Journal Entry – Week 8

4 posts

Instructions

Journal Entry - Week 8

Respond to at least 1 prompt on this page (you are welcome to respond to more). For instructions on how to submit a journal entry, please follow these instructions. FORMATTING FOR THIS WEEK: Use the title format “[FirstName] [LastName] W8” and select the Category “Journal Entry – Week 8”

Prompt 1

After WWII the world could be divided (broadly) into two worldviews: that of the Western (capitalist) and Eastern (communist) blocks. How were these differences expressed in animation? What were some of the thematic, aesthetic, and financial differences between Western and Eastern national productions?

Prompt 2

The Czech government refused to distribute Jiří Trnka’ s short film “The Hand” (1965). Why do you think the film was seen as subversive by the communist government at the time?

Prompt 2

Journal Entry - Week 8 Uncategorized

“The Hand” (1965) by Jiří Trnka would probably been seen as subversive by the communist government because at the time of the film the soviet invasion was happening, the soviets didnt love the type of free thinking the film in their minds would help with the resistance. The film drew power from its metaphor of the relationship between the artist and the state. This view scared the communists. The portrayal of the State to Artist relation was a critique of totalitarianism and all the visual symbolism made the state scared for the strength of their control of artistic expression. The large hand in the film was scary and represented oppression, the artists home is shown as a cage and the characters where manipulated by strings, all these visuals meant to scare the people into seeing what was really happening. They communist party obviously would want that, it makes them look so bad.

Nate Ragland W8 Prompt 2

Journal Entry - Week 8

Jiří Trnka’s The Hand (Ruka, 1965) was seen as subversive by the Czechoslovak communist government because it was a thinly veiled critique of authoritarian control and censorship. The film tells the story of a simple artist who just wants to create his own work, but a giant hand—representing power and authority—constantly pressures him to sculpt what it demands. As the hand’s tactics escalate from persuasion to force, the artist is ultimately destroyed, and his death is repackaged as a state-approved tribute. For the communist government, the message was unmistakable. The film was a reflection of what many artists in Czechoslovakia were experiencing—constant interference, ideological restrictions, and the looming threat of punishment if they didn’t conform. The fact that Trnka, an internationally respected animator, was making this statement made it even more dangerous in the eyes of the authorities. They couldn’t allow a film that so clearly criticized the system to circulate, so they banned it.