Josiah Koser 04/10/2017 Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America, Random House inc., New York City, New York, 1994. The argument made by the author Robert Sklar in his book Movie-Made America has to do with the impact that American movies have had on the country's culture and society as a whole. Sklar says this by stating that, “American movies, through much of their span, have altered or challenged many of the values and doctrines of powerful social and cultural forces in American society, providing alternative ways of understanding the world.”
Americans and movies have a unique relationship. While the American public lets the movies of Hollywood engulf them with various amounts of pop culture references, the movies reflect the culture of American people in way of religion, beliefs, and concerns. Movies hold a substantial place holder with the American society; they show what most Americans believe in during the time period in which they are made. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, movies showed a more modest and conservative America, a small reflection of its time. But the movies began to drastically change in the 1960’s mostly due to the rise of revolutionary and rambunctious youth and young adults revolting against the prominent social structure.
Millions of people are hungry and thousands of individuals die of starvation each day. Meanwhile, the average American spends a portion of their income on luxuries, such as televisions to imported cars. In the article, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” Peter Singer stresses that Americans should donate all of their income that is not needed for necessities to overseas charities and aid organizations in order to resolve world poverty. However, his straightforward proposition to end world poverty lays on a controversial topic that questions one’s morals and rights.
Forms of entertainment prevalent today, including movies and musicals, are the same forms of entertainment Americans in the early decades of the twentieth century. It wasn’t uncommon for those in the 1920s to use extra income to visit a movie theater, or those in the 1930s to gather to watch a performance in their town to provide a sense of relief from daily hardship. Across these years, there were ample reasons, both good and bad, to absorb multiple forms of entertainment, but it all served a similar purpose: to provide a good time for the audience. Due to both disposable incomes and the need for an “escape” during this period, Hollywood saw a large increase in prevalence, which caused a larger variety of media to be created. In movies released
I chose to rewatch a film for my observation. The film I watched was “Fight Club”. This film is an example of the complete opposite of US cultural values. It focuses on destroying material comfort and individuality. The narrator who was once a man driven by material possessions is completely changed by Tyler Durden a man who is fuelled by chaos.
The movie Mean Girls can be decoded in many ways because there are multiple meanings to this movie. This movie portrays the general stereotypes of teenage women. Cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, presents the idea that movies and medias are encoded and decoded a certain way. It is the audience’s job to decode it. Some meanings are considered to be very easily found and the audience decodes the meaning of the movie the way it’s suppose to be.
The Fluttering Symbolism of Kafka 's The Metamorphosis Humans have always been fascinated by transformation. It seems that every culture has at least one, from the Yeh-Shen to The Ugly Duckling. Even in modern times, there 's a deep interest in rags-to-riches, started-from-the-bottom success stories. This idea of transformation has its roots in the world around us. Plants grow and animals transform, causing nature as we know it to be a fluid concept.
Mass Culture and Style in The Matrix Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, in “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception,” conclude that mass culture in the United States is identical and unoriginal “under monopoly capitalism” (Adorno, Horkheimer 1242). The Matrix (1999), directed by the Wachowski siblings, is about a group of enlightened outsiders who wage a war against the machines in control of human beings, who are subdued and experiencing a false reality through a simulation called the Matrix. In this paper, I will describe how the film, while seemingly original in its concept of questioning reality and rejecting conformity, ultimately succumbs to the cliches and stylizations of mass culture/media, failing to break from the formula Adorno and
1. What competitive forces have challenged the movie industry? What problems have these forces created? What changes have these problems caused the movie and television industry to make?
To what extent do Hollywood films reflect social and cultural behavior of America? Outline: History of Hollywood film industry: 1917—1960: the development of Hollywood film industry and characterized most styles to this day: biography, fiction, action, horror, animated, comedy, etc. After the World War One, the America experienced a cultural boom which resulting different forms of culture appears. In order to make films appeal to the audience, various cultural elements were introduced into the production of films.
Hollywood movies affect national culture in various ways. In one sense, movies could be characterized as America’s storytellers. Hollywood movies „Americanize“ global values and beliefs ,therefore they in a way diminish national culture traits and adapt and reinforce American customs. People tend to copy the ideas,customs and culture of American people or in other words they tend to acculturate. So called „Americanization“ is
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This question has been hotly debated for centuries with no hardline conclusion. The question “do films shape culture, or does culture shape films?” has the same cyclical, unanswerable nature. Films cannot change culture without in some way reflecting it, and films cannot reflect culture without in some way affecting it. Film is inextricably intertwined in today’s culture, both as a means and as an outcome.
The novel I have chosen is “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling. Which is one of the most well-known children’s novel in the world. It is about an 11 year old boy called Harry who before now has lived a very hard life with relatives who don’t like him. He suddenly discovers that he is, in fact, a wizard and is to be thought at the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is where he finds out that he is famous in the wizarding community, for defeating Voldamort as a baby.
Film is specifically made to be sold. Film is an art that is also a source of income. No matter the format, be it big budget or independent, film is a commercial product. According to Comolli and Narboni in their essay “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism”, film is “transformed into a commodity”. Film is “a product, manufactured within a given system”, is it the product of the ideologies that dominates where it was constructed.
How do movies and television influence people’s behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer. Movies and television in XXI century became one of main way to inform, present people important aspects of humans’ life. In 2015 more than 1,50 billon of people worldwide had access to television, which means this is one of the greatest tool to influence people’s life.
