I think it depends on the movie. A sub-genre worthy of analysis would
be the military ones, mayb specially those movies dealing with Vietnam
or similars. What about Rambo? That is based on a personal psychopaty.
What about Black Hawk Down? There is not reference to why are those
military men doing and only at the end we are told that more than a
thousand Somalians were killed in the fight. What about Kubrick's?
What about the most recent one located in the pre-vietnam war time,
about the English journalist and his American intelligence counter
character (don't remember the name)? What I would say is that, as a
rule, as in mainstream USA psychology, USA movies are commonly less
aware of the role of the historical context if compared with European
and Latin American ones in shaping the characters they depict. There
of course nice exceptions, as Woody Allen. Some people speak about
an "American genre", for movies like American Beauty. What would say
about them?
Quoting Sazon <sazon@kursknet.ru>:
> Dear Mike and Eugene,
>
> Your comments on hollywoods films are very interesting. When I read
> Eugene's
> comment I was about to agree, then Mike's surprise brought another
> issue:
> Is it that we ignore the socio-cultural context if it is not familiar
> to us?
> I think probably we do at the level of perceptions and emotions.
> Probably,
> unfamiliar context doesn't contribute much to meaning interpretation,
> though
> it is informative by itself.
> Tatiana
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Cole" <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>
> To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 9:32 AM
> Subject: hollywood's context
>
>
> >
> > Eugene. You genuinely surprised me. If I understood you correctly,
> you
> > said that hollywood films could be understood without knowing
> their
> > history and sociocultural context?
> >
> > Is that what you meant to say? I'll respond depending on answer,
> but
> > I am still experiencing international women's day/week/time. Saw
> a
> > HOLLYWOOD film today without a signal male in it. incredibly
> interesting,
> > ahistorical though, perhaps it will turn out to have been.
> > mike
> >
> >
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Nov 09 2004 - 11:42:23 PST