American Culture

The Film Industry in Relation to the American Culture The beliefs and values of the American people are almost constantly changing. Going through American history reveals how the American culture has gone through changes ever since the days of the American revolution. Constant change is a staple of the American culture. The theme of acknowledging change in the American culture was addressed in multiple sources throughout the stimulus packet. In 1971, during his “Address to the Nation on Labor Day” Nixon had to address a change in workforce to reinstall a sense of dignity from work. Even a recent article by Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, argued that this next generation of American workers is shifting from jobs that are done
Going back through the trends of the 50s and 60s in film reveals how, even then, film and culture had a responsive relationship. Shyon Baumann of The American Sociological Review examined how movies in the 50s and 60s started to be perceived differently as a result of cultural changes that she identified as, “The Advent of Television” and “The Increase in Post Secondary Education” (Baumann). The two cultural changes that Baumann identifies spark a change from simply a form of entertainment to more of an expression of art. Movies became a step above the simple past-time entertainment that was found on television, and people opened up to seeing deeper and more intricate stories expressed through film because of the shift in education. The increase in education led to an increase in higher-education jobs which had such an impact that Nixon addressed it in his “Address to the Nation on Labor Day” when he said, “... no job is menial in America if it leads to self-reliance, self-respect, and individual dignity.” The cultural changes continued on after the 60s. Terry Christensen, professor and Chair Emeritus of the Political Science Department at San Jose State University, looked at changes in the history of film in the book Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films. Christensen summarized each decade in film reflected American politics of the time. The
When evaluating that question today, it is revealed that Americans value familiarity and political correspondence. All of this is made clear when assuming that the film industry is an accurate indicator for the American culture, but the film industry is not perfect when it comes to accuracy of American society. It is true that the average film goer is 19 years old, and comparatively few older people will be found in movie audiences (Riesman). This is important to note because not everything that movies reflect about American culture is true about all of American culture. With that being said, movies still serve as one of the most accurate indicators for American beliefs because of the wide reach and the cultural prevalence that movies provide. Also, when comparing the profits of the movie industry to that of the other entertainment industries like the music industry, then the movie industry is still dwarfs the profits of the music industry (Moore). At the end of the day, the American film industry is still one of the best indicators of the beliefs of the American culture, and those beliefs can be traced throughout history up into the current American