Movie’s Molding of Modern Mentality

The American media has always had a strong influence on society as well as individuals’ thinking. Books, newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet, and movies all impact people everyday in more and more profound ways. A person watches a show on television and decides he or she wants to earn an impact on animal cruelty problems; a person reads a newspaper and never wants to go to another pizza restaurant; a person reads a good book and an idea is formed for something ample. These are all examples of how mass media changes lives, even if that change is in small ways. The term “mass media” was invented in the 1920s when widely circulated newspapers and national-broadcasting radio were becoming normal (Mass Media). From the 1920s on, people have been rearranging their schedules to tune into their approved radio broadcast, come by their current television show, and watch the newest movie out in theaters. However, people sometimes cannot tell if something that effects their lives so strongly, sometimes without their knowledge, is mainly positive, or mainly negative. Media can be both a fine resource and a smooth-talking brainwasher. I argue that American media influences the psychology of individuals, and therefore the psychology of society as a whole, so largely that it can either be a destructive Force to be avoided or a resourceful tool of enormous proportions. As media itself is a very broad subject, I will analyze American movies specifically and focus on specific films such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, The Da Vinci Code, as well as others. Then I will discuss the lasting effects of such movies on society and what people have to look forward to pertaining to American movies.

Media has long-term effects on people, and these effects pertain doubly to children. “Scary Movies and TV Programs Have Long-Lasting Effects” is a brief USA Today article on the results of a behold on the long-standing influences of frightening television shows and movies. The author starts his article with a troubling fact: “While the short-term effects of watching horror movies or other films and television programs with disturbing content are well-documented among children and teens, a study . . . shows that long-term effects can linger even into adulthood” (Scary Movies). The author goes on to explain that scary movies affect 90% of people, and fear of whichever specific object or situation they dislike can last from less than a week to years (Scary Movies). Seeking a solution to this problem, Kristen Harrison, one of the researchers, explains the need for people to realize how horror movies’ and television’s effect on young children needs to be taken into myth and viewing should be stopped before coping strategies are principal (Scary Movies).

Sometimes actions portrayed in movies can lead to actions preformed in the viewers own life, and this can be more harmful than just an emotion like anxiety. In “Adolescents’ Perceptions of Smoking and Stress Reduction” the authors discuss teens’ views on smoking, and smoking as a stress reliever. One of the biggest ways teens learn that smoking is a reliable form of reducing stress is movies (Scales 752). A main reason why girls smoke, the authors claim, is that “[Females] want to look like actresses and actors smoking” (Scales 752). In discussing whether or not movies and other media can be used as a tool against smoking, as opposed to for it, the authors explain the results of the study gather that the participants, teens, plan the anti-smoking ads and the pro-smoking in the same light; they say media does not affect them (Scales 753).

The effect of media’s portrayal on women can range farther than starting a new habit. “The Effect of Stereotype on Cognitive Performance: an Experimental Study of Female Cognitive Performance” and “Is His Heroism Hailed and Hers Hidden? Women, Men, and the Social Construction of Heroism” are both articles dealing with women in popular culture. In the first article, by Ndom, Elegbeleye, and Williams, the effect of stereotyping against women in media is examined. Movies, as well as other media, place women in degrading roles, and as a result, women inaugurate to fall into those roles and act like women who are portrayed in movies (Ndom, Elegbeleye, and Williams 1794). Although sometimes this mimicking is subconscious and not necessarily every girl takes up these roles, the effects on society are still noticeable (Ndom, Elegbeleye, and Williams 1794). While the roles given to women in favorite culture may be bad enough, even worse can be the roles not given. In their “Is His Heroism Hailed and Hers Hidden? Women, Men, and the Social Construction of Heroism,” authors Lindsay Rankin and Alice Eagly discuss the absence of women as heroes in movies and other cultures. Most main characters are lone, male heroes, and this situation leaves women sitting on the sidelines or, worse yet, being rescued, furthering the stereotype brought on by popular media that women are helpless or weaker than men (Rankin and Eagly 415).

This stereotyping becomes a problem because the media becomes a source of culture and Americans’ design to access and understand favorite culture. In Elizabeth Hirschman’s book, Heroes, Monsters & Messiahs, she discusses the importance of movie and television icons in American culture. Hirschman claims that underlying all movies and other media are basic principles by which Americans live their lives, including how to understand the essential battle between good and contaminated, how to act in society, how to use imagination, along with other things (Hirschman 4). Hirschman states that all eras of civilization have done the same thing, constructing the basic rules of society in this way, though through different mediums, such as through storytelling (Hirschman 4).

