A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Phyl

1. The impact of this film an a telemovie? Telemovie style? Audience expectations, entertainment and message on television films?

2. The focus of the film on entertainment values? On message? How well did it blend these aspects? How strong was its belief in its cause?

3. The meaning of the title, the political overtones, disaster, the response of the American people?

4. The importance of the introduction to Hayes? As a person, response to him as a person, and his political ambitions? His devotion to the cause?

5. How political a personality was Hayes? The initial encounter with the death, his grief? His interest in the cause of pollution? His investigation, his relationship with his advisors? Did he use the cause for political purposes? Did he believe in It? Both?

6. The political overtones of his promises? The importance of the sequences with the media? The interviews and the distinctions between truth and public image? The hostility of T.V. interviewers putting personalities on their guard?

7. The importance of the characterization of his aides? What types of men were they? Their political beliefs? Their aiming for success?

8. The importance of Senator Hayes? The pressures that he put on his son? Hayes and his relationship with his wife? The growing characterization throughout the film: his eagerness, loneliness, dedication? The importance of his being filmed in close-up and profile?
9. How ambiguous did his character become during the film? The various challenges about the issue of pollution? His hasty intervention in area that was not his? Hostility?

10. The visualizing of the smog situation? The background filling in the details of the history of smog and its lethal effects? The character of the professor and his obsession with pollution? The interview, the Press seeking only sensation?

11. The portrayal of the city fathers and their refusal to listen? Their political interests over and above matters of life and death?

12. The importance of the Doctor and his listening to Hayes? His being away when the smog came in? His watching the effect of so many deaths? The importance of the portrayal of people in the hospitals and dying? The District Attorney and the Senator? The Senator putting on pressure? The combined visit to the hospital and its impact?

13. The role of the T.V. interviewer and his hostility? A Devil's Advocate, a challenger? Hayes's resignation and his speech as genuine if the smog was not a killer smog?

14. His finally reconsidering his stance? Did he stand for double values? The advice of his wife, father?

15. How important is this kind of telemovies for alerting audiences to social issues? How convincing was the film?