Does American cinema fail to represent other countries?

At this point, American cinema and cinema as a whole may seem synonymous. Hollywood has such a stranglehold on the industry that American perceptions of the world permeate into all we watch, in multiple formats. So what does this mean for the industry?

The best way to answer this, at least initially, is anecdotal. One of my most vivid memories is watching and being baffled by the film Bad Boys 2. Here, the protagonists hunt down the drug dealing villain to Cuba, where all the nation’s soldiers are inexplicably his bodyguards, because… corruption? In a later chase sequence, the protagonists destroy entire shanty towns, but somehow it’s okay. The enticing light at the end of the tunnel of this chase: the US sanctioned torture camp at Guantanamo Bay. This typifies what can go wrong when national perceptions infiltrate cinema. None of this is true about Cuba, yet somehow American filmmakers seemed to think this was not only realistic but made sense.

Hollywood has such a stranglehold on the industry that American perceptions of the world permeate into all we watch

If you want to study how America represents other countries, a genre to look at is a brand of action films I like to call “patriot cinema.” These are films demonstrating the kind of cultural outlook that unfortunately can be found in American market demand from films such as Olympus has Fallen and certain films within the Fast and Furious franchise. These films reduce every nation to a place where the government is corrupt and all women are sexy semi-nude supermodels desperate for man-on-man action. The formula is the same, whether it takes places in London, Brazil, or even Abu Dhabi and ultimately is degrading to the countries depicted and its audiences. The plot rarely differs; a dashing American visits a ‘backwards’ country and ends up fighting corruption and foreign villains, solving all the world’s problems along the way. In the meantime, they may contribute to the destruction of wherever they are without care. They might as well all follow the script of Team America: World Police.

[Patriot cinema has] a habit of making every nation seems to be reduced to a place where all government is corrupt and all women are sexy semi-nude supermodels desperate for a big men of action

Using Russian people to represent the antagonist in cinema is another common trope. It’s no coincidence that America’s main geopolitical rival generally and in particular during the entirety of the Cold War has become the staple American cinema villain.

When it comes to bad perceptions of foreign countries, sometimes it is deliberate and sometimes it is involuntary. Drawing the line is always hard to do, such as in the case of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, a film many have accused of cultural insensitivity. I fervently believe the criticism levelled at films like Lost in Translation are of a completely different calibre to the films mentioned above. When a film truly engages with a culture, as Lost in Translation does with Japanese culture, it may lead to conclusions or representations some dislike. But that is completely different to the practice of refusing to engage with a culture, which is the case with a lot of American cinema in which lazy stereotypes and cultural projections supplant actual knowledge, interest, or exploration.

I wish I could give some absolute conclusion at this point; some simple soundbite or solution to the problems of American representation of other nations and their cultures. But you can’t view all the industry as one homogenous block and people aren’t just guilty by association. The industry is in something of a state of flux right now, and as recent film successes have shown change, even if it is often a slow process, is happening right now. For every ignorant portrayal of a foreign nation, there are interesting cultural commentaries and explorations growing in number year by year. For every Bad Boys 2, there are Dances With Wolves. Most importantly, in the end, much of it falls down to us as consumers. So next time you’re at the cinema, think about what it is you’re watching and more importantly, what representation you are funding.