Popular culture expressed in american movies research work at the university level 2007

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL - 2007 POPULAR CULTURE EXPRESSED IN AMERICAN MOVIES Students: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hồng Lê Thụy Thanh Tâm Supervisor: Phan Thị Kim Loan HO CHI MINH CITY - 2007 MỤC LỤC Abstract Introduction Methodology and Procedure Limit of the study Popular culture Data collection and analysis: 12 Conclusion 15 REFERENCE 16 POPULAR CULTURE EXPRESSED IN AMERICAN MOVIES Abstract The purpose of this research is to discover American popular culture reflected in recent movies Through analyzing three popular movies which won international prestigious awards why not through these films only (CrashAcademy Award 2004, Little Miss Sunshine- Academy Award 2006, The Notebook- Summer 2004), we attempt to point out some cultural aspects of American society in modern time Besides, we conducted a survey and collected data from Vietnamese youth’s ideas does it reflect Americian society for objective reference From this, it is concluded that American movies partly reflect this nation’s lifestyle and relationship Introduction In every society, popular culture is the true and sharp reflection of human lifestyle and relationship We may notice that different human societies have different cultures, and the personal culture of one individual can be different from another one Therefore, in order to understand people’s behaviors, attitudes towards life, or the ways of thinking in certain country, it is crucial that we should learn from their cultural manifestations Movie is one of parts of pop culture that has two-way effect on human activities It is not only influenced but also affect culture of a society Nowadays, due to some factors of immigration, economy and politics, ect., American movies have occupied a dominant position in the world Many people understand American culture just because they learn it from media, books especially movies Briefly, we learn a lot from American movies 2 Methodology and Procedure The methodology and procedure of this research are conducted in two ways: watching and analyzing three chosen movies (Crash-Academy Award 2004, Little Miss Sunshine- Academy Award 2006, The Notebook- Summer 2004); collecting and analyzing data from the survey Because of the popularity and cultural characteristics of these movies, we decided to choose to understand more about American lifestyle and relationship.This survey is carried out from April 2nd to April 14th 2007 including questions about Vietnamese youth’s ideas and attitude towards the country’s movies these days The subject is aimed to students in University of Social Science and Humanities (USSH) from the age of 18 to 25 Limit of the study The research is about American popular culture It should be carried out in this country in order to easily collect the authentic ideas of Americans about this issue However, we not have the opportunity to conduct this study as expected Furthermore, in referring to culture in Vietnamese movies, the survey is just limited within the USSH students, which is somehow subjective and hard to come to the final objective conclusion on the topic Popular culture Popular culture, sometimes-called pop culture or “the culture of the people" consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural “moments” that make up the everyday life of the mainstream It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media and the facets of entertainment such as sports and literature Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from areas such as fashion, music, sport and film 3 Popular culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and time, especially in 21th century It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of multually-interdependnet perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways In America, many objective and subjective factors have brought a change into economy, politics and society This leads to the change in their mind, perception, social norms Therefore, there has been certainly different attitude and reaction towards every temporary change in life Until the 21th century, American has been continuously developing under the higher and higher living requirements of citizens in the country They seem to spend much more time for entertainment and relaxing these days, for example watching television, going to cinemas, listening to music, playing sports, reading books, surfing internet, ect At the time, movies have gradually occupied an important position in the demands of people's entertainment It draws a larger and larger number of audience in the country because it partly reflects people lifestyle and at the same time they can also see themselves in movies 5.1 Why movies are chosen to reflect American popular culture? 