Worried for your culture?

Some time ago, the papers reported that Europeans are upset with the tactics used by MPAA and the US government in general for spreading the Hollywood production around the globe. They said it violates some conventions against forcing "cultural goods and services" on other nations, conventions which should provide "a crucial defense of national cultures against the onslaught of "global mono-culture" (especially Hollywood films)."

Americans said: Culture? What culture? Hollywood films ain't no culture. They are business. Our business. Our global million trillion dollar business. So would you please be so kind to take your cultures and stay out of our way.

In my opinion this point is rather interesting and not entirely trivial, that is - can Hollywood films be considered an American cultural export? At first it might seem like they certainly are. They picture the American way of life and American values, laugh on American stupidity and shed tears on American love stories. People in those movies speak American English, play American sports, shoot American weapons and eat American food. They also laugh on other nations, especially French.

On the other hand, those movies, with some rare exceptions, are much more likely to be categorized as entertainment, rather then cultural artifacts. One can not ignore the fact that Hollywood is number one provider of movies in the world, exactly because of the fact that it is a multi billion dollar entertainment machine that holds profitability above all and especially above quality and cultural complexity. Using money and status, it attracts the best actors and directors it can get, just like the NBA and the NHL attract the best players from around the world. What can you say, for those guys it is as good as it gets.

Occasionally, these people, being after all creative and talented, produce true cultural masterpieces, great movies like Apocalypse Now, Shawshank Redemption or Godfather. Occasionally they produce really good, kind and touching movies like Smoke, K - Pax or Pump Up the Volume. Sometmes they produce cult movies like Pulp Fiction, Big Lebowski or Blade Runner.

But mostly they produce crap. Pure entertainment, mindless and fluent. You go in, you pay the money, you enjoy it (or not) and you are gone. Hardly a cultural experience. So the question of whether or not Hollywood production has anything to do with culture is not idle nor is it easlily decidable. Most movies represent American culture no more then any other globally available product from McDonald's hamburger or Nike shoes.

Besides, it will be over soon becauase they are running out of superheroes to recycle :)