Subject: Blame it on Hollywood

From: Modemac <modemac@modemac.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack

From: cinemascoper1@aol.comedy (Joe Gillis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.current-films

Study: Hollywood Gives USA a Bad Name

Friday, February 28, 2003
By Trace Gallagher

LOS ANGELES ~ Are stars like Britney Spears, Tony Soprano and Martin
Scorsese a threat to the country's national image?

One new study says yes. According to the study out of Boston
University, Hollywood sex, violence and arrogance are causing young people around
the world to despise Americans.

After questioning teens in 12 different countries, Melvin DeFleur, a
communications professor at BU discovered that American entertainment
was brewing a "culture of hate" among the youth of other countries.

The more American entertainment they see and hear, the more they
believe Americans are dishonest, drug-abusing sex fiends, DeFleur said.

"If a teenager in Saudi Arabia sees an episode of The Sopranos, they
are going to enjoy it, but the images of Americans being lewd and lawless
will become imbedded in them," he said. "They are creating these
dreadfully negative attitudes around the world among young people."

But some in entertainment say it's their right and in fact their goal
to make their audience question societal norms.

"Anything can be misinterpreted. People can look at Christ on a cross
and think, 'This is an image of murder, this is violent, this has
sexual imagery in it,'" shock-rocker Marilyn Manson told Fox News' Bill
O'Reilly last year for a special on violence in the media. "I think
it's my job as an artist to be out there pushing people's buttons and
making them question everything."

DeFleur surveyed 1,313 people ranging in from age 14 to 19. The study,
"The Next Generation's Image of Americans: Attitudes and Beliefs by
Teenagers in 12 Countries" was conducted in late 2002.

According to Paul Bond of The Hollywood Reporter, many Tinseltown
types take the stance that entertainment is a business, and they are merely
producing what the fans want.

"Most of them conclude, 'We're not responsible.' We put out
entertainment for people to enjoy and it's not our problem if people
watch it and get a negative image of America,'" Bond said.

And that's part of the problem, according to DeFleur who also blames
the companies that make money off of the films, music and images being
sent overseas.

"Mass media entertainment products are shipped all over the world by a
limited number of corporations who make significant profit," he said.
"They are making profit in such a way that it is creating harm for us
here in the U.S., helping young folks in those societies create a
culture of hate."

Bond said that many moviemakers project their own vision about the
U.S. onto the big screen.

"Hollywood filmmakers do have a fairly low opinion of the U.S. and
they don't mind portraying that on film," said Bond.

DeFleur, who thinks the war on terror needs to be fought on many
fronts, said its time to change Hollywood's mind about the images it's
producing.

Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association told O'Reilly that
Hollywood is making strides in improving the quality of its films.

"When you make 600 movies a year, we don't have enough creative people
of high quality to make 600 good movies," he said. "We're going to
have a bunch of bad movies... but I think we're making real progress."

Examples of wholesome entertainment that DeFleur said he'd like
emulated in today's society are Lassie, Flipper and Leave It to Beaver ---
shows that never aired "couples writhing in bed" or "saying dirty words," he
said.

While it's unlikely that Hollywood will return to the days of Jimmy
Stewart and Donna Reed, DeFleur said America's image overseas needs an
overhaul.

"You don't recruit terrorists out of a country that has favorable view
of Americans," he said. "They have to dislike us very intently and see
us as worthless people that deserved to be harmed, and these media
depictions are teaching them that."

Fox News' Amy C. Sims contributed to this report.

_______________________

"I don't mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy." -- Samuel Butler

-------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: friday@fridayjones.com (Friday Jones)
Newsgroups: alt.slack

I agree with this survey.

Question is, what films HAVE come out that set a good image of America?

Any suggestions?

"People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it
would be great."
- biologist James Watson

--------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: Joe Cosby <joecosby@SPAMBLOCKmindspring.com>

The Godfather.

