Strengthening
US Foreign Policy through Hollywood
Guest Commentary by Trivan Annakkarage
Motion pictures are a
magical feat that explains a story which captures our hearts and minds and
remains deep within our subconscious. Hence movies are a very powerful form of entertainment
and its ability to attract masses were envisioned even by those early inventors
of film making such as Eadweard Mayubridge of Britain, the American inventor Thomas
Edison followed by the French Lumiere Brothers.
According to Silver (2007),
film studios were immediately established in major cities around the world such
as in New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Paris, Mumbai, Sydney and
Rome in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to cater
to this rising demand for
a novel form of entertainment. However, the American
film industry; Hollywood (named after a municipality located within the city of
Los Angeles), was soon to overtake international competition by becoming a
colossal industry and gaining the attention of American policy makers in
Washington D.C. who identified its potential Guzelipek, 2018).
a novel form of entertainment. However, the American
film industry; Hollywood (named after a municipality located within the city of
Los Angeles), was soon to overtake international competition by becoming a
colossal industry and gaining the attention of American policy makers in
Washington D.C. who identified its potential Guzelipek, 2018).Soft Power in foreign
policy is a term introduced by the American Scholar; Joseph Nye, a proponent of
Neoliberalism. In his article, Public Diplomacy and Soft Power published in
2008, Nye describes the concept of Soft Power as “the ability to affect others
to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than coercion or
payment. A country's soft power rests on its resources of culture, values, and
policies.”
In his book published
in 2002 titled, The Paradox of American Power, Nye explains that the projection of Soft Power by a powerful
nation-state (i.e. USA, China or Japan etc.) creates a sense of admiration and
obedience towards that country by other less powerful or developing countries in the international system. Such
Soft Power tools include, the establishment of low cost but high quality
educational institutions which promote the values of the donor nation-stateand
provide scholarship programmes, founding of welfare organizations in countries
where the majority of its people are below the poverty line, donations towards medium
scale infrastructure projects such as schools, universities, conference halls,
theatres, sporting venues etc. and entertainment (i.e. movies, TV series and
commercials).
Of all these forms the
latter is what successfully captures the desired respect powerful nation-states
vie from less powerful counties. Therefore, the entertainment industry is used
as a foreign policy tool by powerful nation-states today such as USA, China,
Japan, UK, India, Brazil, South Korea and Turkey to name a few. However, the
American government exploit their entertainment industry to maintain their
global hegemony in ways unparalleled to any other nation-state. Ian Buruma states
in his article titled The Road to Babel (2001) that in today’s world Hollywood
has become the common reference for entertainment to those people interacting
from different cultural backgrounds.
According to Rugh
(2009), Hollywood movies reach every corner of the world and mesmerize people
due to the quality and superior technology applied on its visuals. It is no
secret that Hollywood directors and produces cooperate professionally with the
White House, United States Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the Pentagon followed by other relevant public institutions to shape
the idea of America in the hearts and minds of its local and international
viewers. Therefore, entertainment from Hollywood tends to have a subtle
political backdrop besides the artistic content (Guzlipek, 2018).
This political
maneuvering involves the installation of American exceptionalism in the
subconscious of the viewer. Koh (2003) in his study On American Exceptionalism
has cited the historian Margaret Macmillan on her analysis of this term. She
states that, “Faith in their own
exceptionalism has sometimes led to a certain obtuseness on the part of
Americans, a tendency to preach the other nations rather than listen to them, a
tendency as well to assume that American motives are pure where those of others
are not..”
Such examples of
American exceptionalism were portrayed by the film Argo (2012) which won the
Academy Award for Best Picture in 2013. The story revolves around the CIA
covert operation to rescue six U.S. diplomats from Tehran,
Iran under the guise of filming a science fiction film during the
1979–1981 Iranian hostage crisis. The nominees and
announcement for Best Picture was read out by First Lady Michelle Obama live
from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. This is evidence to the fact how
important Hollywood films are to portray the image of USA to Americans and the
world at large.
Moreover, Hollywood
movies tend to portray the United States as the country where everyone is
treated equally, women being empowered, liberal values upheld, people being
valued for who they are and not for what they are, no obstacles for becoming
successful, valuing secularism followed by brave, kind-hearted, sensible men and
women residing in this land of the free. These messages run deep into the
subconscious of the viewers thus associating USA with all the above virtues
(Halbert, 2004). This has influenced people around the world to react against
their totalitarian regimes such as those in China, Iran and Russia. This has
led such governments to censor or limit the flood of Hollywood movies into
their countries.