5.1.1 The Culturally Diverse Nation The United States is a diverse and multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ideologies, customs and ethnic groups The "open door" policies at the time of World War I allowed this country to acquire many immigrants from many other countries It has welcomed more immigrants than any other country more than 50 million in all and still admits between 500,000 and million persons a year In 1992 alone about 700,000 newcomers were accepted in the United States (The New Americans 17) Immigrants usually settle in big cities like New York where "28 percent of residents are foreign born, the highest proportion in 50 years" (Edmondson 9) Also, as a matter of fact, immigration generates 39% of the total population growth in America (Mandel 114) It is the fact that immigrants come from all over the world, have all kinds of backgrounds and goals for the future 4 The distribution is really interesting In 1971-91, 35.2% of legal immigrants came from Asia, 23.7% from Mexico alone, 13.1% from Caribbean countries, 12.0% from Europe and 11.1% from Central and South America (Mandel 114) As we see, immigrants come from different countries, speak different languages, have different religious beliefs Each of them has had a profound effect on the American character It takes courage and flexibility to leave your homeland and come to a new country The American people have been noted for their willingness to take risks and try new things, for their independence and optimism If Americans whose families have been here longer tend to take their material comfort and political freedoms for granted, immigrants are at hand to remind them how important those privileges are Immigrants also enrich American communities by bringing aspects of their native cultures with them Because immigrants from many different countries, they bring with them their mother tounge and still preserve speaking their native languages That is why United States becomes a multi- language speaking countries It is not uncommon to walk down the streets of an American city today and hear Spanish spoken In 1950 fewer than million U.S residents were from Spanish-speaking countries Today that number is about 35 million About 50 percent of Hispanics in the United States have origins in Mexico The other 50 percent come from a variety of countries, including El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia Thirtytwo percent of the Hispanics in the United States live in California Several other states have large Hispanic populations, including Texas, New York, Illinois, and Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Cubans fleeing the Castro regime have settled There are so many Cuban Americans in Miami that the Miami Herald, the city's largest newspaper, publishes separate editions in English and Spanish Therefore, it can be concluded English is an official language and comes after is Spanish In short, as the country has a variety of ethic groups and languages, movies in American are also contain in themselves a rich and diverse culture, which is one of the distinguished features of this nation 5.1.2 Strong economy and people freedom of speaking Moreover, the American’ strong economy is also the important push of its movies When someone talks about this country, people can imagine how diverse and popular it is It has a widespread reputation and a great influence all over the world Therefore, people tend to easily accept what is called belonging to this country And so its culture and movies Another reason for choosing popular culture in American is that people in this country have freedom of speaking, thinking to some extent They freely express their feelings and attitudes This makes a variety of ideas, thought, cultural distinction between them 5.2 Some cultural features of American movies A Summary: Little Miss Sunshine: Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 Academy Award-winning dramatic comedy film about a dysfunctional family's road trip to a child beauty pageant Olive(Abigail Breslin) is a little girl with a dream: winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so burdened with their own quirks, neuroses, and problems that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them Olive's father Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a flop as a motivational speaker, and is barely on speaking terms with her mother He's pathologically obsessed with winning because he's never tasted it himself Olive's mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) values family above all else, and her nerves are fraying over trying to hold this one together Olive's uncle Frank (Steve Carell), a renowned, Number One Proust scholar, has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student who dumped him for the Number Two Proust scholar in the world Her brother Dwayne, a fanatical follower of Nietzsche, has taken a vow of silence He's not depressed, exactly; he's been reading Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence while training to get into flight school Plus, he hates everybody, even his family And Olive's grandfather is a ne'er-do-well with a drug habit, but at least he enthusiastically coaches Olive in her contest talent routine Circumstances conspire to put the entire family on the road together with the goal of getting Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine contest in far off California The Notebook: The movie focuses on an old man reading a story to an old woman in a nursing home The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who meet one evening at a carnival But they are separated by Allie's parents who disapproved of