A2 Film Studies

Urban Stories: Power, Poverty and Conflict

Theories Booklet

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Theoretical Booklet and Ideas of Power

All of the following questions are to be considered when reflecting on the films that we have seen:

What is power?Who has the power?How have the people in power gained it and how can things change?How is power gained?

Attempting to answer these questions we will look at the plot and characters of the films but also the social and historical contexts that we find the films in. To explore these we can watch documentaries focussed on them and read around the subject of the country and its history. We can then go onto consider the films in perspective with and in relation to the world around it, considering how it has been shaped and how our views of it are shaped from where we are from.

On way to do this is to consider certain theories and how they apply to the films studied. This will also help you to reach the higher grades in the exam when comparing the films and the messages and values within them.

Theories covered:

Post Colonialism

Post Modernism

Narrative Theories

Realism

The American Dream

Ideology and Hegemony

Marxism

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POST-COLONIALISM AND CULTUREAccording to this perspective the “value” of culture is all about race – not gender or class. The cultures (and religions) of countries colonised by the European powers were called “primitive” or even “savage” to justify white rule over them. A term used in the British Empire was “the white man’s burden” (Rudyard Kipling - 1899) which meant the duty of the Europeans to “civilise” the “natives”.

Post-colonialism describes the continuing process of resistance and reconstruction by the non-West.

You will be examining with how the relationship between power and culture and how those in power (ruling class or colonisers) justify their rule (over workers or colonised) through their domination of culture (Marxism).

Until quite recently European countries colonised huge chunks of the globe and justified this by claiming “superior” culture. For example, the French, British and Dutch had colonies in Africa. Britain also had colonies in India and many South Pacific islands.

The British finally withdrew from India in the early 1940s causing the partition of India into India and Pakistan. The language of law and official business in India is still English in fact.

Asian, African and “native” American cultures were regarded as “primitive” or even “barbaric”. Their art, religion and languages were belittled and, as far as possible, destroyed. As part of a European empire the “natives” were to be “civilised”. This was the “white man’s burden.”

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Since India & Pakistan became independent from Britain in 1947 the empires of the European powers disintegrated and now very few colonies are left. In this era of post-colonialism the countries that were ruled over have to redefine their culture.

Do they reassert their pre-colonial culture?

Do they try and wipe out all cultural elements of their European oppressors?

Do they stick with the European culture that they lived with for a century or so?

Do they mix and match the best elements from all these cultures?

Do they have any choice or are they swamped by American cultural hegemony anyway? (Is there really any true independence from the West?) Satellite TV, Hollywood films, pop music, CNN, BBC etc. are hard to avoid.

How much can a government/country do about culture anyway? Subsidise a local film industry? Make trainers illegal? The power of the state is withering in the face of global capitalism.

How is colonial history taught?

Which language is to be used?

Post-colonialism is the study of the power relationships between previously colonised cultures and people and the way they are represented by us, the colonisers. Do we represent them as ‘third world’ countries, struggling, backward people? Certainly, we tend to do this with India which ironically, has a very ancient and sophisticated culture, much older than ours and much more civilised!

We will be looking principally at how ethnicity (cultural origin) is represented in spaces and places, in the stories we tell and the things we desire, in popular music and to some extent on the Internet. Was Paul Simon right to include Black Mombaza and their music in his L.P ‘Graceland’? Was it extending the reach of ‘world music’ or just another western musician exploiting the ‘third world’?

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We will be looking at the relationships between organisations and the people who make the raw materials for many of the products consumed in western culture. We will look at how the built environment provided a very different context for some cultures and how we reflect ideas of other cultures in our buildings in mock Mexican villages and shopping malls with replicas of Italian town squares and restaurants. How do these relationships reflect national identity and personal identity?

For the purposes of the examination, you would be expected to be able to talk about ideas like ‘the construction of ethnicity’ – how are ideas about people’s cultural origins and backgrounds represented? You would also be expected to consider the effects of globalisation and anti-Eurocentrism – in other words the way culture is becoming universal and the resistance from Asia and Africa to European culture and ideas being seen as central and somehow better than anywhere else. Culture is about identity. As a result of the end of empires, both ex-colonies and ex-rulers have to ask: who are we? This is going to be complicated by issues of language and migration.

1. Imagined Communities

After colonisation, people have to work out who they are. This is true for the imperial power as well as the colonised. What does “Canadian” mean? Who are “Australians”, “French”, “Nigerians”, and “British”?

