This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the relationship between American cinema and world politics beginning with D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation in 1915. The principal purpose of the course is to understand some of the broad themes of contemporary world politics such as state and nationhood, nationalism, intelligence, conflict, globalization, colonization/decolonization, development/underdevelopment, security/insecurity, and, most profoundly, the politics of identity based on race, class, gender, and sexuality. We will examine each of these themes through the lens of film theory, American cinema, and international political economy. Through lectures, discussions, film screenings and classroom presentations we will analyze the ways in which American cinema has represented and constructed the world around us - sometimes realistically or even satirically, and at other times, fantastically. In our "journeys" into these themes, we will visit some of the following "characters": Cleopatra, Rambo, Jason Bourne, and "Hollywood as American dream factory."