Noah's unwealthy family, and move Allie away After waiting for Noah to write her for several years, Allie meets and gets engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon Allie, then, with her love for Noah still alive, stops by Noah's 200-year-old home that he restored for her, "to see if he's okay" It is evident that they still have feelings for each other, and Allie has to choose between her fianceù and her first love Eventually, Allie chooses Noah, her love Crash: Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more B Analysis: Little Miss Sunshine:Reflection of a modern middle-class family, human desire and dream to overcome obstacles- why don’t you mention this in5.1 Little Miss Sunshine touches upon but never truly plumbs the depth of a situation in which the “modern middle-class family” is “teetering on the edge of financial disaster.” The family has erroneous views corrected by experience the hard way Over the course of three harrowing days on a road trip, reluctantly embarked on so that their daughter may compete in a children's beauty pageant, the Hoovers come face to face with the cruel limits of their dreams, opportunities and possibilities One by one they fail, despite their best efforts, their sincere desire to succeed and their many merits as people What makes the film so special is its message “There are two kinds of people in the world: winners and losers,” sets the film on course to indict a faltering society that blames the population for its failure This helps explain why the characters and their troubles arouse interest and sympathy Basically, the film's message can be summed up in one brilliant line delivered by Arkin's character, Grandpa Edwin: "A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning he doesn't even try." This is a family who see tragedy after failure after disappointment, and it's just so, so sad to see them so down, because we love them all and we know that they don't deserve it, despite all their flaws Seriously, this movie is absolutely brutal to its characters But ultimately, it's absolutely inspiring Because despite disappointment after tragedy after blow to the stomach, this family just keeps their head up and say "so what; we'll find another way" Their determination and devotion despite all the obstacles in their way, and their ultimate removal from their anxieties and un-winding is simply and absolutely inspirational, and extremely heartwarming In short, through the film “Little Miss Sunshine”, viewers can imagine the life and hardship of recent American “modern middle-class family” Most of them suffer a lot from the pressure of busy, unpleasant and stuff life As the member of this family Dwayne blurts out in the middle of the trip, breaking a nine-month silence “I don’t want to be your family! I hate you people! I hate you! Divorce! Bankrupt! Suicide! You’re losers,” we can understand in which positions they are in However, beyond above these difficulties and disappointment, they gradually and eventually understand each other and together try hard to aim at their final target-that is reaching the pageant in time no matter what it is The movies appreciate a strong desire to overcome obstacles and failures to become a “winner” That is also the true value of American They still bear in mind the belief of success if they try “Little Miss Sunshine” is a film that shines in every facet of the word Each of the family members has some unique story, and state of mind, that makes each one very interesting to watch as the film progresses The notebook: The power of love helps people to overcome preconception of wealth and poor, barrier of discrimination “The notebook” directed by Nick Cassavetes is based on the romantic and touching novel by Nicolas Sparks It is the description of a strong and faithful love between a boy and a girl on a summer holiday They meet and fall in love with each other with the communion by two loving hearts In the story, Noah and Allie meet in one of the cutest scenes of the movie He sees her at a carnival, and knows right away that he wants to be with her He does not quite know why at first, and all he can say is that something inside of him is drawing him to her He convinces her to give him a chance, and she eventually agrees to give him the date that he seeks What progresses from there is a Summer romance that goes through all of the emotions that we all have experienced before What makes it even more real, is that it is not played off as if every single moment is perfect between the two of them It depicts that they have fights, that they have disagreements, but that they have a love that is stronger than any of that Everyone knows that in real life we can't have a relationship where everything works out perfectly, or where everyone agrees on everything The romance blossoms, but a problem exists that could spell trouble Noah is from a one- parent family, and sees himself working at a lumber-yard for the better part of his life He says that he has found his place in life, and this is what the "cards" have planned for him Allie, on the other hand, come from a very welloff family, and is being brought up in a rich societal circle Her family is spending her 17th Summer in the small town by the sea, and first comes