--

"Hell of a thing, killin' a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have."
"Yeah, well, I guess he had it comin'."
"We all got it comin', kid."

-----------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: "Artemia Salina" <y2k@sheayright.com>

D. W. Griffith's _The Birth of a Nation_ -- http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html

Hellpope Huey on NENSLO: He's the black-ops Elephant Man of the Mensa set.

-----------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: "Artemia Salina" <y2k@sheayright.com>

Oh! Even better... The problem, it seems, is that young people in other
countries that don't value free speech as much as we do here don't understand
the importance of tolerance for dissenting, even negative, views of our own
society.

What's needed to combat this problem are films which show the virtue
and higher purpose of freedom of speech in mass media. I think a good
example would be "The People VS Larry Flynt" -- http://movieweb.com/movie/flynt/

---------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: "Saint Bucky of the Vector Equilibrium" <someone@microsoft.com>

American Beauty AND Bowling for Columbine OR The Big Hit AND Grosse Pointe
Blank. Kill or be killed, ye durn stinkin' yankee bastards. (JK)
Warmest regards form your coldest neighbor.

------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: "nu-monet v5.0" <nothing@succeeds.com>

A whole s-load of 'em, but they are Family
Channel and Disney stuff that had small box
office in the US and were boring and forgettable.

The problem is that the movies Americans want
to see are not like Chinese or Indian (Bollywood)
or Mexican soap operas that are immensely popular
in the rest of the world. The rest of the world
wants to see happy middle class and moderately
well-to-do people leading productive and useful
and interesting lives, encountering ordinary
problems that are no longer interesting to us
here in the US, like the loss of virginity not
depicted.

In other words: Boring. Boring. Boring.

We want android terrorist car crash sex monster
explosions with cash money and diamonds and gold
and expensive cars and mansions and airplanes and
secret government and corporate plots and funny
stunts and hot sex and lots of scatalogical jokes
and more car crashes and special effects on jet
skis with wookies in a galaxy over there.

The trouble happens when *they* see *our* movies.
*They* can't handle it. Hell, *they* can't handle
the idea that fire can come out of a Zippo, or
that women can *have* orgasms or learn to read.

And that isn't *our* problem.

------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: friday@fridayjones.com (Friday Jones)

The last film that I saw that had a 'moral scene' that people applauded was
"Mars Attacks."

Seriously, when Pam Grier's kids picked up the aliens' guns and started
defending the President, everyone applauded!

Of course, this WAS at a film festival. Many people there were, you know,
READERS.

"A person playing with fire should not yell when he gets burned."
- Israel Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, on Israeli troops shooting at
protestors

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: hellpopehuey@subgenius.com (HellPopeHuey)

"ReAnimator," "Spider-Man," "The Devil In Miss Jones" and oh yeah,
"Green Pastures," which shows old-style pre-rap Negroes as Biblical
figures. Present them with Italian overdubs and Swedish subtitles. If
those 4 don't fuck 'em up, fuck it.

--

"This mic stand electrocution brought to you
by Post Toasties & the B'nai B'rith"

The first duty to children is to make them happy.
If you have not made them so, you have wronged them.
No other good they may get can make up for that.
- Charles Buxton

"Opal! Diamond! Sapphire! Jade! I smell Gary's lemonade!"
- Stephen King, "The Man In The Black Suit"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Blame it on Hollywood
From: Joe Cosby <joecosby@SPAMBLOCKmindspring.com>

On 1 Mar 2003 19:25:48 -0800, hellpopehuey@subgenius.com
(HellPopeHuey) wrote:

>"ReAnimator," "Spider-Man," "The Devil In Miss Jones" and oh yeah,
>"Green Pastures," which shows old-style pre-rap Negroes as Biblical
>figures.

and don't forget 'green acres'. Which shows that old-style pre-rap
Negroes

Simply didn't exist.

--

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life"
- Solid Jackson

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Original file name: Blame it on Hollywood - converted on Monday, 21 July 2003, 13:39