Negative Effects Of Hollywood On Native Americans

Stagecoach – a movie that is widely accepted as the most damaging movie for the Native identity – helped to illustrate this image to viewers at the time. As a result, many Americans believed Natives were all uncivilized and violent, leading to nationwide stereotyping and prejudice. The Indian was the enemy of America as a result. Stagecoach also shows Natives being hunted like animals, which sends the image of them being non-human and thus they should be treated as such. Stagecoach and movies like it mispresented Natives for decades and caused a loss-of-identity amongst the Native community because Natives were dressed the same throughout various films. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s where Natives were properly represented on

In the movie, Native Americans are often portrayed as spiritual, noble, and free this ideal image of Native Americans captured the world’s imagination at one point. It all began in late 1800s when Native Americans were among the first to shot silent by Thomas. One of the common attraction that made

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if

"Instead of progress in depicting Native Americans, this film takes a step backwards – a very dangerous step because it is so carefully glossed as 'authentic' and 'respectful.' " – Jacquelyn Kilpatrick

Just like in many others films, it did not take long to know that Indians inhabited a troubled and troubling space in John Wayne’s movies (Owens). Fortunately, due to Martin’s intervention Ethan spares his niece’s life. It was Ford’s classic movie, The Searchers that fully illustrated John Wayne’s violently ambiguous relationship with the native inhabitants of America, the Indians. Wayne is portrayed as a bitter Indian hater (Owens). On the other hand, the signifiers of Indian disposition

There are always something called stereotypes that deeply rooted in people’s mind and widely accepted by the majority of people through the long history of human civilization and development. Even in the field of cinema and films, stereotypes for different group of people or different races are formed as time goes by. According to Daniel Francis, the mainstream cinema shows a great influence in creating and spreading a figure, a Hollywood stereotypical image of Native Americans, which is called “The Imaginary Indian”(Francis, D.). As we learnt in the beginning of this course, films are not neutral. They basically

Throughout world history, it is evident that Native Americans have struggled in society ever since the landing of Christopher Columbus in North America. Ever since the film industry began in the 1890s, Native Americans have been depicted in many negative ways by film makers. One particular way film makers degrade Native Americans by making their white characters convert into Indians or “go Native” and eventually they always become better than the original Indians in the film. This notion has been repeated in many films, three significant films were it is evident is in The Searchers, Little Big Man, and Dances with Wolves.

There are many times when people say that everyone has some sort of prejudice towards an ethnic group. A perfect example is that of the portrayal of races through stereotypes in American films that are being made and sold to the public. Since the beginning of the silent black and white movies there have been stereotypes that misrepresent ethnic groups, such as the negative portrayal of African-Americans in minstrel shows. Although these extreme negative racist portrayals have ended, the film industry still insists on adding stereotypes that negatively portrays ethnic minorities, such as Asian-Americans, Hispanics-Americans, and African-Americans.

These pictures include a broad range of films from historical dramas to musicals.” Moreover, these Hollywood’s movies don’t want to depict a biased image of Afro American, “ they focus on many different aspects of African-American life – not just crime and drug culture which has often provided the backdrop to black stories in US cinema” . 12 years a slave (2013) directed by Steve McQueen and Lee Daniel’s the butler (2013) directed by Lee Daniels are the perfect example of the new turning point in Hollywood. These two full-length films bring a new vision: points of views of by Black men on the Afro American history. Despite the financing problems at the beginning of Lee Daniels’ movie – “It was a rough journey getting this film financed because the studios didn’t want to do it… (Because it’s about a black character and it wouldn’t attract a wide audience)”- theses movies had a critical and financial success. (Crari, 2012, p80). According to Jane Caffrey, Hollywood “most important color isn’t black or white but green” . Money is again the center of Hollywood’s mind, to make

The Western genre tended to portray Native Americans stereotypically; males were often shown as barbaric and the antagonist to the masculine Western cowboy. This links back to the savage stereotype, and how Westerners are often shown in a positive and heroic light whereas other ethnicities are demoralized and shown as negative characters. There are a select few stereotypical representations of Native Americans which are highly common in film, for example Native Americans typically speak “with a broken dialect of ‘baby’ English. They are not able to fully understand or express thoughts in the English language” (“The role of Native Americans in film, n.d.). This representation has changed in recent years with the

In the chapter titled “Representation” of his book Indians in Unexpected Places, Philip Deloria discusses the power of film in representing Native Americans. Deloria explains how film is capable of representing two sides of Native Americans; reality and fictionalized reality. In the film The Dead Can’t Dance by Rodrick Pocowatchit, Native Americans are presented in many powerful and progressive ways. In this way, the film acts as a reply to the aspects of Native American portrayals in film that Deloria points out are in need of improvement by critiquing the realities of popular culture as well as drawing attention to Native traditions. Deloria explains that “in front of a movie camera” is “the most powerful representational instrument of the new century” (Deloria, 52).

Racial discrimination is a harsh reality in the labor market. But, are Hollywood producers and directors implicitly biased against black actors? Maybe—surely there are a few—but in the most liberal place in the country, this argument may be a stretch. Generally, Hollywood has been a hub of progress within the last several decades. But, after all, the liberal Hollywood execs are capitalist and have to make films people demand—leading us to the consumer.

The United States of America is a country full of diversity. America was established and continues growing with the help of other nations. People come to America from different countries with different religions, aspirations, and cultures. America attempts to understand the differences of those who are from a different country, but has failed in many ways. America has failed to understand that everybody is different regardless of race and nationality; that although two people can be born in the same country, they can be completely different from one another. This can be patently observed in the media, especially Hollywood films. For many decades, Hollywood has done a great job in brainwashing their viewers, such as creating stereotypes that are undeniably followed present day. Those stereotypes that have been persistently followed till this day, affect the way Americans perceive people of different nationalities. Hollywood writers and directors have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters. Understanding the effects stereotypes have on individuals is critical since one can easily fall victim of that sequence. Hollywood has inflicted the acts of discrimination within certain ethnic groups, misrepresentated women in the media, and caused role conflicts to many individuals due to stereotyping.

Native American representations in film is particularly important in influencing public opinion regarding depictions and beliefs of what Native people are like. Often associated with popular film in the United States is an Anglo constructed representation of a dated, drunken, and traditionally dressed Native person that seems to perpetuate these stereotypes. Because some shows are so popular in the United States, the effects can be powerful. The influence of these pictures comes from the large viewing audience, the cultural majority of the audience, and a failure to accept modernity of Natives. Still in the twenty-first century, there are several representations like this that imitate stereotypes, impact the majority culture, and negatively impact Native American communities. In this essay, I will analyze a case of this stereotyping of Natives in a modern comedy television show called Family Guy.

Hollywood portrays the Old West as tumbleweeds blowing in the wind, cowboys with their horses and guns shooting across the ranges. It was a time depicting freedom with a new beginning to every man’s story. It was also a time of obscurity illustrating violence, shoot outs and bank robberies. Wild West movies such as Tomahawk (1951), The Searchers (1956) and the Iron Horse (1924) are iconic films to America and the Hollywood’s film industry. These films highlight action packed adventures, heroic stories about saving lives and defeating the Civil War. However, what’s missing is the cultural and racial diversity during the Old West. The Native Americans are the indigenous people that inhabited America, colonists came over to settle bringing over African-slaves and then there are the Chinese who built Transcontinental Railroad. The history and creation of the Old West was shaped by people from all areas of the world.