Paranoia, Politics and film: Salt (2010)

This thesis seeks to analyse and understand American culture. This research will involve the examination and deconstruction of American cultural artefacts. For the purpose of this research, these items of cultural value are film and photograph. The Hollywood-produced Cold War paranoid spy thriller, Salt (2010) provides this thesis with a rich vein of materials for scrutiny. So too, the photography capturing the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which is embedded into the narrative of Salt. Moreover, this thesis will seek to similarly analyse and understand how precisely the film object can convey its various messages to an audience. Peering beyond simple plot narrative, this research examines a multitude of cinematic devices employed within Salt. This research operates within a framework that takes into account the existence of the Cold War. Evidence of this long-standing conflict is found within a number of Hollywood films. These films encompass the theme and leitmotif of the Cold War in both narrative and art. Many of these films describe a profound or irrational fear of the other, whilst concurrently describing Americans as victims. This is what this thesis understands as 'paranoid.' These Hollywood films are compared to and contrasted with Salt. Scholars have historically documented and interrogated the culture of the Cold War. Similarly, there are scholarly studies of the Cold War film and on the construction and methodologies of cinema. These scholarly works have informed and helped shape this thesis.