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Essay / American Film Ideology
In general terms, ideology can be defined as a belief generally held by groups in society, in a specific time and place. This is how we understand the world around us. By analyzing films, we can better understand how certain ideologies are formed and why they persist or change over time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Virtually all films present us with behavior, negative or positive, and therefore offer us an implicit or explicit morality or ideology. Each film has an orientation based on the director's sense of right and wrong – an ideological perspective that privileges certain characters, institutions and cultures. Recognize that films are products marketed to American audiences and that filmmaking may include a predisposition that many, if not most, Americans will respond in roughly parallel or identical ways to the material. Films are art derived from the market. There are two types of meanings in films: Implicit: a generalization that a viewer makes about a text or a subject within a text, closer to our traditional notion of meanings. Implied meaning is a deeper level of interpretation of film content and a viewer can use their knowledge of cinematic techniques, satire, symbols and narratives or stories to help uncover implied meanings. A good example of a film with implicit ideologies, analyzed by many critics, is "Pretty Women", made in 1990. The romantic story of a relationship between a young prostitute and a very rich businessman depicts America as “the land of dreams”, where everything is possible. Implied meanings can also be noticed in the original 1960 “Psycho,” where appropriate techniques such as setting, lighting, and composition helped create meaning and suggest that human beings are strange and dangerous. Explicit: general observations included in the film on one or more topics. This was clearly shown in the film. Such films are often constructed to teach or persuade their viewers. Patriotic films like “The Green Berets” directed by John Wayne in 1968 are a good example. “The Green Berets” are a definition of insidious propaganda. The film was created specifically because John Wayne was bothered by the anti-war sentiment prevalent in the country in 1968. With the support of the Pentagon and the approval of President Lyndon Johnson, the film was made with the specific aim of counter existing views on the war. Early in the film, a journalist skeptical of the war attended a lecture by an American special forces soldier who described the conflict in Vietnam in very simplistic terms as a struggle for freedom against communist forces. Later, the journalist traveled to Vietnam where he saw American forces participating in humanitarian acts, while the enemy engaged in brutal violence (as if Americans had never participated in violent acts brutal attacks against civilians). Eventually, the journalist realized his ideological errors and reversed his previous opposition to the conflict. In the film, there is no mention of the millions of Vietnamese deaths, or of Agent Orange, or of the firebombing of civilian villages. "The Green Berets" took an extremely complex conflict and reduced it to a simplistic dichotomy of good and evil, with the United States, of course, being on the side of good. But the most striking thing is thatwhich the film omits. In addition to the aforementioned omission of civilian casualties, the film also omits that the war was started on a lie with the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the brutalities committed by American forces, and the indifference of much of the Vietnamese civilian population with regard to its own conflict. . All this on top of overestimating the threat posed by the Soviets. A viewer watching this film, who has not received any other information about the war, would have a one-sided view of the conflict. Most films fall into the Implicit category, with the understanding that implicit presentations of ideas and values have increased power, achieved in part through mass repetition or "Culture Incorporated", suggesting that mass media rebroadcast the same message , over and over again, in many different forms. a good example of explicit films is “Casablanca”. This 1942 film, often hailed as one of the best films of all time, was actually supported by the War Department due to its pro-war stance. America was largely indifferent to involvement in the war in the early years, and films like Casablanca, which showed Humphrey Bogart taking a stand, received help from the military to help shape public opinion. As far as cinematic war propaganda goes, Casablanca's contribution is fairly innocuous. Yet the film's overall popularity and little-known story are a tool the U.S. military has at its disposal to change minds. The trope of law and the courtroom trial in the Hollywood legal film also had a political dimension and could be understood as ideological in nature. Furthermore, in the United States, the term "ideology" appears to many to be a foreign and dangerously subversive term, and one must therefore be aware of the prejudices against it. Ideology, on the other hand, is more generally normative, expressing the hopes and dreams of a society without necessarily seeking to fool people. Indeed, the most effective and powerful ideology is the one that no one recognizes as such. According to Stephen Prince, “Ideological film theory examines how films represent and express various ideologies.” Experimental films, for example, tend to challenge dominant ideology, provoking viewers raised on classic Hollywood cinema, and often aim to shock. The Hollywood film has among its characteristics an important ideological component. The images, ideas and stories in films have a normativity. They convey messages that viewers could internalize. Many American viewers, both in the 1950s and today, fall for these messages as somehow true. As a result, Robert Ray argues, American cinema is "one of the most powerful ideological tools ever constructed." Legal films of the 1950s and early 1960s are no exception, and in more specific terms, they serve a particular ideology related to law. This depiction is not new, for it draws on a venerable American idea that their nation, among the nations of the world, is one with a particular degree of fidelity to the rule of law. American films are not only viewed in American states, but they are seen by massive audiences across the world. Moreover, American films initially dominate the majority of market share in the global film industry. It seems that cinema is the best way for America to gain recognition and friendship. The films feature smooth storytelling and make people keep watching them from start to finish. For me, theAmerican films remain the most interesting films to watch and the easiest to understand. The promotion of the American nation through films is a phenomenon in which America subtly wants to dominate the world by spreading its own culture, traditions and opinions through films. America's culture transfer becomes more relevant as the concept of Americanism is known throughout the world since it became the world's superpower. America is trying to make sense of the American values contained in films and trying to make films a new political tactic used in world politics. The promotion of the American nation through Hollywood films attracts wider populations. The popularity of American culture may make the rest of the world decide whether to fear or embrace the promise of Americanization and a globalized planet. Hollywood film can influence people all over the world and has several impacts both positive and negative. America is the most powerful country in the world, it has impacts on all aspects: politics, economics, military, or even entertainment. Hollywood is always considered the leader in fashion where actors and actresses in films portray hairstyles, clothes, makeup, etc. fashionable. Otherwise, Hollywood movies always contain the rude words or aggressive behavior of Americans which caused the audience to imitate and adopt those. characters in their daily lives. Hollywood is America's success story and serves as an instrument to influence the ideology and culture of the entire world population. To be global is to be American. The Hollywood film industry is for me a form of media imperialism. Hollywood has long generally influenced the world psychologically and ideologically. As mentioned earlier, Hollywood is an American instrument, Hollywood's access to the world is America's access. Thus, the world society considered globalized is a subtle process of Americanization. While watching a film, the audience gains pseudo-involvement in the scenes depicted in the film. After being exposed to the film, they feel the reality and possibility of the film, where films can move the audience. This means that the intimacy between films and audiences becomes clearer and stronger. Movies shape people's thoughts and lives, as mentioned above, as audiences move to play as the characters or find themselves in the situations depicted in the movies. According to my survey, only a third of those surveyed adopted the prevailing ideology and values. in the film to their real lives. This means that ideologies and value cultures affect the lives of the public the least. Otherwise, the ideologies and values contained in Hollywood films always lead to a change in behavior and thinking among some people. For example, it appeared that America was the worst during the world wars, but after watching the movies about the world wars, some other countries seem worse, killing others brutally and cruelly. Freedom seemed to be the main ideology of America as it usually appears in the movies. Freedom must be granted, and “to fight is to gain freedom.” Additionally, most films present America as the best nation in the world in terms of benevolence, morality, and ethics. During the World Wars, America was the only nation to remain neutral and attempt to ignore the war. But in the end, when the wars became more violent and brutal and spread to many countries around the world, America became a hero who.