Identities are formed out of the rulers/ruled power relations. Other races to the West are the Others.

Western representations of race have created ethnic identities through novels, theatre, painting, films, TV documentaries, music and photography. Ethnic identity is thus largely a “social imaginary” which divides various cultural groups into “imagined communities” by binding them together.

How real are the “Chinese”, “Asians”, “Welsh”, “Europeans”, “Russians”, “British”? Is Hull an “imagined community”?

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I am European, British, English, Yorkshire, Male, Middle Class, Middle Aged, White, Anarchist, Pagan…but what do these things really mean? Do they define my identity? What if someone else picks just one of these attributes and uses it to define me?Identity is about binding people together but it can also be about being bound and labelled by others.

Groups might need a sense of identity if they are to change things. There are has to be a Black identity before you can have “Black Power.” Sometimes the sense of identity is almost entirely made up e.g. Druids.

How far do people have a say in the way they are represented? Who are the most vocal groups?

2. Constructions of Ethnicity

Race, like gender, is a socially constructed concept. There are no significant biological/genetic differences between races. Any ideas about races and their supposed characteristics and attributes come from culture.

In the West views of other races have largely been negative to justify their oppression by us. “We” are civilised. “They” are barbaric. Indians, for instance, were portrayed in novels as effeminate, untrustworthy, cowards (but also savage), and lazy. They are like children who need a Dad. They were heathens and superstitious. This stereotyping is often called Orientalism.

This is a question of representation. Look at the representations in a culture and it reveals who is exercising power over whom.

What makes people “British?” Is speaking English the essential? Watching the Queen on Christmas Day? The Tebbit Cricket Test?

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We are told this is a multi-cultural society but isn’t there still a belief that “British culture” is superior? Does multiculturalism focus on superficial “exotic” manifestations of culture (curry & steel bands) and avoid big differences like religion?

Does it look at other cultures in terms of how different they are from Britishness rather than look at them on their own terms?

Should different religions have different schools? (Church of England? Roman Catholic? Muslim?

What history should be taught?3. Globalisation

The world is becoming a “global village” and this process is known as

“globalisation”. Economically dominant nations also develop their cultural control over other countries even without political control. Dominant nations like USA, Western Europe, Japan “sell” their products, style, culture, values, ideals and practices to less developed nations (in Africa, Asia, South America.) These products may include representations of the other culture.

Old stereotypes are hard to shift without a struggle. Local cultures become dominated or even displaced.

Multinational companies help the process to sell more stuff. Some brands are global in their reach. They are made cheaply in one place and sold for a vast profit elsewhere.

Ideologies such as capitalism and consumerism are exported as well as trainers. “Third World” countries get aid only if they support capitalism and democracy. The mass media pushes this stuff all over the world.

One (Western) vision of how life is to be lived is dominating the entire world and this is damaging all non-Western cultures.

Globalisation is being resisted. How?

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4. Anti-Eurocentricism

This is an attack on the way aspects of European culture are taking over the world. “Western Civilisation” has been spread over the globe. What do other cultures do about it? How can they resist?

It is very difficult because:

Art and literature is generally defined in a Eurocentric way.

The Eurocentric view of science as an all-embracing system of rational thought based on proof as opposed to ‘superstitious’ religions

Marxism began as a European set of ideas.

Feminism began as a European set of ideas. Non-Western feminists attack the way Western Feminists represent them as “victims” for the wearing of the veil, arranged marriages, and other aspects of their culture.

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Democracy began in Greece. Democracy and capitalism are pushed very heavily by US and European states.

Everything not European is represented as The Other – strange, barbarous Orientals. This idea not only affected the colonisers but also the colonised. It transformed their cultures and perceptions of themselves.

The English language is becoming the global tongue. It can often unify countries with many languages of its own.

“The ‘Third World’ is a creation of the West that locks non-Western cultures – and how the West views and deals with them – into an imperial representation” (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak)

As recently as Sept. 2001 the Italian PM attacked Islam as not being as “civilised” as the West.

