Hollywood 's view of society

Set within the complex cultural framework of twentieth-century America, Hollywood and its movies emerged to permeate the nation's vision on an unprecedented scale, far outpacing rival forms of art and artifice. The movies reached millions of people across the land and provided unforgettable images that helped to shape the perceptions of Americans at every level of society. The appearance of this dynamic and new popular art form coincided with the emergence of the United States as a leading power in the world. And American economic and political influence, spread over the globe, providing people everywhere with the special brand of American images and visions fashioned in Hollywood. The movies, as if responding to the shifting moods of a nation composed of people whose diverse cultural origins often set them at odds with each other, reflected the alternating tensions, exuberance, tentativeness, belligerence and change inherent in the American social stew.

 Although a number of scholars have begun to appraise the cultural implications of the American movies, the critical investigative process is unfinished. It is a worthy scholarly pursuit in that movies provide not only a better understanding of popular entertainment as a potent social force but, as well, a better understanding of the society itself in which the movies were created and functioned. As a special form of the visual and dramatic arts, movies contributed greatly to the ongoing dialogue about life in this country. Filmmakers participated energetically in the American practice of discussing events and issues, indulging in social introspection as much as commentators working in newspapers, novels, or (after 1920) radio. This self-centered preoccupation with life in America was, for a very long time, a distinguishing characteristic of American movies.

Social issues as central themes are readily identifiable in their various guises: Westerns, war films, romances, comedies, swashbucklers, musicals, crime films, etc. A subtle form of social commentary also appeared through prejudicial and attitudinal conventions that divulged a great deal of information about America's self-image at any given moment. A few examples illustrate the point. Evidence of prejudice against American Indians in hundreds of films is ample. Until recent times, in many of these films - mostly Westerns - the Indians may have had little to do with the central plot or theme, but when they did appear they were often savage, bloodthirsty. And prone to drunkenness. If depicted as a noble friend, the stereotypical good Indian was wise in the ways of nature, physically strong, perhaps philosophical, but never worldly in the ways of the whites. Hispanics usually fared little better. Two stereotypes that frequently appeared in the pre-World War One two-reel comedy were the working person (factory hand, shop girl, waiter), sympathetically portrayed and invested with abundant virtues, and the wealthy person (man or woman with no visible job), unsympathetically represented as snobbish, insensitive, and of dubious moral character. Filmmakers depicted their view of a pre-1915 America sharply divided by class.

Orientals were "inscrutable", but in the 1930s the Chinese were presented more favourably than the Japanese, a reflection of attitudes of the popular press and politicians. Italians were plentiful as criminals in film – tough but devious, cruel, and untrustworthy.

Stereotypes, of course, are an oft-met convention in the popular arts. Many had developed in vaudeville and were adopted whole-sale by Hollywood. But women in general were depicted in a wide variety of roles and character types after World War One, when Hollywood captured the middle-class market. While certain types of women were in vogue for a long time - the vamps and flappers of the 1920s and the later "dumb blondes" among them - movies definitely did not cling to the image of the weak, innocent, and defenseless female presented before 1918. New stereotypes and individually modeled characters reflected Hollywood's preference for the "enlightened" or "advanced" woman. Women in pictures often smoked, wore the newest or most daring fashions, drank liquor, drove cars, danced, worked professionally, got divorced on occasion, and led generally independent lives. At times on the screen, women themselves often decided when to act seductively and when, as well, to deflect the advances of men. The changed status of women in society remained a concern of considerable importance to the middle class - and to Hollywood - from the earliest years of the century, when women campaigned for and eventually won the right to vote, when they fought for social reforms, and when they questioned sexist and marriage-oriented attitudes of an older, male-dominated world.

In the social status of women was a middle-class concern. So was me problem of crime. Crime as a popular topic in literature dated from the eighteenth century and before. Prior to World War One, many crime films dealt with the problem of "white slavery", a topic much in vogue with the popular press. With the coming of Prohibition, however, Hollywood's treatment of crime broadened and became more sophisticated. The themes of the real world were adopted: political and legal-system corruption; bootlegging and gang wars; and crime in relation on the larger issues of delinquent youth and the struggle between the poor and rich – outsiders vs. insiders. These issues persist in films today, even though details have changed – for example, racketeering in drugs instead of booze. In the process, Hollywood dealt with certain fundamental issues of everyday life: the effects of environment on personalities and slums on crime; police and court corruption; the free press as the people's ultimate weapon against wrongdoing or injustice. In this way society's problems were aired under the guise of entertainment.

