One prominent feature of MOST of the hollywood movies I have watched till this day is that the story would always be about, or atleast will have elements of, Americans being the saviour of the world. Whether Americans really are, is debate in itself, but I had always dismissed any urge to get upset about it by thinking of two possible reasons for the above mentioned observation: 1) May be just the movie maker believed so. 2) General feeling among Americans could be so, and intelligent movie maker knew what to give to the people to make it a box office hit.
Either way, I couldn't get rid of the idea that atleast some think so!
But the last two hollywood movies I watched makes me think again.
1st was '2012'. It was quite surprising to see that movie showing an Indian as the one who figured out from all his observations what was gonna happen to earth very soon. Quoting the hero of the movie: "he was the one who joined all the dots". Though the rest of it was very much like any other regular hollywood thriller which threw enough cheap sentiments into the air for the audience to catch and get excited/sentimental about, the Indian factor came through as a refreshing surprise!
And then came 'Avatar', with even bigger blow to my prejudice that, in hollywood movies when it came to Inter-national/inter-continental/inter-planetory issues, Americans would always be the good guys. Hollywood movies had taught me that Aliens were always hostile. Atleast among all the HW movies I had seen, Avatar was the first to show people from earth (no prize for guessing: from which country) as the bad guys! I think Cameron himself has acknowledged that his movie hints at America's recent military ventures into various parts of the world on commercial interest.
Anyway, what interests me is the courage shown by these movie makers to step closer to reality even within the fiction, that these movies are.
Am I seeing some changes? And, would I see more?
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Interesting observations... and i'd say i agree with your premise about american beliefs. though i'm not sure if changes r really happening.
ReplyDeletesomehow came across this blog. I completely agree with you. Keep going...
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ReplyDeleteIts not just that...recently, I have seen increased Indian presence in American media...be it reality shows or even the soap operas...they have started having Indian characters and related Indian culture as a part of the story.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Avatar too, that movie has lot of messages. A complete master piece from Cameron.
But Pralin, Aliens are hostile here too, remember, in that planet, we are Aliens and Navis are the natives ;-)
-Gautam
@Gattu: Good point about 'Aliens', I liked that angle :)
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with you ! 2012 - I was quite thrilled to see an Indian in that role. And in Avatar - yes ! it was definitely something different from the usual concept. :)
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