Post-Colonialism then…

According to this perspective the “value” of culture is all about race – not gender or class. The cultures (and religions) of countries colonised by the European powers were called “primitive” or even “savage” to justify white rule over them. A term used in the British Empire was “the white man’s burden” which meant the duty of the Europeans to “civilise” the “natives”.Post-colonialism describes the continuing process of resistance and reconstruction by the non-West. We have seen the relationship between power and culture and how those in power (ruling class and men) justify their rule (over workers and women) through their domination of culture.Until quite recently European countries colonised huge chunks of the globe and justified this by claiming “superior” culture. Asian, African and “native” American cultures were regarded as “primitive” or even “barbaric”. Their art, religion and languages were belittled and, as far as possible, destroyed. As part of a European empire the “natives” were to be “civilised”. This was the “white man’s burden.”

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Post Colonialism and the Films Studied

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POSTMODERNISM AND CULTURE

POSTMODERNISM (or PoMo) is notoriously difficult to define and has been around since the 1980s.  The reason it is difficult to define is because it is an idea which is used in lots of different subject areas such as art, technology, sociology, literature, architecture and communications etc and is used in slightly different ways in each area.

If “modern” means “now” how can anything be “postmodern”?

It all started from Modernism, which was a movement which started largely in architecture but spread to other areas of our culture.  Modernism, as a cultural movement, happened largely between 1900 – 1930 and revolved around key literary figures such as authors Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and T.S Eliot.  They rejected the old Victorian ideas of how art (such as novels, poetry) should be made, received by readers and what it should mean.  They played around with narrative or story-telling techniques and poetic structures.

The main characteristics of modernism in terms of literature include:

1) An emphasis on HOW seeing (or reading or perception itself) takes place, rather than on WHAT is perceived. An example of this would be stream-of-consciousness writing such as Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs Dalloway” or James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.

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2) A movement away from the apparent objectivity (lack of bias, based on facts not feelings) provided by all-knowing third-person (he, she, we) narrators, fixed narrative points of view, and clear-cut moral positions. Faulkner's stories told from lots of different characters viewpoints are an example of this aspect of modernism.

3) A blurring of distinctions/dividing lines between genres, so that poetry seems more documentary (as in T.S. Eliot or E.E. Cummings) and prose seems more poetic (as in Woolf or Joyce).

4) an emphasis on disjointed, broken up forms – poetry which breaks patterns and rules of verses etc, discontinuous narratives – stories which just stop or start and forget to have a beginning, middle and end, and random-seeming collages (putting together of lots of pictures or ideas) of different materials. 5) A tendency toward reflexivity, or self-consciousness, about the production of the work of art, so that each piece calls attention to its own status as a production, as something constructed and consumed in particular ways. 7) A rejection of the distinction/differences between "high" and "low" or popular culture, both in choice of materials used to produce art and in methods of displaying, distributing, and consuming art.

Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of these same ideas, rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, (see later references for description) and playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favours reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity.

Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization, creating order out of chaos. The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more order, and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function (the more rationally it will function).

Postmodernism disagrees with “New” ideas and questions whether anything is new or even real. These ideas began in the late 1960s.

“Nothing is real.”(The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever, 1967)

“The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes…without chaos, no knowledge.”(Paul Feyerabend, Against Method, 1988)

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“’If you weren’t an android…if I could legally marry you, I would.’Rachael said, “Or we could live in sin, except that I’m not alive.”(Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968)

According to Jean Baudrillard, is that in postmodern society there are no originals, only copies-or what he calls "simulacra." You might think, for example, about painting or sculpture, where there is an original work (by Van Gogh, for instance), and there might also be thousands of copies, but the original is the one with the highest value (particularly monetary value). Contrast that with cds or music recordings, where there is no "original," as in painting--no recording that is hung on a wall, or kept in a vault; rather, there are only copies, by the millions, that are all the same, and all sold for (approximately) the same amount of money.

Another version of Baudrillard's "simulacrum" would be the idea of virtual reality, a reality created by simulation, for which there is no original. This is particularly evident in computer games/simulations--think of Sim City, Sim Ant, etc.

The key to Postmodernism is our old friend Semiotics - the study of signs. The idea is that the meaning of something is negotiated between a text and its reader. Nothing comes with absolute meaning. We give it meaning and we all might give it different meanings. Everything is relative.

The past itself is a text from which different people get different meanings. So, attempts to see structures in history are wrong. They are grand stories (metanarratives) we tell ourselves to cheer ourselves up. They usually insist that things are getting better and emphasise the notion of progress. Postmodernists are sceptical of Marxism, Feminism and Post-colonialism’s predictions of a guaranteed utopian future.

