Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films
Films sponsored by the American oil industry during the Cold War often pit communism and capitalism against each other, arguing for the latter’s ideological superiority. Since abstract ideologies are difficult to represent visually, the battle takes concrete form via depictions of layers of undergro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Toronto Libraries
2020-02-01
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| Series: | MediaTropes |
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| Online Access: | https://mediatropes.com/index.php/Mediatropes/article/view/33667 |
| _version_ | 1818065469878304768 |
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| author | Ila Tyagi |
| author_facet | Ila Tyagi |
| author_sort | Ila Tyagi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Films sponsored by the American oil industry during the Cold War often pit communism and capitalism against each other, arguing for the latter’s ideological superiority. Since abstract ideologies are difficult to represent visually, the battle takes concrete form via depictions of layers of underground rock in films like The Last Ten Feet (1949) and Destination Earth (1956), which demonstrate how the American oil industry’s engineering ingenuity locates and extracts the precious crude oil reserves found therein. In this essay, I argue that by harnessing moving images’ power to visualize the optically elusive, films sponsored by the oil industry show it to have technological access to customarily inaccessible underground space, thus making the industry seem a more potent foil for the Red menace.
Image Credit: Screenshot from Destination Earth (1956). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:52:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-552e8bc9a1a94089970231e545ba47b6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1913-6005 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T14:52:24Z |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | University of Toronto Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | MediaTropes |
| spelling | doaj.art-552e8bc9a1a94089970231e545ba47b62022-12-22T01:44:24ZengUniversity of Toronto LibrariesMediaTropes1913-60052020-02-017210.33137/mt.v7i2.33667Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War FilmsIla Tyagi0Yale-NUS CollegeFilms sponsored by the American oil industry during the Cold War often pit communism and capitalism against each other, arguing for the latter’s ideological superiority. Since abstract ideologies are difficult to represent visually, the battle takes concrete form via depictions of layers of underground rock in films like The Last Ten Feet (1949) and Destination Earth (1956), which demonstrate how the American oil industry’s engineering ingenuity locates and extracts the precious crude oil reserves found therein. In this essay, I argue that by harnessing moving images’ power to visualize the optically elusive, films sponsored by the oil industry show it to have technological access to customarily inaccessible underground space, thus making the industry seem a more potent foil for the Red menace. Image Credit: Screenshot from Destination Earth (1956).https://mediatropes.com/index.php/Mediatropes/article/view/33667American cinemaCold Warenergy humanitiesideologyoilpetroculture |
| spellingShingle | Ila Tyagi Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films MediaTropes American cinema Cold War energy humanities ideology oil petroculture |
| title | Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films |
| title_full | Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films |
| title_fullStr | Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films |
| title_short | Inscribing Interiority and Ideology: Representing the Visually Elusive in the American Petroleum Institute’s Cold War Films |
| title_sort | inscribing interiority and ideology representing the visually elusive in the american petroleum institute s cold war films |
| topic | American cinema Cold War energy humanities ideology oil petroculture |
| url | https://mediatropes.com/index.php/Mediatropes/article/view/33667 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ilatyagi inscribinginteriorityandideologyrepresentingthevisuallyelusiveintheamericanpetroleuminstitutescoldwarfilms |