The Cold War era in
particular saw the influence of Washington in Hollywood movies. This was the
time when the idea of ‘us versus them’ became synonymous with films produced in
America. ‘Us’ represented the heroic virtues of USA and its allies while ‘them’ represented
all the other nation-states that were aligned to the Soviets. Despite being
international in its outlook, Hollywood rarely considered representation of
nation-states in the non-aligned movement in their movies. Nevertheless, those ‘us
versus them’ movies were targeted largely to the audience in countries which
had not selected a side during the Cold War era.
A prime example of Cold
War era subtle Hollywood propaganda according to Guzelipek (2018) is the initial
Star Wars trilogy (1977, 1980 and 1983). The series can be identified as a
result of the space race that existed during that era. This is because the
movie projects the possibility of American extraterrestrial hegemony
(Guzelipek, 2018). Furthermore through the Star Wars series this scholar has
identified two other key messages which Washington wishes to propagate about USA.
The first is the dark side and light side of the force. Here the dark side
represents Soviet style despotism/authoritarianism, rigid hierarchical
relationships, lack of humour and brutal acts among its own people (the
villains) while the light side represents the free spirited, friendly, sincere
and approachable United States (the heroes).
The second is the idea
of the chosen one. This idea perfectly resonates with American exceptionalism,
the idea Washington wishes to propagate. According to Judis (2005) American
Presidents describe the United States as the nation “being called”, “given the
mission”, “maker of heaven”, “authority of liberty” and so on. To back this
claim Kissinger (2004) too states that the American Presidency is the
“searchlight” for humanity.
Hollywood’s influence
on its viewers was so strong that in 1981 a former Hollywood actor, Ronald
Regan was elected to White House as the 40th President of the United
States of America. Under his presidency American exceptionalism, the light side
of the force and the chosen one were in full swing that American foreign policy
was so obviously communicated through Hollywood movies. It is observed that the
current Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, Robert Iger would become a future American
President due to Disney’s influence on international media.
Nevertheless,
Washington took advantage of Hollywood’s obsession with the ‘us versus them’ concept
even after the fall of USSR, by introducing American post-Cold War international
villains to continuously promote American exceptionalism. These villains
included governments of North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Africa and East Europe
followed by non-state actors such as terrorists and Latin American drug cartels.
Aydemir (2017) in his study states that Hollywood movies such as The Patriot
(2000), Saving Private Ryann (1998), Operation Rogue (2014), True Lies (1994), Body
of Lies (2008), Green Zone (2010), Tears of the Sun (2003) make the viewer
believe that USA is the only country that can save the world from tyranny, who
can defeat the bad no matter how strong the bad guys are, the only nation who
can counter terrorism, a force that break the chains of authoritarian rule, and
a safe haven for political and other refugees.
However there are
visible changes in the recent genre of Hollywood movies. This is due to the
influx of directors and producers of international background penetrating into
the American film industry. They include directors and produces from African (Spike
Lee, Tyler Perry, Matthew Cherry), Far East Asian (Ang Lee, Justin Lin, Alice
Wu) South Asian (Tarem Singh, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair) and Latin American (Alfonso
Cuarón, Fernando Meirelles and Guillermo del Toro) decent.
Films directed and
produced by them give a holistic picture and the true nature of American society,
its government and its foreign policies. They include movies such as Monsoon
Wedding (2001), City of Gold (2002), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Water (2005),
The Fall (2007), Help (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Gravity (2013) Hidden
Figures (2016), The Shape of Water (2018), films in the Fast and Furious series
(2006, 2009, 2011, 2013), Black Panther (2018) and Us (2019).
The unexpected occurred
in 2016 when the Chinese company Wanda Group acquired the American media giant
Legendary Pictures Productions LLC. The Communist Party of China has long
envied and admired how Hollywood propagates American exceptionalism and this
move was a carefully crafted strategy. This move has benefitted China in two
ways. The first is to have its share of Hollywood movie sales in China and the
second to polish China’s image in the world through Hollywood movies. China,
once considered a villain in Hollywood movies are now portrayed as wise,
endowed with ancient knowledge, spontaneous, honest and equal partners for their
starring American actors.
Furthermore, the rise
of female produces too has emphasized on feminist culture into Hollywood thus
embracing, appreciating and amalgamating cultures outside the United States.
The director of Wonder Woman (2017), Patty Jenkins can be considered a perfect
example for a feminist director. These female and other international directors
in Hollywood have removed the American nationalist elements from their movies
to show the naked truth of what USA is all about and that is to say that
American exceptionalism was all about white exceptionalism in America and
around the world.
The writer can be
contacted at trivan90@gmail.com
References
