Different Aspects of the Country in the Films - Essay Example

Your full March 13, How does a particular film(s) comment upon a nations history and culture? What does the film say about its ideology or values? Films play an important role in telling the viewer what standards, beliefs, and cultural patterns a country possesses. Not only the content of the film, but also the way the films are made, tell us a lot about the country’s film industry and about the nation’s history and culture. Through films, we come to know about the societal life of the country.

The way films are made, the kinds of actors, the kind of humor or seriousness the film portrays, everything contains in it a certain message that the viewer takes with him on his way to home. Let’s take an example of Chinese and Japanese films. These countries portray in their films a lot about their festivals and ceremonies (Pickowicz 8). This tells us how festive these countries are. Chinese films also show the heroic struggle of the Chinese soldiers who reached their destination in the 1930s after the long march.

An example of this is the Chinese movie named “The Long March”. The way Chinese films are made tells us that China has a strong film industry with talented actors. Russian films, like “Faust” by Alexander Sokurov, talk more about battles and wars, and portray the Russian history. Arabian films have their own special portrayal of beauty and culture. Arabian films, like “The Only Way Out” by director Haifaa Mainsour, talk about domestic problems of Arabian people. However, the way Arabian films are made shows that this country lacks a formal film industry, which is surely due to the conditions of Islam.

Moreover, if we talk about German films, most of them portray the humorous nature of the Germans which they are famous for. German comedy movies, like “Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous” and “The Edukators”, show the sense of humor Germans possess. Talking about Hollywood as another good example, films of USA show that a female is more like a sex symbol (Hollinger 281). Females are considered as the weaker and corrupt gender. Films like “Fatal Attraction” released in 1987 show that the real place of women is at home.

Hollywood movies also talk about racism, which shows that the society of USA is affected by the harmful aspect of racism. Films, like “Crash” by Paul Haggis portray the issues of race and gender. Crash revolves around characters of different races falling into each other and realizing at the end that racial discrimination should be ended. Hollywood films are also famous for their action-adventure and catastrophe movies like “2012”. 2012 is a final action-adventure and a thrilled journey of human survival decorated with modern cinematography and heart-throbbing special effects.

Such movies show that the Hollywood industry can expertly and artistically use science, history and archeology, to produce an amazing work of art that can excite the whole population. Hence, we come to know about American culture and values system through Hollywood. In short, films of any country show a lot about the standards, values, beliefs, culture, and social problems, of that country. Films talk about a lot of different aspects of the country. These aspects include social, historical, cultural, political, and economic issues.

Works Cited Hollinger, Karen. Feminist Film Studies. USA: Routledge, 2012. Pickowicz, Paul G. China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy in Chinese Film. USA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.