Science isn’t as “reasonable” and “rational” and “real” as we like to think either. It, too, is a text. The experimenter affects the experiment. The Theory of Relativity, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and Chaos Theory and the quote by Feyerabend (above) show the direction in which postmodern science seems to be going.

We deconstruct texts to find the layers of possible meanings that were put in. Things are made according to codes and conventions. Postmodern art and books and films play with the conventions. We understand the rules so we get the joke. (Scream is funny because we understand the horror film genre. Moulin Rouge works because we understand musicals and we enjoy the anachronistic use of recent songs used in 1899 Paris)

Postmodern Art is largely concerned with what art is. Is Marcel Duchamp’s Urinal (1917) art or a urinal? Or are Andy Warhol’s prints of soup cans art?

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If Warhol’s prints are art they are called Pop Art. Postmodernism is about subverting the distinction between “high” and “popular” culture. Postmodern ballets use pop music. The pulp sci-fi novels of Philip K Dick contain profound ideas (about reality.) Alien is designed like a work of art. Elvis is as good a singer (in his own highly individual way) as Pavarotti. Everything is a text and deserves to be studied. Everything can be bought or sold.

What is reality? Cyberspace isn’t real. Neither is Virtual Reality. Even Intelligence can be artificial. Disneyland is fake and so is Las Vegas. What are Beefeaters doing in the Tower of London? What is Karaoke? Why are there mock-Tudor houses all over the country and books and horse brasses in pubs? Are we living in a theme park?

CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) in film and TV can construct believable characters and backgrounds. SF/X are so advanced it is difficult to know what we are really seeing. Are we real? What is our identity? Do we have lots of different identities that we “put on” like costumes? What is maleness? What is blackness? Who are Ali G and Lily Savage? The whole idea of identity is now unstable. We know it’s an illusion. How individual are we in our uniforms? Are images of our identity more important than our experience? Who are Madonna or Robbie Williams or Britney or Kylie? Our sense of reality is formed by language and the media and the self is like a hall of mirrors. Who are we going to be today?

Is style (image) now more important then substance? What is real? This is a key question for postmodernists. Films are looking at what is human (AI & Blade Runner) and what is real (Total Recall, The Truman Show, The Last Action Hero, The Matrix, The Village.)

When the Trade Centre was attacked – did it take a few watchings before you realised it was real? Wars like the Gulf War and attacks on Afghanistan are only experienced by one (third world) side. The other side watches on TV. (And only what they are allowed to see.) In the film Wag the Dog the President fakes a war to get re-elected.

Nothing in postmodernism is new. We recycle old ideas all the time. We mix and match. (This is called Bricolage.) There is a building in NY with a top like a Chippendale chair. We have returned to ornamentation on buildings but in an ironic way as parody and pastiche. Fashion recycles old ideas all the time.

We reproduce things. We can own copies of films, paintings, concerts, books, antiques, clothes. You can buy a Georgian-style wooden cabinet for a TV set.

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The reproduced is taking the place of reality or replacing it as hyper-reality. Films and ads are full of references to other films and ads. Ads no longer try to convince us ‘Persil washes whiter’ but show us cool jokes about the products. The Royle Family is a TV show about people watching TV. Wayne’s World is full of references to other texts. (Intertextuality)

We live in an interactive age. We are getting used to manipulating reality and images in video games. We use remote controls to zap through the channels and create our own cultural mosaics. We live in a three-minute culture (?)

Key Words Explained:

Pastiche

A copy of something like a painting or a TV programme which is intended to be a tribute to, or compliment to the original e.g Andy Warhol’s Mona Lisa or the Las Vegas copy of an Eygptian statue from the Pyramids.

Parody

A copy or thinly veiled version of something which makes fun of the original e.g The Simpson’s versions of other films like “Thelma and Louise” or “Terminator”.

Bricolage

A collection or putting together of images, ideas etc to make a new piece of art or literature

Irony

When a piece of art or literature is self-consciously doing the opposite of what it appears to be doing

Reflexivity and self-consciousness

When a TV Programme uses references to itself or to it’s characters to make a point e.g. The Simpson’s episode “The Springfield Files” refers to Fox TV (which is the channel The Simpsons is made by).

Fragmentation and discontinuity

When storylines and characterisation are broken up, disturbed and don’t follow the usual pattern e.g. films like “The Butterfly Effect”, “Vanilla Sky”, "Memento" and TV programmes like Twin Peaks etc.

