Why Hollywood Holds the World In Its Thrall

To call Hollywood “a world all its own,” as one actress once did, is to factor in the fact of America’s ascendancy among nations around the planet. Given the military and economic context of America’s dominant status, the shadow of the eagle—the symbol of Uncle Sam’s might and its flight of fancy where it wishes to land—unavoidably influences not only the reality of international affairs but also the fantasy of people across an array of climes and cultures.

Along with the systemic spread of colonialism, America has inevitably expanded its imperial power, which foments the perception—shaped by the ideology of supremacy—that creates a consciousness of awe steeped in subservience among citizens all over the globe. That America is almighty—with its ethos of democracy and conquest against all odds as embodied by the epic taming of the frontier by its early settlers—has also lead to the mythic presumption that everything it does is not only a function of might but also a fool-proof validation of its appropriation of what’s right. The assumption that America is invincible in its abilities and indisputable in its virtues is rendered even more marketable to people in other nations who buy the ideal of America as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

For those who are struggling with nightmares of Third-World circumstances and totalitarian regimes, nothing is more transcendent than the idea of individual salvation wrapped around high-minded notions about the star-spangled banner. Such subliminal conditioning, conveniently sustained by the market forces controlled by America, has spelled the success of America’s multinational enterprise and its export-oriented goals. To the extent that it has harnessed Hollywood’s machinery in fast-tracking and spreading the international appeal of American sounds and images, Hollywood’s messages and its West-centric rhetoric of power will continue to be a force to reckon with. Then again, as the impulse of multiculturalism persists to resist America’s one-size-fits-all vision of the world, this question is quite resonant enough to drive American executives out of dreamy stupor of its complacency: "Will Hollywood continue to thrive in today’s competitive global marketplace?"

While Hollywood and its formidable dream factory remain irresistible for many, marginal voices are raising the stakes for a reality check: