Myths and Politics
When we were discussing the political motivations of myths as a key function of their creation it reminded me of some discussions from film class (that only a select few cool people were part of) in which we discussed the politics of 300 and some other movies. Having recently(ish) seen the new 300, there is probably an even stronger argument for the franchise as anti eastern and spartan propaganda, with the Athenians openly discussing how the spartans are basically the coolest and best and most important people in the world. This isn’t only true for 300/s, so I wanted to think about movies I’ve watched recently to think about if they, as modern myths, also were in some way always politically biased. I watched die hard the other day and I think it takes very little imagination to see the film as anti German/European, but also sending a message of the noble, blue collar American. I on my way east watched the newest wolverine movie, which was set in Japan. It was comically racist at times and seemed to send a message that was more or less don’t trust those tricky Japanese people. Movies are designed often to teach a moral or to leave the viewer feeling like they have gained some knowledge or learned something, and it seems that the message often seems to be that us white Americans are great and that the rest of the world is evil. This is why there is the stereotype of the foreign villain in most movies, with thick Russian or German accents trying to destroy the purity of American life. There is additionally an implication that this great American system spits out more noble and honorable people than the flawed systems of the rest of the world. These same trends hold up in a lot of tv and movies, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it is in all of them or an unwritten rule that is in all media, but it does seem to be true much of the time. Rarely (I can’t think of a pure example) do we see a movie or show from the US in which there is a foreign protagonist attempting to triumph over an American villain.