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Postmodernism then …

Postmodernism disagrees with “Modern” ideas and questions whether anything is new or even real. These ideas began in the late 1960s.

The key to Postmodernism is Semiotics - the study of signs. The idea is that the meaning of something is negotiated between a text and its reader. Nothing comes with absolute meaning. We give it meaning and we all might give it different meanings. Everything is relative. Postmodernism goes against the Marxist, Feminist and Post Colonialism perspective, everything means something different to someone different – we each have our own interpretations and nothing is ‘set in stone’ in terms of definitions of a text / culture. Postmodernism would argue that there are no set structures or underlying controlling powers, manipulating us like puppets, as the above three perspectives do – we interpret ideas / texts / cultures as we wish.

The past itself is a text from which different people get different meanings. So, attempts to see structures in history are wrong. They are grand stories (metanarratives) we tell ourselves to cheer ourselves up. They usually insist that things are getting better and emphasise the notion of progress. Postmodernists are sceptical of Marxism, Feminism and Post-colonialism’s predictions of a guaranteed utopian future.

Socialisation / Enculturation / Cultural TransmissionYou have been socialised / encultured (becoming active members of society / culture) so that you are a member of the tribe and know how to fit in. This means that the dominant ideologies of society are transmitted to us everyday as part of our culture. Through this we become a naturalised member of our society and culture. The process which we learn and pass on new information in a culture or society to become socialised or encultured is called Cultural Transmission. Briefly what are the main agents of socialisation / enculturation? What 7 catalysts help us to become active members of our society / culture?

Modernism / POSTMODERNISM and the films studied

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Narrative Theories and the Films Studied

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Enigma Codes are…

Binary Oppositions are …

Non linear narratives are…

Narrative Theories and the films studied

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RealismAbercrombie (1996)

Identified three aspects of realism (which affects a particular kind of mediation)

Realism offers a window on the world, an apparently unmediated experience.Realism employs a narrative which has rationally ordered connections between events and characters.Realism attempts to conceal any production process.

These construction of reality according to Abercrombie is ‘the illusion of transparency is preserved” meaning that the form conspires to convince us that we are not seeing something that has been constructed.

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Realism and the Films studied

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American DreamFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For many immigrants, the Statue of Liberty was their first view of the United States, signifying freedom and personal liberty. The statue is an iconic symbol of the United States and of the American Dream.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the USA in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life."The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal” and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The "American Dream" has been credited with helping to build a cohesive American experience but has also been blamed for overinflated expectations. The presence of the American Dream has not historically helped the majority of minority race and lower class American citizens to gain a greater degree of social equality and influence. Instead, the American wealth structure has often been observed to sustain class differences in which well-positioned groups continue to be advantaged.

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In common parlance, the term American Dream is often used as a synonym for home ownership since homes have historically been seen as status symbols separating the middle classes and the poor. This usage, though, while common, is generally considered a very specific use of a more general term.

American Dream and the films studied

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Ideology and Hegemony

Ideology

What is ideology?

An ideology is a collection of ideas that form a larger system of beliefs. Typically these are the ‘isms’ that you will have heard of, many associated with political beliefs – communism, Marxism, capitalism – together with other ideologies like feminism, Christianity and environmentalism.

‘Capitalism’, for example, is the system of beliefs that most Western societies (countries like the US and Britain) share about how society should function. Capitalists believe in the creation of individual wealth, in free markets and in privately-owned businesses. Capitalist societies believe in the power of the individual, that people should be free to make their own choices and live as they please. We in the UK live in a capitalist state where we enjoy the freedoms that this ideology opens up to us. In a communist country such China, many of these ideas would be seen as dangerous and harmful to the state.

Ideologies are sustained through the institutions that run through the fabric of society, such as the media, the education system and religion. These work together to create hegemony – the process by which an ideology is maintained. Once hegemony is achieved, a consensus is formed between the leaders and the ordinary people of a country (often without people realising that they are part of maintaining the ideology). Everyone accepts that this is the way the country should be represented and run, and few (except perhaps some protest groups) challenge the dominant ideology.

Hegemony

• Ruling class maintains power through control of ideas and culture rather than force.

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• They control the way the media represent the world – this influences the way people think about the world.