However, the media does not always have a negative carry out on everyone. “Rescuing Civilization Through Motion Pictures” is an article by Marion Sheridan about the positive and potentially positive effect of movies. Sheridan claims that movies are having a negative influence on society and hindering America’s academic advancement, but with work, they can be turned into educating devices (Sheridan 166). She claims civilization can be advanced greatly with the encourage of motion pictures, however detrimental they may be now (Sheridan 166). She poses the valid point that most movies should only be held in the light of entertainment and not taken seriously or as fact (Sheridan 171).

Whether a mainly distinct or negative effect, movies change a country’s culture, and the way everyone thinks and sees things. Some prime examples of this cultural mind-warping can be seen through the examination of a series of American-made movies. While some are more recent, and some date wait on to the 70s, all equally show some of the perils, and some of the good qualities of American movies. The “perils” can range from a subconscious stereotype beginning to form to negatively changing of a whole way of life. Redeeming qualities of a movie, however, can range from gaining a new outlook on something to positively changing a way of life.

In Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series, the main character, Indiana Jones, is a school teacher and archeologist always getting himself into, and out of, the most arcane situations using his possess brawn, brain, and dumb luck. A lone male hero, “Indy,” with little help from anyone else, saves himself, saves the girl, saves the day, and single-handedly creates some of the most famous action-movies clichés in Film history. In the first movie, The Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana has to rescue lead girl Marion, twice, from Nazis (Raiders of the Lost Ark). In The Temple of Doom, the second Indiana Jones movie, Jones has to protect Willie, lead damsel-in-distress, who has been drug on one of Indiana’s adventures (Temple of Doom). In the third movie, The Last Crusade, Indiana meets his father, another male hero who is even more adventurous than Jones himself (Last Crusade). In the last and fourth movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana meets his son, who aspires to be just as adventurous, independent, and hero-centered as his father (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). All these situations in this very popular blockbuster movie franchise further the projected female and male stereotypes of movies. Indiana Jones manages to have all the strength and courage of a warrior and the brains and wits of a professor while his female counterparts in the movies manage all to either be falling in love with him or in need of rescuing.

In the first installment of George Lucas’s six-part space-epic Star Wars, the leading lady also finds herself held prisoner, helpless to do anything but wait for rescue or execution (A Novel Hope). Her captors and would-be executioners are Darth Vader, lead male antagonist, and his army of all-male evil clones (A New Hope). Her rescuers are Luke Skywalker, lead male protagonist, and his gang of all-male companions that include a human, furry alien, and two robots who can’t be either male or female, but exhibit male characteristics (A New Hope). In fact, the whole Star Wars universe is set up around male main characters, and since it is one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time, with millions of fans worldwide, and everything from video-games, television series, and merchandise to fan clubs, reenactments and religions based on it, it is therefore a very influential source of subconscious cultural and societal information.

Star Wars’ underlying theme of good versus evil, dark side of the force versus light side of the force is clearly formed. This is not the case with Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean series. The first movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, introduces main character and famous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, who skews the lines of pleasurable and evil and makes you establish the authorities in the place of the bad-guys (Curse of the Black Pearl). The Curse of the Black Pearl, which sparked a big pirate-fanatical Phase in the mid-2000′s, also includes a damsel in damage, Elizabeth Swan, who undoubtedly gets rescued by Will Turner, the second male protagonist (Curse of the Black Pearl). The Pirates of the Caribbean series made pirates a cultural phenomenon, increasing it’s popularity and therefore it’s psychological effect on society.

Next to the pirate merchandise on the shelf at your average store you will also collect vampire-themed products. This is partially because of the book series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and partially because of the movies based off those books directed by Catherine Hardwicke. This recent influx of vampire merchandise, books, games, and thoughts are brought on by society’s rapid intake of Twilight as cultural phenomenon and realization of the marketing value of every teenage girls new obsession. By the end of the movie, main character “Bella” has fallen head-over-heels for vampire and leading male character Edward and would do anything he asked. Being such a famous and widely influential film, this situation attach society at a high risk to subconsciously absorb some of these stereotypes against women.

Not as famous as or a series like Twilight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, or Star Wars, the movie Me, Myself & Irene nevertheless captures a very necessary situation illustrating what is wrong with films: people sometimes believe them too considerable. Me, Myself & Irene is about a man named Charlie who has two personalities brought on by repressing his anger (Me, Myself, & Irene). His second personality, Hank, is his angry and pure hatred side who comes out when Charlie gets jarred too distinguished (Me, Myself, & Irene). Diagnosed with “schizophrenia” in the film, what he actually has is dissociative identity disorder (Me, Myself, & Irene). Although schizophrenia and a split personality (or dissociative identity disorder) have always been known to be two separate, different things, movies like Me, Myself & Irene and many others still continue to portray them as the same, contributing further to the common misrepresentation in accepted culture of the terms.

