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Leading actor on the world stage : explaining American exceptionalism through Hollywood war films
Author
Chan, Jeffrey Kah Wai
Supervisor
Rahil Ismail
Abstract
In this age of globalization, the media being highly accessible plays an important role in shaping perceptions and internalizing beliefs. Chief among the tools of media is the motion picture. Any discussion of motion pictures is invariably tied to Hollywood, the world’s largest film production line. Far from being just a form of entertainment, the motion picture is often linked to a view of the world that generates ideological inclinations. It carries with it embedded messages and perpetuates certain beliefs.
Indeed Hollywood has long understood the power of the motion picture to convey, convert and hence influence the minds of people. However far from being an individual institution, Hollywood creates and acts not on its own. In fact it is very much an active agent in the perpetuation of American hegemony.
It is the intention of this thesis to outline the power of Hollywood in this active process of perpetuating and justifying America’s hegemonic role on the global stage; how Hollywood productions tend to echo and convey ideas relevant to America’s role in the world, and how it shapes its productions according to the climate of the day.
To quote Tony Kashani, The classic war film rationalizes the necessity of war, the postmodern revisionist film questions war, and the 21st century version manufactures a sense of patriotism…Hollywood war film is but another tool to use for what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent" and to contextualize a new false consciousness as it helps the world’s only military superpower with its corporate godfathers.1
Very often, Hollywood’s productions provide a means of justification of American’s role. The war film, for example stirs the audience with emotive scenes that didactically indoctrinates the audience with various implicit messages. Through careful manipulation and lensing, Hollywood shows us their killing, no matter how barbaric, is necessary in order to uphold American version of freedom and democracy in the world. As in the words of Kashani, Whether it's Rambo of Reaganism, or Black Hawk Down of the neoconservative era, Hollywood is an instrumental piece of the apparatus that is fixed on global domination and, in Nixonian spirit, looking to seize the moment2
It is the main aim of this thesis to prove that Hollywood is very much a central part of this superstructure in delivering and perpetuating myths of American supremacy.
1 Tony Kashani, Hollywood An Agent of Hegemony : The War Film.
Source : http://dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Kashani0807.htm 2 Ibid.
Indeed Hollywood has long understood the power of the motion picture to convey, convert and hence influence the minds of people. However far from being an individual institution, Hollywood creates and acts not on its own. In fact it is very much an active agent in the perpetuation of American hegemony.
It is the intention of this thesis to outline the power of Hollywood in this active process of perpetuating and justifying America’s hegemonic role on the global stage; how Hollywood productions tend to echo and convey ideas relevant to America’s role in the world, and how it shapes its productions according to the climate of the day.
To quote Tony Kashani, The classic war film rationalizes the necessity of war, the postmodern revisionist film questions war, and the 21st century version manufactures a sense of patriotism…Hollywood war film is but another tool to use for what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent" and to contextualize a new false consciousness as it helps the world’s only military superpower with its corporate godfathers.1
Very often, Hollywood’s productions provide a means of justification of American’s role. The war film, for example stirs the audience with emotive scenes that didactically indoctrinates the audience with various implicit messages. Through careful manipulation and lensing, Hollywood shows us their killing, no matter how barbaric, is necessary in order to uphold American version of freedom and democracy in the world. As in the words of Kashani, Whether it's Rambo of Reaganism, or Black Hawk Down of the neoconservative era, Hollywood is an instrumental piece of the apparatus that is fixed on global domination and, in Nixonian spirit, looking to seize the moment2
It is the main aim of this thesis to prove that Hollywood is very much a central part of this superstructure in delivering and perpetuating myths of American supremacy.
1 Tony Kashani, Hollywood An Agent of Hegemony : The War Film.
Source : http://dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Kashani0807.htm 2 Ibid.
Date Issued
2010
Call Number
E169.1 Cha
Date Submitted
2010