across Noah by pure coincidence The romance between them is kept under wraps for quite a while, until her parents find out The mother immediately thinks that it should end, but the father feels that it is just a summer "thing" that will come to an end rather quickly That coupled with the outbreak of World War II keeps them apart for a couple of years, and the story really gets underway Will their love be able to endure the separation, or will one of them move on to something that is easier in their own lives? The ending of the movies reveals the message of the directors Eventually, Allie with the love for Noah tries to come back with him regardless of the objection of her parents Through this, the directors appreciate the strong love of American youth and how they can overcome all obstacles to stay together Crash: The exploitation of stereotypes and racism in Amercan Crash plays with our stereotypes and looks racism straight in the face and says, "Hold on a minute…" It really shows how ridiculous the assumptions we make about people based on their skin color, or socio-economical status truly is It's a must see for everyone Crash is an extremely honest, moving, enlightened film that doesn't lecture, or pretty up things, or for that matter lay blame It just 10 speaks the truth we all really need to come to understand, accept and start to acknowledge, while still being, at its heart, a very entertaining film Story goes… It's a few days before Christmas in Los Angeles Several families will be thrown into trigger events that are highly plausible, and sadly realistic Jean and her Los Angeles District Attorney husband Rick are car jacked by a couple of "thugs" In another part of town, police officer Ryan and his newbie partner Hanson pull over a well-to-do couple, more or less for kicks Officer Ryan takes his power-of-the-badge to places one's cold sweat nightmares are born from In yet another part of town a storeowner is vandalized and believes the culprit is a locksmith he had words with earlier that day These unconnected urban tales are all "touched" by Detective Graham and his partner Detective Ria The two are looking into a possible frame up for the sake of political mobility for the local DA, and a murder of a young man dumped in the quiet roads above the city All these disturbing events are rolled into misunderstandings, ethnic ignorance, and racial stereotypes - but not as usually portrayed You have not seen anything like this before Each of our "brandable" characters will be revealed for their true selves - beneath the faỗade of financial status, or color, or ethnic stamp, while we watch a helluva tale - whose time has come - unfold Crash is fueled with maddening realism These are issues that go on every day and everywhere The folks in the film are a hodgepodge of colors, and ethnic origins but each shares a commonality of remarkable talent Terrence Howard, who looks like a "black" Benicio del Toro, is about six foot two of pure man heroin He's chocolately sweet with a full crème topping - delectable on oh-so-many levels! Here, he shines acting-wise as well Thandie Newton, for you chick lovin' sorts, is as stunning beautiful a woman as she is gifted Cuties Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and Larenz Tate are "bad guys" here, but as with any humans there is more than meets the eye - even with carjackers Both are incredible and the camera just 11 gobbles them up! Michael Pena carries one of the film's most touching scenes with delicate ease Matt Dillon, though playing a multilevel racist man-pig here, is still edibly handsome in that clean-cut way, and hands in one of the most powerful performances of his long career William Fichtner, a BluntReview.com fave, has a small, yet typically poignant performance slice Speaking of slice, mansteak Brendon Fraser, who vollies between the high action genre and intensely superb independent, glows in his role, and his smart yuppie wear Sandra Bullock sheds her brand-name blockbuster-homogenized skin, and dons a true actor's sheen again, bringing a rich truth to a character whose safe life is absolutely shattered But it's Don Cheadle, in the film's the only "connecting" storyline, that will steal your heart, and leave you in awe Cheadle has this way of silently screaming within a role, and here one feels his pain He's simply an American treasure Crash is masterful film making It is an emotionally a strong film - and a very important film Its theme of the just-below-the-surface fears and misunderstandings - whether we are willing to admit it or not - show how we're all heading towards a "crash." That is unless we stop, listen and respect one another 5.3 Culture in Vietnamese movies As movies play an important role in reflecting social life and human relationship, not only American movies but movies in the world also bear that commission Each film produced conveys the directors’ message for the viewers Vietnamese movies somehow have shown its concern about the cultural features in recent time In order to compare with some other popular movies in the world, especially American’s and try to find out cultural features expressed in Vietnamese movies, we conducted a survey on students (the youth) to understand more about their attitude towards