Popular Trends in Modern American Movies

Many people attribute American global dominance to political might or the economic power of the US Dollar, but perhaps equally as influential is the power of Hollywood. Most of us as human beings love a good flick, and whereas India’s movie industry may be bigger than America’s you’d be hard-pressed to find an Indian movie (or any foreign movie for that matter) playing in American theaters. In contrast American movies are shown the world over, from Russia to China, and these films and other forms of visual media (such as television shows and music videos) are one of the main reasons outsiders admire and want to migrate to the United States.

But what are these movies telling us? For the record I enjoy a good action or superhero movie just as much as the next man, but movies can and do influence our thoughts, especially if ingested regularly as in the frequency certain images and ideas are portrayed in this all-popular form of media. In other words our brains are processing messages, sometimes consciously but oft unconsciously, due to consistently being exposed to them through movies and other forms of media.

Thus I am presenting to you, the reader, common themes that I see in American (primarily action) movies these days. The purpose of this article isn’t necessarily to interpret the impact these ideas have on viewers but rather just to expose the fact that these images are being presented so regularly that it seems like someone(s) is intentionally putting them in all of these films. I won’t even try to list every movie that fall under these categories, but I’m sure if the reader is a regular movie watcher he will be able to recall and/or recognize these themes over and over again.

BLACK SERVANTS

I didn’t want to began this article on a topic dealing with racism, but as a Blackman myself I can’t help but to notice that a large number of movies that feature Blacks (even an Indian movie I recently came across) has at least one scene when they are a servant or serving someone. Indeed you might see the occasional Black professional or passerby or even the Black hero, but again practically every movie that has a Black person(s) has one as some type of servant or being given a direct order, which of course he hurriedly obeys.

This makes one wonder that despite the advances made in race relations in the United States the idea of Blacks being servants and even the propagation of this idea hasn’t stopped and seems to even be on the rise. One movie that comes to mind in this regard is the first Die Hard (1988). Mind you, Die Hard is like my favorite action-movie series of all time, and the first Die Hard did feature a Black hero, but Die Hard 2 (1990) had a couple of scenes of Blacks in lackey positions working in the airport. I’m sure this issue was even made public as in the next installment, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) (which also featured a Black hero in Samuel L. Jackson) where there was a memorable scene of Bruce Willis barking on Jackson, telling him that he’s not racist.

Ultimately it’s disturbing to see that American Society, which has a Blackman as its leader, is stuck on this idea of Black servitude, but sometimes I think the powers-that-be are intentionally pushing this idea because they have a hard time accepting a Black as their leader, and other times I can’t blame them when I think about the large number of Africans who would give anything to go to First World countries like the United States just to be the same type of doorman, porter, janitor and other menial, less-respected (not dissing anyone, as ultimately a job is a job) occupations that you see often represented in these movies.

BLACK SCIENTISTS

The antithesis of the aforementioned, which Hollywood also seems to love, is the portrayal of Black scientists.

When I was in college for a semester or two I was part of an organization called the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). One year I accompanied the group to the Society’s national convention which that year was at the Boston Marriott, and during my three or four days there I was very surprised at how well-funded this gathering was. I mean it was like all of the big, respected companies were there, recruiting employees. The reason I thought this peculiar was because my general perception was that such entities didn’t really respect the intelligence of Blacks and would rather go to somebody like the Japanese for such jobs.

But that was until I started studying Hollywood. If you look at virtually any movie with a computer-lab scene, you may notice at least one Black is there, often in a prominent role. A movie that comes to mind off the top of my head is Bruce Willis’ Surrogates (2009), but again there are countless others. Of course Blacks are most often portrayed by Hollywood as criminals, sexually promiscuous and again lackeys, but apparently one of America’s best kept secrets is the proficiency of Blacks in science.

WHITE WOMAN HAIR

Might as well keep the race themes rolling. If you watch any popular movie from like anywhere in the world you may notice that the lead female character (if not all of them) have the same type of hair, which is peculiar being that different races (and indeed people within those races) have different hair types. To me this is most alarming to women who simply do not have such hair but, due to popular media socialization, feel they have to or they won’t be beautiful.

DECAPITATIONS

By far the most disturbing thing on this list is the large number of movies that have a character(s) getting their head chopped off (and virtually every action movie that features robots have at least one getting its head violently removed). This is happening with such frequency in movies now that I’m convinced, just like with Black servants, someone(s) is doing this on purpose, but for what reason one can only frightfully imagine, as in what’s the socialization goal of showing people getting their heads cut off but to desensitize the public to such acts? A couple of movies that come to mind are the Expendables 2 (2012) and Kick Ass 2 (2013), and some, such as the recent Conan the Barbarian (2011), even go as far as to show the severed heads. In fact I’m sure if you’re watching a violent, bloody American action movie made within the last two to three years there’s someone who gets their head lobbed off. Truly disturbing and perhaps the main reason I compiled this list in the first place.

