Hollywood's Influence on Global Culture

HOLLYWOOD'S INFLUENCE ON GLOBAL CULTURE

● Summary [Identifying key issues]

■ The main issue underscored in this case is that Hollywood is dominating and changing world cultures through the commercialization of its films.

■ Spielberg, the most commercially successful filmmaker of all time, has been the target of complaints asserting that Hollywood has diluted culturally-rich countries.

■ The values represented in Spielberg's films are often viewed as part of the larger trend of the cultural homogenization, or worse, the Americanization of global values and beliefs.

■ Jurassic Park ignited a storm of protests for its superficiality.

■ Lost in Translation, came under fire for reinforcing negative stereotypes about the Japanese.

■ Hollywood produces 80 percent of the films viewed internationally, having doubled U.S. global market share since 1990.

■ The European film industry is now about one-ninth the size it was in 1945.

■ After aerospace, Hollywood is the United States' largest net export.

■ While foreign film imports into the U.S. are few, Hollywood's exports remain in high demand worldwide.

Distorting History and Religious Values

■ Hollywood war films are accused of presenting biased accounts of history and where American soldiers are always the patriotic heroes.

■ Apocalypse Now painted an ethnocentric view of the Vietnam War, focusing on the U.S. tragedy while ignoring that of the Vietnamese.

■ The Passion of Christ enraged religious groups in every corner of the world- from the government of Malaysia to international organizations which attacked it as anti-Semitic.

■ Brokeback Mountain, portrayed a homosexual relationship between two cowboys in the U.S., offended many with deep religious values.

■ Global competitors face the U.S. dominance of world cinema and the widespread acceptance of the cultural associations inherent in Hollywood films.

Movies and Comparative Advantage

■ According to the theory of comparative advantage, countries should specialize in producing what they do best and import the rest.

■ Economists argue that movies are like any other commodity, and the U.S. has advantages in producing entertainment and export it to the rest of the world.

■ Critics suggest that this ignores the influence that movies have on national culture