Ideological Effects Of Film Sound—Case Study:The Battle Of Midway (1942), Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949) And Windtalkers (2002)

In 1970, Louis Althusser published "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,’ in which he redefined the concept of ideology. He believed that the successful rule by any political power would rely on the Repressive Ideological State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatuses. The ISAs reached into the private domain such as religion, politics, and culture. Under the influence of Althusser, Jean-Louis Baudry released the paper "Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus" which regarded films as a gear of Ideological State Apparatus. In other words, the film as mass culture aims to promote the mainstream ideologies, by which individuals "voluntarily" accept their position in the social relations of production and the dominant power structures. Hollywood, the most convenient ideological tool, knows best how it works. War films are a commonly seen genre in Hollywood, and most of them revolve around WWII. Since wartime, Hollywood and Washington have coproduced many war films, which are inevitably ideological and serve the national interest. Film is the art of image and sound. It is argued in this thesis that the film sound (including voice, sound effects, and music), frequently neglected by people, also makes great contributions to achieving the intended ideological effects. To facilitate the studies on the ideological effects of film sound, the three films that were shot in different historical periods and sufficiently reflect the dominant ideologies in the United States are selected including The Battle of Midway (1942), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), and Windtalkers (2002). Sound, complicit with image, covers up the material heterogeneity and adequately guarantees in the three films their sense of reality so as to best serve the ideological purposes. The Battle of Midway was produced during wartime, which was aimed to promote patriotism, help the Unites States to turn the tide of the war and build morale. It largely resorted to the authoritative voice-over/voice-off and music familiar to the American public so as to lead the narrative in the most direct manner. From the end of World War Ⅱ to that of the Cold War. Hollywood made Sands of Iwo Jima with the help of Marines Corps, in which the heroism and patriotism of the American soldiers were displayed to a large extent. The voice in the film validated the status of the male protagonist as a real hero in history, which, together with the variations of "The Marines’Hymn," encouraged the enthusiasm of American young men for joining the army and thus met the expectation of the American government. Windtalkers, shot in the time of peace and supported by the Defense Department, was also oriented on patriotism. Its extra-diegetic composition and diegetic music evinced the national unity and acknowledged the contribution of the Native American to the war so as to meet the political needs of that era. The voice and sound effects, however, showed and confirmed the leading position of the white men in the war. On the whole, the sound in the three films is the perfect tool to copy and reproduce the political ideology-the positive image of the United States in the war is fortified; the dominant power structures in the American society (the conservative tendency characterized by white-and male-supremacy) is reaffirmed which in turn proffer a basis for the reinforcement of the political ideology. It should be noticed that the more highly the sound technologies are developed, the more covert the expression of ideology is in these films.