• They have a dominant ideology, a set of values which the audience often subscribe to.

A mutated form of capitalism is the idea of ‘America’ or ‘Americanisation’ as an ideology in itself. This retains the core ideas of capitalism (the creation of individual wealth), but also includes stronger notions of patriotism, justice and, above all, ‘freedom’. It is represented by symbols such as the ‘Stars and Stripes’ flag and the American ‘bald eagle’ – all recognisably American – together with powerful megabrands such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

When these ideas appear on the cinema screen, they often imply that the ‘American way’ is the right way, and we will all live happily together if we follow these rules. These ideas are easily recognisable in many films over the past century because America produces most of the films that we see at the cinema. Hollywood movies often display core American ideological beliefs, and the average film-goer is content to accept them whilst immersing themselves in the pleasure of the watching experience. As an audience, we are often manipulated into supporting the ‘good guys’ without really considering what they stand for.Looking for ideology – why is it so important?

However, you as a Media student must think more critically. Think about all those successful action films of the past twenty years: Top Gun, Rambo, Die Hard, Saving Private Ryan. What do they all have in common? Why are they so popular? How are foreigners depicted? And why are Americans always portrayed as the good guys?

If you can spot the dominant ideology of a film when watching, you will be able to make general and important assumptions about the way characters act. You will be able to predict the way in which the narrative unwinds, and recognise provocative and interesting dialogue. In short, you will be able to guess very quickly the intentions behind the making of the film; you will develop a greater insight into what it is really about, by interpreting the real motivations behind the on-screen action.

Identifying ideology will impress the examiners and demonstrate that your understanding of textual analysis at Advanced Level is mature and incisive.

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Ideology, Hegemony and the films studied

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Marxism

Karl Marx was a 19th-century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist and revolutionary who was interested in society and class conflicts within it. He is a huge influence in sociology, economics, politics, history, philosophy and cultural studies. Attempts in some countries to put his ideas into practice (or partly) have changed the world. The key point is that Marx saw culture as a means of class control. As we have already seen culture includes customs, traditions, rituals, attitudes & beliefs (Ideology), dress language, behaviour & relationships, the way people view themselves. The culture of a society is passed down (Cultural Transmission) from one generation to the next so we can talk about British culture or Japanese culture, etc. Such cultures are learnt, not inherited in your genes.

However, Marxists say there isn’t just one British culture. There are many different cultures. There are class cultures. These are in conflict just as the classes are. The ruling class tries to impose its culture on everybody else. It uses its control over the law, mass media, education and religion to do this. High culture (art, literature, music) and mass (pop) culture are both forms of class control. If the ruling class can impose its culture and ideology on everybody else it reinforces their right to rule. Other classes go along with this, don’t realise what is happening or resist.

We have already looked at sub-cultures. Now let’s look at them from a Marxist perspective. Marxists see youth subcultures not as a brief ‘rebellion’

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by adolescents during a period of teenage insecurity but as part of the class struggle. They see youth subcultures divided along class lines. Members of working-class subcultures like teddy boys, Hell’s Angels, skinheads and punks had more in common with their parents than with members of middle class youth cultures like hippies. The skinheads of the 1970s were a reaction against the flower power values of middle-class students in the 1960s. They were reaffirming their working-class roots by wearing exaggerated versions of traditional working class clothing – donkey jackets, crombies, braces, and bovver boots. Rejected by middle-class society (the law, teachers, etc.) they were aggressive and increasingly racist.

Hegemony is a concept that fits neatly into and reinforces the Marxist perspective. This concept was the brainchild of an Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, (1891 – 1937). Hegemony is the ability of the dominant class to exercise social and political leadership to maintain their power. It is a lot easier to maintain leadership by consent rather than by force. The ruling elite get people to make sense of the world in a way that benefits them. We look at things their way. We accept being ruled over because we believe it is:

(a)natural (hierarchy is the only form of organisation that works)(b)fair (we choose our rulers in a democracy)(c) inevitable (you can’t argue with history)(d)right (our rulers are cleverer than us - meritocracy)(e)common sense (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer)

Successful hegemony (unlike advertising or propaganda) is not even noticed. It appears to be common sense as the examples above show.

It is important to note that whilst many people may think that Marxists are themselves members of the upper ruling, hegemonic classes, they are merely people whom believe and subscribe to Karl Marx’s perspective of value and culture.

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Marxism and the films studied

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