Does hollywood affect peoples view of history and world events?

by sleepy 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  Badger

  Unfortunately, yes. A dramatic reenactment makes a bigger sensory impact than just a dry read, so it's retained more. While some movies may have some realistic occurrences, they will be tweaked just to appeal to the entertainment audience (i.e. the Love Story and Rivalries present in the otherwise accurate and compelling "Enemy at the Gates")

  But I don't think it has a solid impact on what people perceive as fact. for instance, a documentary like Fahrenheit 9/11 is argued about factual imbellishments...how much more so a popcorn film about WWII?
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  Lady Lee

  Any time you limit your sources of information you limit your understanding of the subject.

  I don't trust the media. I have been misquoted too many times to trust they will portray what I said accurately. Whether it is print or A/V there is so much editing that happens that rarely do you get an accurate picture of what happened or what was said.

  But I think by using various mediums you may get a better picture and the more sources the better your picture will be. But even then it is the picture of the author or director or often the editor that is what the public will get access to
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  Flip

  Re: Does hollywood affect peoples view of history and world events?

  Due to brilliant marketing of Hollywood movies and American Television, I suspect, it?s easier for third world populations to watch American or European movies and television programming than it is for those hopeless millions to have access to food, medical aid, personal safety, let alone, have a shower.

  I sometimes wonder how poverty stricken, oppressed moviegoers in the Middle East or Central Africa are affected while they watch manufactured Western dominated television and movies about what must appear to them, to be rich, violent and uncaring westerners, who never seem to have to do an honest days work for their abundant riches while Western and European corporations suck the oil and mineral resources from their third world homeland like some 19 th century colonial vacuum cleaner.

  But, hey... who has time to care! Lord have mercy...I've got an SUV that guzzles gas like there's no tomorrow.
• 

  jws

  I've often thought about this and I think Hollywood does skew our views of history. It's a lot easier and more enjoyable to rent a film and watch it in 2 hours than to read a history book. So that's where we get our knowledge. And many of these films are great films, but not always accurate.

  A couple of films come to mind. One is Braveheart, the story of William Wallace. I forget the true facts, but I remember something to the effect that one of the main characters would have only been a child at the time. I believe there were also more technical historical innacuracies, like the type of arrows used or some such thing. I thought Braveheart was a great movie. It won a Best Picture Oscar and Mel Gibson won a Best Director Oscar, so I'm not alone. As time passes, what is going to be remembered about William Wallace? People who have seen the movie are probably going to remember it long after they've forgotten any of the actual history - if they ever even knew the actual history.

  Another TV series was Roots. I don't know how accurate it was, but it had a profound effect on black culture at the time. It underscores how powerful film can be. All of the information about the horrors of slavery had been available in various forms before Roots came to TV, but these things didn't spark an effect the way Roots did in a film format.

  Another example is the knight. Our perceptions of a knight are drawn mostly from stories of fantasy and have very little to do with what knights were really like.

  People should understand that movies are for entertainment's sake and are modified to make a more interesting tale. Characters are sometimes made up to be a composite of several people. Instead of introducing a whole group of friends, one close friend might be the composite of all these friends. Key events may be omitted and or changed around. I think a lot of people assume that the people making the movie did their research and tried to get these things right. I think anybody who goes to see a "historical" movie goes assuming they will learn something and they walk out thinking that what they just saw is generally true. They don't know which bits are true and which aren't, but they're going to walk away with that film implanted in them. Now they know who William Wallace was.

  On the other hand, there's documentaries. These can also have innacurate facts, but are less subject to dramatic license.