American Cinema’s Influence Over European Culture
Cinema is one of the most prevalent parts of American pop-culture. With the top twenty grossing films of all time consisting mostly of american films, cinema plays an increasing part in not only our lives, but surely the lives of those around the world, right? The answer is yes. Since film’s invention in the 1800’s it quickly rose to be a staple of pop culture, here in america, you’d be hard-pressed to find any book, film, or other piece of media that is mimicking the past that doesn’t mention film in some way, from talkies, cinema, the drive-in, and many more, and it’s like this around the world, with almost every country having some production studio(s) that make movies, so why is the top twenty mostly american? Because America had advantages, a large population with growing freetime that could be spent watching movies, not having to rebuild the majority of its infrastructure after two separate world wars, and a large population of creatives that thrived on technological advancement, all all but ensured american dominance in the film market, which, as you might be able to guess, had many impacts on the countries that, as america produced more movies, increasingly consumed american films. From providing escapism during and after tragedies like the world wars, perpetuating damaging views on poverty, and even “Americanizing” European countries.
Escapism is when a person or group of people seek a distraction, usually in entertainment to block out unpleasant realities they may be experiencing. Film is a great way to escape, from stressful home lives, mountains of homework, or whiny coworkers, but not too long ago it was something more serious people were seeking to escape from, War. Both world wars tore through Europe and sent many people’s lives into chaos, and even after the fighting ended people’s hardships weren’t over. This tragedy allowed cinema, especially American cinema, to jump into fictional worlds of wonderment, where evil is vanquished and good prevails, and everything is solved after two hours. The tragedy of a world war, the holocaust, and the physical emotional and metal ruins left in the tracks of both weren’t pleasant to be in, and throughout society, from survivors, soldiers, and politicians, everyone needed an escape, the wreckage of Berlin, the ruins of London, and the wastes of the battlefields in between left a hole in Europe, a hole that was filmed with the cinema.
Cinema may provide relief for many people, and did a lot of good, but there is a darker side to the American influence carried by cinema. Most people would agree that American culture has some troubling views when it comes to poverty. America’s habit of looking down on the poor has its origin in the early 1900’s, right when cinema was sweeping across the nation, and to other nations as well. Poverty is a very complex subject, but the discrimination that comes with it isn’t, and is a product of a bygone era where material goods were seen as a reward from God, and this boiled down to a ,sometimes subconscious, thought that people with less deserved the absence of things as surely they did something to get themselves to that situation, now we know that homelessness and poverty is partially controlled by many factors out of the person’s control, but then that discrimination was still a problem, moreso in the newly ravaged Europe. Europe’s elite were the less affected by the war, they had the money and stability to stay pretty wealthy during and after the tragedy, and they already looked down on the poor, but now with more people homeless and in poverty, that belief just extended to these people who had their lives ruined by forces beyond their control. This mentality also bled down to the middle class, only widened the gap between the poverty stricken and the wealthy, the homeless and the homed. This mentality is dangerous, especially to the homeless and was spread at least in part to increasing “Americanization” where as American culture spread into Europe, it brought all of it’s pros, and its cons.
Americanization is a term that has been used since the very early 1900s and is defined by America influencing other countries and cultures through media, business, politics, etc. Europe is in a very unique situation being, effectively, the middle of the world, with America, its self-made superpower to the west, and Russia, China, and Japan, all strong powers, whether it be militarily or economically, to the east. This means that Europe’s culture and society as a whole is exposed to many influences each day, most of them being American due to Europe and Americas very close politics, social structure, and shared history, or maybe America just has a monopoly on media. America’s prevalence in media sphere is what mainly contributes to the “Americanization” of a nation. In 2015, America produced over twice as many films as France and Great Britain, and the numbers reach three times as many when comparing the US to countries like Spain, Germany and Italy, with the US producing more than those three combined. With so many American movies hitting the shelves throughout Europe, it’s only natural that, even if subconsciencly, European people would start to live their lives more like Americans, the life they see lived in the majority of media. American movies is only one way that America influences Europe, but with the hype surrounding american made movies through companies like Disney, Marvel, and Warner Brothers, American media is becoming not just moire accessible, more more accessed, with movies leading that charge “Americanizing” the European people.
American media is very influential, most of all cinema. Film portrays a life that no one has, and through time, there have been multiple times where Europe was especially vulnerable to that kind of escapism. Americanization was happening before and if film ever dies, will probably end after, but there is no doubt that when it comes to multiple points in European culture, Americanization through American media, like cinema, has influenced that culture enough that the mark is clearly visible, and will only get more visible as time goes on.
Bibliography
The Globalization of Cinema: What’s Next?
Michael Sliwinski
https://lawstreetmedia.com/issues/entertainment-and-culture/globalization-cinema-whats-next/
The Role of Film in Society
https://thoughteconomics.com/the-role-of-film-in-society/
The Library Modern Records Centre
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/images/film/
Hollywoodization of world cinema represents cultural colonialism
Hollywood in the Era of Globalization
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/hollywood-era-globalization