VENGEANCE KILLINGS

Back in the old days when an action-movie hero finally catches up with the villain at the end, he would do something altruistic like spare the villain’s life unless he was forced to take it because, after all, heroes aren’t murderers. But these days it’s like when the villain is down on his knees begging for his life you better finish that bastard once and for all. I became aware that this was something espoused by modern-day Hollywood after watching a movie (which title I can’t remember) starring Cuba Gooding Jr. where at the end he had the villain subdued but still put him out of his misery. The espousement of vigilante justice (at least in Hollywood) and things of the such is what I see as part of the Third Worldization of American law enforcement. It’s funny how Hollywood could portray actions that if viewers emulate would get them imprisoned for life, but when such crimes are committed the movie industry is never held liable.

STRIP JOINTS & OTHER FORMS OF NUDITY

I’m the type of person that when I watch an action movie I’m not doing so to see naked women. However I’ve also come to realize that unfortunately female nudity is common in the action-movie genre, and these days you’d be hard-pressed to come across a movie without the infamous strip joint scene (including the increasingly-popular G-string view of a woman's, sometimes with her bending over, buttocks), which leaves one wondering is it true that all villains frequent strip joints, or does someone just get a kick out of flashing naked ass in our faces, as to my knowledge no one has ever patronized an action movie to see a naked girl? In other words why does there seem to be such a conscientious effort on the part of popular American media to defile the public?

Another trend I’ve been noticing is naked male buttocks, as in Conan the Barbarian, and whereas in the early days of this phenomena (i.e. Virtuosity - 1995) I was wondering why such was being mainstreamed I’m now convinced that it is to appeal to homosexuals, not women, as you won’t often hear a woman express a desire to see a man’s ass. Of course sexually-oriented nudity infiltrating mainstream media is something to be more or less expected in the country that by far produces the most pornography in the world, but innocently watching an action movie FOR ACTION and then having an ass flashed in your face, at least to me, is a turnoff.

STUPID, HELPLESS POLICE (WHO OFTEN GET KILLED IN DROVES)

The first time I noticed police being presented as ass-stupid was some years back when watching

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009). Since then I've come across quite a few movies with a similar representation of police, the most recent being Fast & Furious 6 (2013) , a movie in which at least 100 police officers must have died. Now I'm not a Hollywood historian, but if my memory serves me correct in the old days police were presented for the most part as law-abiding and semi-competent. Nowadays in movies it seems that they're just a mindless, faceless collective who are victimized and incapable of subduing the bad guy, whereas in real life it's usually up to the police to deal with supervillians and not vigilantes.

CORRUPT POLICE AND/OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS (OFTEN POLITICIANS)

The list of movies that fall under this category, at least in recent years, may even be longer than the list that depicts Blacks as servants. In other words you'd be hard-pressed to come across an action movie these days where at least one of the bad guys isn't a rogue cop or corrupt politician who the people have entrusted with the their well-being but in reality really doesn't give a fuk about them. I can't help but to think that constantly portraying law enforcement in the negative ways mentioned is making the masses lose respect for them, and I don't know why on earth Hollywood would want to do that.

FEMALE BONDAGE

Recently while peeping out a scene from the Avengers (2012) I started thinking about just how many movies, without viewers ever really noticing, have a female bondage scene? I imagine that the number must be countless since the theme of virtually every action movie while I was growing up is freeing the captive female (remember the little tied-up girl in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando (1985)?). There's two issues I've identified with a high number of movies having female bondage. First is bondage is a popular genre of porn which means some people get an extra, erotic kick out of it. Second and more importantly is being that violence against women is like at an all-time high in America depicting violence against women on a normal basis can't be a good thing.

CONCLUSION

Reportedly there are only seven major studios in Hollywood, which is evident when you see the same actors crossing over in like every film. Thus when you see the same type of imagery being presented in almost every movie of a certain genre the implication is that either copycats are writing these stories or someone is intentionally dispersing such imagery on a regular basis. Thus the more-pressing question would be why would someone for instance feel the need to infuse action movies that are largely patronized by children (i.e. superhero movies) with images of women in G-strings, and sometimes as devilish as it may sound I believe conspiracy theorists who say that some of the power-that-be are intentionally trying to defile people's minds. Here's a short list of movies I've come across recently that feature some of the abovementioned imagery:

Movies with Black Servants

Fast and Furious 6 (2013 - Universal Pictures)

The Green Hornet (2011 - Columbia Pictures)

Black (Often Computer) Scientists

Die Hard (1988)

Fast and Furious 6 (2013 - Universal Pictures)

Terminator 2 (1991)

True Lies (1994)

Strip Joints and/or G-Stringed Asses

Hit Man (2007)

Locked Down (2010)

Raw Deal (gay) (1986)