

55.  [LBJ as Clyde Barrow]

Alexicon Corp.

Offset, 1968

New York, New York

10724

 

Lyndon Baines Johnson was Vice-President under John F. Kennedy and took over the presidency after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.  The following year, L.B.J. won the election.  To protest the Viet Nam War, this poster portrays President Johnson, his wife Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey as the often charming but murderous Bonnie and Clyde gang that operated during the Great Depression.  The still photo comes from the popular crime film, “Bonnie and Clyde” that premiered in 1967. 

 

 

56.  "South Pacific"

Redletter Press

Silkscreen, Circa 1995

Australia

9615

 

David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (1984-89), promoted nuclear disarmament nationally and internationally. In 1984, his government passed legislation banning nuclear-powered and armed vessels (including aircraft) from New Zealand (NZ) territory, and promoted the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. The US reacted to this policy against weapons of mass destruction by canceling all defense exercises, cutting intelligence sharing and demoting NZ from ally to "friend," effectively making the ANZUS security alliance (Australia, NZ and the US) inoperable. Subsequent New Zealand governments have persevered with the anti-nuclear policy, which remains in place today.

 

“I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair,” is the title and chorus of one of the songs in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific (1958). It refers to Lange standing up to pressure by Reagan.

 

“Aotaearoa” is the Maori word for New Zealand.

 

 

57.  I'm Back!

State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Offset, 2003

Sacramento, California

20435

 

In 2003, California Governor Pete Wilson was co-chair of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign to replace Gray Davis as governor of California.  By placing Wilson’s head on top of Schwartzenegger’s body (from the 1986 film “Predator”), the poster claims that there were no political differences between the two Republicans.  “I’m Back” is an oft repeated phrase from Schwarzenegger’s three “Terminator” films. 

 

58.  The Mexterminator

Lalo Alcaraz

Offset, 2003

East Los Angeles, California

21000

 

Proposition 187 was an anti-immigrant ballot initiative passed in California in 1994, and signed into law by then governor Pete Wilson who strongly supported it.  A federal court judge subsequently declared most sections of the initiative unconstitutional, and in 1998, the measure was dismantled through mediations between anti-187 activists and newly elected Governor Grey Davis. In an historic 2003 recall election, California voters ousted Davis and actor/body builder Arnold Schwartzenegger became Governor. 

 

 

VI. Biting the Hand that Feeds: Critiquing the Film Industry

 

59.  Where's Your Head Sherry????

Women's Action Coalition

Offset, 1993

Los Angeles, California

9740

 

Sherry Lansing became the first female head of a major studio in 1980 when she was hired as President of 20th Century Fox.  In 1992, she was named chairman of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group. While at Paramount Pictures, she caused disappointment by producing Indecent Proposal (1993), in which Demi Moore’s character is pimped-out by her husband to a billionaire.  Women’s Action Coalition responded with Where’s Your Head, Sherry making a call for “real roles for reel women”.  In an article for Green Left, Karen Fredericks commented on a scene that included a shot of Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women.  Pointing out that Faludi had referred to Indecent Proposal’s director Adrian Lyne as part of the backlash, Fredericks interpreted the use of the book to be an “up yours”.

 

60.  $3 Million $6 Million

Women's Action Coalition

Offset, 1990s

Los Angeles, California

14283

 

Scene from film "Frankie and Johnny" (1991) starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. 

 

 

61.  In His Prime? Already Peaked?

Women's Action Coalition

Offset, 1990s

Los Angeles, California

14277

 

Pictured:  Actors Michael Douglas and Meryl Streep

 

62.  End Mickeymouse Bargaining

Artists: Andrea Lang and Michael Gurka

Issuing Agencies: American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild

Offset, 1980

Los Angeles, California

10576

 

In May 2000, SAG and AFTRA launched a strike against the advertising industry over a dispute regarding residual payments earned by performers for radio and television.  Actors including Susan Sarandon and Rob Schneider pointed out that the average earnings of actors who appear in commercials are $5,000 per year.  As the strike continued, an AFL-CIO endorsed boycott of Proctor & Gamble products was added to the protest because that firm uses non-union actors to make commercials.  Lasting almost six months, the SAG/AFTRA strike was the longest work stoppage in Hollywood history.

 

63.  No Goofy Bargaining!

Screen Actors Guild

Los Angeles, California

Offset, 1987

10560

 

Made for the Screen Actors Guild Animation Strike (June 15 - July 24, 1987)

 

64.  We're Not Dumbo

Screen Actors Guild

Offset, 1987

Los Angeles, California

11306

 

Made for the Screen Actors Guild Animation Strike (June 15 - July 24, 1987)

 

65.  Not Another Latino Movie

Lalo Alcaraz

Offset, 2001

East Los Angeles, California

21001

 

66.  AIDSPHOBIA

Michael Albanese and Josh Wells

Offset, 1991

Los Angeles, California

3123

 

Produced by ACT UP/LA for demonstration at the 1991 Academy Awards

ceremony to protest the dearth of films about AIDS.

 

67. Don't White Wash The Blacklist

Henry Niller Garcia and Alex Moloutas

Silkscreen, 1999

Los Angeles, California

10173

 

This poster opposes giving Elia Kazan a lifetime achievement award at the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles in 1999.  Kazan, whose films include On The Waterfront (1954) and East of Eden (1955), created a furor in 1952 when he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).  At first he admitted to his own membership in the Communist Party, but refused to give the names of others. After four months, he changed his mind and identified eight fellow directors and actors as members. 

Kazan's refusal to apologize for that testimony or for the hardships it caused his friends made him an outcast in many Hollywood circles. The executive council of the Eastern unit of the Writers Guild of America voted to protest against the Academy's decision to present an honorary Oscar to Elia Kazan, accusing Kazan of causing irrevocable harm to the lives and careers of several professional colleagues with his HUAC testimony.

 

Approximately 700 protested outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, while inside, the audience was divided and many refused to join the standing ovation or applaud.  The Oscar used in this poster was awarded for the film Bridge On The River Kwai, but withheld from blacklisted screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, until after their deaths.