 

Task 3. Define or paraphrase the following words and expressions from the text. Remember to use a monolingual dictionary.

· to permeate the nation’s vision on an unprecedented scale;

· to shape the perceptions of Americans;

· to respond to the shifting moods of a nation;

· to set smb at odds with each other;

· exuberance;

· tentativeness;

· belligerence;

· to be inherent in smth;

· to indulge in social introspection;

· the self-centered preoccupation with life in America;

· a swashbuckler;

· to divulge information;

· ample;

· savage;

· prone to smth;

· worldly;

· a Hispanic;

· to fare little better;

· an Oriental;

· inscrutable;

· tough;

· devious;

· to be adopted whole-sale;

· to be in vogue;

· a flapper;

· to deflect the advance of men;

· bootlegging;

· delinquent youth;

· racketeering;

· booze;

· Society's problems were aired under the guise of entertainment.

Task 4. Answer the questions on the text:

1. What are the central themes of American movies according to the text? Provide examples from the text. Think of your own ones.

2. Do you agree that movies provide a better understanding of the society in which they are created and function? Elaborate.

3. Do American films highlight any social (or any other) issues from abroad? If they do, how are those issues usually depicted?

4. The text bulges with examples of prejudiced portrayal of different social groups in American movies. Find some examples in the text.

5. What images are imposed by American movies?

6. Does Hollywood have a controlling influence on the process of film-making in the rest of the world? Elaborate.

 

Task 5. Write a summary of the text “Hollywood’s view of society”.

 

Task 6. Read a text about Hollywood action movies and turn to the tasks below.

ACTION!

When people have asked me if I've seen any good films lately, I've replied. "Oh yes, Speed ", and they've looked startled. It's as if I wasn't saying the title of a film but lapsing into some ill-understood subcultural jargon: "Yeah, man — speed". Perhaps I lengthened the vowel or arched my body involuntarily, because they weren't entirely wrong. Speed is, like, speed.

Speed gets its rush from a sheer squandering of sensational situations. Keanu Reeves is a cop who has to deal with three desperate predicaments: a plummeting lift, a bus primed to explode if it drops to below 50 mph and an out-of-control subway train. One situation follows straight after the other, set in motion by an obscurely fanciful ex-cop (Dennis Hopper) with a genius for deadly remote-control technology. Any one of these variations on velocity would have been enough for most movies. Speed is like Sylvester Stallone jangling over — the divine at the start of Cliffhanger plus the office explosion in Lethal Weapon 3 plus the train crash in The Fugitive plus the chase along the sunken canal in Terminator 2, all put end to end with no boring bits in between. No dodgy politics. No attempts at psychologising the villain: he's a nut case. No mushy buddiness: the film barely pauses when Keanu's partner is blown to bits through his (Keanu's) lack of foresight. No elaborate excuses to get the camera to linger on the star's muscles: Keanu's not that kind of a boy. And no love interest to send the kids into frenzies of squabbling and going to the fro: there is a girl (Sandra Bullock in fine form) and Keanu does get her, but it's all done on the run with only a quick clinch at the end. This is the movie as rollercoaster: all action and next to no plot.

In contemporary cinemas it is the action film that most characteristically delivers speed in a story. One has only to think of the stars of such films – Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and now Keanu Reeves — to have an indication of whose thrills as being legitimated: straight white men. This doesn't mean that no one else can possibly imagine having the thrills alongside Arnie or Keanu, but it does contribute to the reproduction of a masculine structure of feeling. Extreme sensation is represented as experienced not within the body, but in the body's contact with the world, its risk, its expansiveness, its physical stress and challenge.

Worldly thrills are seldom bought at no price. In the classic Western and jungle adventure film, to take relatively easy targets, it is the native people who pay the biggest price for the white man's exhilaration. With Rambo or a film like Under Siege, it's anyone who gets in the way, which generally means other males – many action films are indeed mainly affairs between men. Speed largely avoids giving us time to note death: there are innocent bystanders knocked off and some policed but by and large the film is oddly benign. Old ladies petrified to leap from lifts, babies in prams, poor commuters of colour on the unstoppable bus, such people are safe in Speed, not expendable as they might be in many other films.

 

Task 7. Answer the following questions on the text:

1. What typical feature of action films is brought to the fore in the text?

2. Speed “is the movie as rollercoaster: all action and next to no plot”. Do you appreciate such movies? Why (not)? What makes them popular?

 

COMMENT

Task 8. Write a comment on the topic “Hollywood’s view of society”.

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