Few cultural or economic monopolies even come close to rivaling Hollywood’s stranglehold upon the world film industry. As a result, virtually every major Hollywood production that finds its way to audiences – be they in New York, London, Sydney, Shanghai, or Irvine, California – has a certain indelible Americanness to it. It will inevitably be labeled American, but truly, what makes a movie American, as opposed to American-British, American-Australian, American-Chinese, or some other combination? That is the very question at hand here, and its answer reveals some rather profound truths and phenomena about America and the English language’s complex roles in this increasingly globalized, postnational world. The simplest answer to this fundamental …show more content…
In a word: cultural colonization by American films – a colonization that in fact made this unique recategorization as organic as it possible could be. Going by Appadurai’s theory, though, this eventuality was something not only probable, but perhaps even inevitable. That is to say, that the construction of this new supranational paradigm is the necessary and logical conclusion of American culture – embodied by Hollywood cinema – colonizing Canada so as to create a new locality between the two sister nations. Or, as Appadurai puts it: “All locality building has a moment of colonization” (Appadurai, pp. 183) – even though the exact moment in this case is difficult to specify. Still, Hollywood’s production of a neighborhood between the U.S. and Canada aptly suits Appadurai’s overall characterization. This is especially true for the line wherein Apparadurai posits that such production “is inherently colonizing, in the sense that it involves the assertion of socially (often ritually) organized power over places and settings…” (Appadurai, pp. 184). And after all, moviegoing is nothing if not a social and ritualistic expression of American cultural power, which has subsumed Canada in its omnipotent grasp. All that said, the fact that the major studios are all American, while certainly contributory, does not alone account for the monopoly America enjoys over world …show more content…
But like aforesaid, the production companies being American is only accounts for part of why these films are considered singularly American. Furthermore, it’s unlikely – especially in foreign countries – that audiences even know or necessarily care who produced and wrote these movies, let alone their nationalities. Despite the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) being the single most financially successful movie franchise of all time, and Kevin Feige being the executive producer of every single film therein, chances are that the average person going to watch Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War has no idea who he even is. In that sense, then, these movies’ Americanness is not necessarily entwined with the identities of those in front of and behind the camera. Therefore, that answer, though valid, is again insufficient in explaining this phenomenon, just like the first. The key answer, and probably the one among these three that people are likely to list last, is that the movies are written and filmed in
...cate American entertainment films. But what was the cost to the development of Canada's supposed "cultural identity" and the perogative of the Canadian filmmaker to make a film without mimicking Classic Hollywood style and theme? Toward the mid-1980s, following the demise of the Capital Cost Allowance tax shelter in 1982, the "success" of a Canadian film was determined less by its forecast box office potential. The trend in the late 1970s and the early 1980s towards what Ted Magder calls the "If you can't beat `em join `em" (Magder, 169) relationship with the commercial Hollywood production infrastructure, was met in the mid-1980s by an equally vehement movement, which maintained that the infiltration of American culture and the adoption of their economic or "big-business" approach was precisely the problem with the Canadian film industry, and hence Canadian films.
We are daunted by the idea that our movies in America are not going to be as successful as we hope. With that being said, many movies are made based around the same topic. According to one article, “Hollywood has made
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
If we look at the early history of Australian television, virtually all program material until 1963 was of foreign origin, of which eighty three percent were American and the rest British (Cited in an article by Cunningham Stuart, “History, Contexts, Politics, Policy”). Philip Bell discusses in his article that even in the first two decades of television ‘American programs and formats dominated commercial channels’ (Cited in an article by Bell Phillip, ‘Television’). So Americanization of Australian television is not just a recent development. This problem has been there right from the beginning, with American shows like Leave it to Beaver and I love Lucy dominating the TV screens of Australian households. Many are concerned with this issue, a good example is shown in an article written by David Dale, readers were asked if they were shocked by the revelation that all the most popular dramas and comedies on Australian television were made in America, and whether they thought TV stations should be forced to show more stories from other countries, including Australia.
Booker, M. K. Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Print.
After the civil war, United States took a turn that led them to solidify as the world power. From the late 1800s, as the US began to collect power through Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines, debate arose among historians about American imperialism and its behavior. Historians such as William A. Williams, Arthur Schlesinger, and Stephen Kinzer provides their own vision and how America ought to be through ideas centered around economics, power, and racial superiority.
In Hollywood, the films are very straight forward with the idea or messages that the director is trying to reveal in order to keep American viewers hooked on to the film. Whenever a foreign film is Americanized, there are always significant changes in the character’s love life between one another, and the organization of the plot; from the symbolism of the film with the theme of the films are altered. This method is very effective because American audiences want to understand the whole concept of the film, where the language is understandable and the film makes sense. American films tend to have more action, drama, terror and a bit of narrative in between to keep the audience entertained and not bored out of their minds while the foreign movies
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
Like previous American expansion, American imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was motivated by desire for new economic gains and improvements. However, the social justification, diplomatic and military approach and geographical aspect of imperialist expansionism varied greatly from previous American growth. Therefore, American expansionism underwent more change in this period than continuity.
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54
Cinema studies: the key concepts (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. 2007. Lacey, N. (2005). The 'Standard'. Film Language.
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
see this American influence; Coca Cola, McDonalds and Nike to name a few. This is not a new thing, in 1987, “79% of film and television exports world wide originated in the U.S, lack of local production lead to other countries filling empty time slots with American film.” (ReinholdWagenlitner, 1993.) Young people in particular are fascinated with American culture. Wanting to look like their idols, dress the way they do and buy the possessions they flaunt in film.