Vietnam modern movies The survey was carried out on 53 students from USSH Though it seems that the subject is just limited 12 within one university, it can also suggest the youth different attitudes towards this issue Like American’s, Vietnamese movies also have convey diverse and popular culture through movies The youth lifestyle, the concept of love, family relationship, social pressure in working places…are one of the most common cultural feature expressed in movies The following tables suggests how much these features are perceived through recent movies according to the survey Data collection and analysis: Cultural features expressed in recent Vietnam movies Frequen cy Youth Valid lifestyle Missing System Total 22 37.3 37 62.7 59 100.0 Frequen cy Valid Concept of love Missing System Total Percent Percent 15 25.4 44 74.6 59 100.0 Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 13 Frequen cy Percent Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 Family Valid relations 11 18.6 48 81.4 59 100.0 hip Missing System Total Frequen cy Social Valid pressure Missing Total System Percent 18 30.5 41 69.5 59 100.0 Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 As the description above, the Vietnamese youth somehow acknowledge cultural features expressed in recent movies However, the extent of each feature seems quite different In recent movies, the lifestyle (37.3%) and the social pressure (30.5%) of youth people are focused and intentionally conveyed This means that the developing industrial life requires a lot from people’s ability to cope with problems in working places They have to work a lot and maybe have enough time to relax and improve surrounding relationship, which often leads to the social pressure Besides, the open-door market of the economy also has given the ways to the comings of new concept, new thinking from other countries People tend to adapt “new things” from the Western life, and also in the local such as Hongkong or Korea, etc…They make new lifestyle somehow 14 different from the original one The good and the bad side of this lifestyle are exploited by many Vietnamese movies producers Youth attitude towards the purpose of Vietnamese movies production In recent days, more and more movies are produced and introduced to audience Some of movies that have the widespread reputation in the country are “Vo lam truyen ky”, “Chuong reo la ban”, “Gai nhay”, etc…These movies attracted a lot of people, especially the youth who are curious and interested in new and hot scene Aiming to this interest, most of the producers have tried to imitate and filmed scenes that aroused youth curiosity According to the survey conducted during this research, it can be concluded that most of recent movies have just produced for beneficial purposes but not much focused on conveying cultural and social features It is showed that 52.5% think that recent movies are running for benefit and try to attract as many viewers as possible to get money Therefore, producers just create “instant “movies to get back the budget they pour out This means that the quality of movies have gone down a lot Most the students they hardly learn a lot from watching recent movies and there is nothing left in their mind when they get out off the cinema That is because market movies just exploit the surface of social problems and exaggerate hot and curious scenes Whereas, just only 32.2% perceive the cultural value convey in Vietnamese recent movies So, we should consider the purpose of producing movies these days: “The more quantity, the more quality” Frequen cy Percent Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 Refection Valid human relationship in society 19 32.2 15 Missing System Total 40 67.8 59 100.0 Frequen cy Benefit, Valid turnover Missing System Total Percent 31 52.5 28 47.5 59 100.0 Valid Cumulativ Percent e Percent 100.0 100.0 Conclusion Movies is the reflection of human lifestyle and relationship American is the country whose movies are the precious and useful means to convey their love, desire, conception and also failure in social life The research tries to point out the important role of recent movies for not only human entertainment but social value that are daily existing unknown With the comparison with Vietnamese movies, we want to understand youth’s attitude towards our country movies and the cultural features expressed in them 16 REFERENCE http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:pPcRN53rzboJ:www.haroonline.com/movies/notebook.html+%22the+notebook%22+love&hl=vi&ct=clnk& cd=16&gl=vn&client=firefox-a http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=323610 http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:B3J3gQAWCLcJ:baronofdeseret.typepad.co m/baronblog/movie/notebook.html+%22the+notebook%22+love+analysis+movie &hl=vi&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=vn&client=firefox-a http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/film.html http://filmtv.eserver.org/ http://www.imagesjournal.com/ http://www.imagesjournal.com/rarchive.htm http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/ http://www.popmatters.com/pm/film/recent-film/ http://www.filmsite.org/ http://frif.com/subjects/american.html http://frif.com/subjects/cinema_s.html