Another problem brought on by people believing movies too much, and not taking them as pure entertainment were the controversies caused by Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code. Based off the best-selling book of the same title by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code follows male protagonist and lone, male hero Robert Langdon as he travels around Europe single-handedly uncovering one of the biggest mysteries in symbology history: Jesus Christ had an offspring (The Da Vinci Code). Being pure fiction, some people took it as Dan Brown’s statement of fact, and complained and protested against both book and film. While being an example of why people should take movies as entertainment and not history, The Da Vinci Code also exemplifies the stereotypical male character of historian turned adventurer and hero similar to Indiana Jones.

Another historian turned adventurer-hero is Alan Grant, paleontologist and male protagonist of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, based, again, off the book of the same name by Michael Crichton. At the beginning of this famous movie, part of a accepted series, Grant is a simple paleontologist working on a archeological dig; by the end, he is a hero, saving people from recreated dinosaurs and rescuing women in wretchedness (Jurassic Park). This movie also plays on the over-acceptance of the content of movies by people in that it makes some people think that honest because something looks believable, it is. This, however, is not true, but when the movie came out, some people nonetheless accepted the movie as proof that science was far enough advanced to do things like bring dinosaurs back to life successfully, or give anything fresh life, which, some argue, is reserved solely for God and therefore an unholy and unpleasant act. Some would even go further in saying that doing such an act will bring on the destruction of the world. The average monster-movie did not scare people as much because, deep down, or even on the surface, the people knew that the monster was impossible and just a thing of fiction, but when science was introduced, and it sounded plausible, the monsters, in this case dinosaurs, became possible in the minds of spectators and brought the side of some people out that would urge scientists to leave well enough alone; much like current reception of the work on the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator that some people claim will destroy the Earth (also the controversial topic of Ron Howard’s latest Robert Langdon movie and prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s Angles & Demons). Obviously, feeling the end of the world is near because of something seen on the television or a movie can give the movie or show a fearful impression in the mind of society, and therefore raise it’s negative effect on the societal mind as a whole.

These films and many others show people just how stereotypical Hollywood can be, without people even realizing it. Hundreds of movies along with books, television shows, and other forms of media are all subconsciously engraining cultural and societal cues in peoples minds. While movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars show people how to act, and sometimes how not to act, they also site the stage for biases and prejudices. While biases, prejudices and stereotypes can be poor, and can be a accomplish of judging people, they can also be obedient, and help people have some retract on a situation or person before they get to know what is going on. But, as always, there is a difference between prudence and paranoia and movies can both hurt and distress a person’s undeveloped and always developing mind. This influence from movies can occur very strongly in an unseen, subconscious way, and all the more stronger in a child’s even less developed mind; anything from phobias to abominable habits to subconscious role-playing can from in children, teenagers, or adults so it is with caution that people should view, or parents should let their children watch, scary movies or films with puny plot or morals and tons of gore and meaningless bloodshed.

Works Cited

Hirschman, Elizabeth. Heroes, Monsters & Messiahs. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2000. Print.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf. Paramount Pictures, 2008. DVD.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. Paramount Pictures, 1989. DVD.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford. Paramount Pictures, 1981. DVD.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford. Paramount Pictures, 1984. DVD.

Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Sam Neill. Universal Studios, 1993. DVD.

“Mass Media Television United Duplication Newspapers States List.” Economic Expert – Business, Economy, Market Research, Finance, Income Tax Informations. Web. 8 November 2009.

Me, Myself & Irene. Dir. Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly. Perf. Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. 20th Century Fox, 2000. DVD.

Ndom, R., A. Elegbeleye, and A. Williams. “The Carry Out of Stereotype on Cognitive Performance: an Experimental Search For of Female Cognitive Performance.” Gender & Behavior 6.2 (2008): 1793-1809. ProQuest Psychology Journals. Web. 9 November 2009.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Dir. Gore Verbinski. Perf. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. Buena Vista Pictures, 2003. DVD.

Rankin, Lindsay E., and Alice H. Eagly. “Is His Heroism Hailed and Hers Hidden? Women, Men, and the Social Construction of Heroism.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 32.4 (2008):414-422. Wiley InterScience. Web. 9 November 2009.

Scales, Monica B., et al. “Adolescents’ Perceptions of Smoking and Stress Reduction.” Health Education & Behavior 36.4 (2009): 746-758. SAGE. Web. 8 November 2009.

“Scary Movies And TV Programs Have Long-Lasting Effects – Brief Article.” USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education). Bnet.com. 1 April 2000. Web. 9 November 2009.

Sheridan, Marion C. “Rescuing Civilization Through Motion Pictures.” Journal of Educational Sociology 11.3 (1937): 166-174. JSTOR. Web. 8 November 2009.

Star Wars Episode IV: A Novel Hope. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. 20th Century Fox, 1977. DVD.

The Da Vinci Code. Dir. Ron Howard. Perf. Tom hanks and Audrey Tautou. Columbia Pictures, 2006. DVD.

Twilight. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perf. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Summit Entertainment, 2008. DVD.