This is the PowerPoint slide show from my presentation at Augusta State University's 2008 Phi Kappa Phi Student Research and Fine Arts Conference. My paper is titled "Paranoia and the American Conscience in the Films Dr. Strangelove, All the President’s Men, and Primary Colors.”

1. Paranoia & the American Conscience Dr. Strangelove All the President’s Men & Primary Colors Ula Gabrielle Gaha

2. Paranoia Dr. Strangelove: satires threat of nuclear annihilation All the President’s Men: power surrounding Watergate Scandal Primary Colors: ethical dilemmas on the campaign trail

3. Thesis Paranoia results from the process of becoming conscious of political instability & complexity

4. Instability:The Arms Race 1949 Soviet Union announced successful explosion of an atomic bomb January 31, 1950 Truman ordered Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb 1952 America detonated a hydrogen bomb 700 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 8, 1953 Soviet Union announces possession of their own hydrogen bomb Source: Maland (699)

5. Dr. Strangelove The Pentagon War Room http://flann4.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/strangelove.jpg

6. The Big Board:A Message of Omniscient Power http://boingboing.net/images/strangelove-board.jpg

7. Complexity: The Watergate Scandal& All the President’s Men Lighting and mise-en-scene Shrouded in mystery, the complex unraveling scandal feels oppressive and gloomy (Quart and Auster 55)

8. Paranoia as Contagious The pace of the film reflects Woodward and Bernstein’s experience “Everyone is involved”

9. Movement from dark to light emphasizes Woodward and Bernstein’s experience as they gather information http://dvd.monstersandcritics.com/reviews/article_1134866.php

10. Surveillance: Paranoia as Contagious http://dvd.monstersandcritics.com/reviews/article_1134866.php

11. Political Instability & Complexity: Primary Colors Modern 24 hour news cycle fosters paranoia on the campaign trail Instability of a shift in power with Presidential elections Scandals feed a candidate’s desire for gaining & maintaining power

12. Freddy Picker:The Political Scapegoat http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/res/images/h/hagmanlarry.jpg http://a.movies.com/images/movies/p/primarycolors_1998.jpg

13. Libby Holden:The Sacrificial Lamb Would the Stantons have spared Picker if Holden had not committed suicide? “Our job is to make it [the system] clean” http://www.columbus.com.lb/columbus/lib/photo_cast/bates,_kathy.jpg

14. Works Cited All the President’s Men. Dir. Alan J. Pakula. Perf. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Warner Brothers, 1976. Burgess, Jackson. “The “Anti-Militarism” of Stanley Kubrick.” Film Quarterly 18.1 (1964): 4-11 Corrigan, Timothy J. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Peter Sellers and George C. Scott. Columbia Pictures, 1964. Maland, Charles. “Dr. Strangelove (1964): Nightmare Comedy and the Ideology of Liberal Consensus.” American Quarterly 31.5 (1979): 697-717. Primary Colors. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. John Travolta and Emma Thompson. MCA/Universal Pictures, 1998. Quart, Leonard and Albert Auster. American Film and Society Since 1945. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2002. Scott, Ian. American Politics in Hollywood Film. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.