America On Film Themes

In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” Judith Ortiz Cofer illustrates several hardships she suffered due to the universal, misleading stereotypes propagated by the media. Cofer demonstrates various stereotypes that Latin women are subjected to, such as an experience in which she was regarded as a waitress at a California restaurant, and “the Hispanic woman as the ‘Hot Tamale’ or sexual firebrand” (63).She also states that she was taught to act like a woman when she was a teenager and encouraged to dress maturely, which made her peers laughed at her (64). At the end of the article, Cofer concludes that she hopes to change the

While in Cyrano’s death scene, the theme that lying hurts everyone in the long run is revealed, and also shows Cyrano’s true tragic flaw is his inability to disclose his feelings towards Roxane. In each death scene, it marks an abrupt turn in the story and reveals a theme deeper than what is seen at the surface.

The 1970s is known for being the decade for changing the American values and culture and Hollywood played a major part in this change. It all began with president Nixon being elected in 1969. He ordered bombing in the neutral Cambodia, which he though would help end Vietnam war, but it did not. The 1970s were a very turbulent time due to the tragedy of Vietnam and the trauma caused by the Watergate Scandal. Due to this, People were losing faith in the government and many riots occurred during this time. While the People went through many changes in the 1970s, the Hollywood industry also went through many changes during this time.

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

Reports show that Latinos are the most underrepresented ethnic group in film affected by stereotypical issues shown via pictures in our heads and through watching. I concur with this information as stereotype starts from a personal level, which is definite through meditation, this does not include all the negative traits portrayed by the out-group. Although we have some general stereotypical agreements within in-groups that cannot change. This stereotyping is evident in a case where a foreigner defines Bandido accurately while a (North) American will involve them with laziness, being dirty and all sorts of negativity on them. These findings make me feel that Latinos and Americans will always be contrary to their film industry.

In those early portrayals, the "privileged non-Latina woman" was often "lured into the sensual exoticism of a caddish Latino philanderer," Baugh continues (259). More recently, the author suggests, filmmakers have attempted to present Latino identities as less stereotypical characters. There are characters that would not likely be revered by the greater Latino community in the United States, but nonetheless Baugh believes

Fear is also generated in this piece of propaganda in that it plays on the emotions of the viewer by making them aware of what may be left behind if they die by a thoughtless and preventable accident. This further prompts safe driving, that it reveals to the viewer real life accidents, and promotes concern to the viewer. It also gives a sense of pity for the child that has been abandon by its deceased parents.

The Latina women, even throughout the era resistance cinema, have not been able to make much progress in overcoming the degrading stereotypes that Hollywood has created for them. Despite the many advances that minorities have made in the cinema in recent years, Latina actresses still take on the roles of the "dark skinned lady" and other such stereotypes with strong sexual connotations. It is often debatable whether or not the role of the Latina has undergone dramatic changes since the days of Dolores Del Rio and Carmen Miranda dancing with the fruit baskets on top of their heads. However, in recent years there has been an emphasis by various Latinas in the film industry to combat such stereotypical roles and redefine themselves

The deaths of the young people show that Mango Street is a dangerous place to grow up. Geraldo dies because of a bad hospital’s neglect, and Angel’s death is due to negligent parenting. These deaths are a reminder that these children’s lives are fragile, and Mango Street is not actually a safe environment for

The people who met Hernando along the highway seem to be panicking because the ‘world’ is ending. The man who got out of the car, exclaimed, “The war! It’s come, the atom war, the end of the world!” when Hernando asked him what was wrong (41). The people in the car feel the world is ending because the places they know and live in will be destroyed.

Coming to America is a fictional film about a prince seeking for true love while Rain in Dry Land is a documentary portrays the refugees’ lives in the America. Therefore, those two movies have fundamentally different topics and themes. In Coming to America, Akeem is from royal family but he is not satisfied with his live since he has no control of everything including his marriage, shower’s style and lifestyle. In his engagement ceremony, he decides travel to America in order to find his own queen that has her own thought and doesn’t obey to his social status. Akeem stays at Queen, a poor neighborhood, because he believes he would find his queen in Queen. Also, Akeem covers his true identity and pretends as a poor student so woman would not

After World War II, the American motion picture studios began releasing films shot in black and white, with a high contrast style known as Film Noir. Though the roots of this style of film was greatly influenced by the German Expressionist movement in film during the late 1910-early 1920’s, and films that resembled this style were made prior to the war, including the early films by Fritz Lang, a German director who fled Germany prior to the war to work in America, this film style would become prevalent during the post WWII era. Besides the shadowed lighting style and the psychologically expressive mise-en-scène, the film noir plot-lines often surrounded crime dramas and were greatly influenced by the pulp fiction novels of the period by authors like Dashiell Hammett and

Movies have depicted Hispanics as humorous buffoons, lazy peasants, and vicious bandits. The Hollywood motion pictures seem to ignore the positive impact of Hispanics to the American culture and life. The directors cast Mexicans for the roles of vile screen villains who rob, murder, cheat, gamble, among other vices. The films also show Hispanic women as temptresses or senioritas, which translates into dependent, unintelligent, feeble, and passive individuals.

The fear of death is one of the most prominent themes in White Noise. Everything in the novel - from Hitler to the toxic airborne event - circles back to how human beings are subconsciously afraid of dying. DeLillo’s novel displays how life attempts to push this fear away, almost saying “out of sight, out of mind”. Yet, as we see in the characters of Jack and Babette, the fear continues to rear its ugly head and fill them with terror. DeLillo shows this close relationship between life and death. He could be trying to show how death lingers dangerously in the background of our lives.

Genre is a reflection of society. Film noir is a genre that has a distinctive relationship with the American society from 1941 - 1958 because it reflects America’s fears and concerns from when they experienced major upheaval after The Great Depression and during World War I. In particular, the unstable atmosphere from the aftermath of World War 1 as Bruce Crowther, author of the book ‘Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror’, elaborates on how Film Noir films produce “a dark quality that derived as much from the character's depiction as from the cinematographer’s art.” These dark moods are transparent through the key features of the femme fatale, the film techniques and the impact of the Hay’s code on American film and American society.