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cts power has had upon the portrayal of people, Foucault explains that tradition, gender and ethnicity have been constructed as a means of instilling order and the concept of the station a humanity that is at odds with such a fictitious composition. With the demonization of the Islamic man, we are simply witnessing once again the official formulation of fear, in order to keep in place the checks and balances that constitute our post-modern social contract. As will be seen, this is not the only marriage of convenience that has taken place concerning the West’s pre occupation with Islam.

The Historical Marriage of Hollywood and Propaganda

The greatest mistake any student of film can make is to presume that propaganda is solely the domain of despotism. Although America claims to be the most inclusive society and best functioning democracy in the world it is not a country that has access to complete freedom of information. Much of the media is controlled by large corporations that, together with the body politic, make up the modern American State– the physical manifestations of Marx and Foucault’s models of power. Hollywood, likewise, is under the influence of a small clique of media moguls who are in close contact with Washington over key cultural concepts and it often appears that a hidden deal has been done to perpetuate official policy in the context of fantasy and film.

It is important to note that it has not always been the case. Whereas, for example, before the Second World War, Hollywood was viewed largely a means of escapism, devoid of reference to the trials of life during the Great Depression, after 1945 it became more overtly political and stereotypical concerning its portrayal of characters. The lesson was infect learnt from the experiment of Nazi Germany where Goebbels created the most successful propaganda machine ever witnessed, using cinema ashes main source of seducing the German people into genocide and extremism. Yet, as Staley (2001:99) explains, the ultimate power of film as state propaganda is a delicate balancing act.

“[The Nazis] were acutely aware of the power of film as a propaganda medium. They were also aware that such use of film could be overdone, and that often people wanted just to be entertained.”

Taking this basic premise, Hollywood began to incorporate politics into mainstream film after the defeat of fascism and its allies. Entertainment, always its raison d’être, remained Hollywood’s primary artistic export with a soft underbelly of political comment ushered in when the international climate demanded it. As a result, during the1970’s and 1980’s, the stereotypical Russian male was the most consistent villain in Hollywood, a direct result of the ideological residue of the on-going cold war between the USA and the USSR.

Although not at all comparable to the depiction of Jews in Nazi film, the subtler enforcements of dominant cultural attitudes as portrayed in Hollywood cinema should not be underestimated. As Esposito (1999:214)claims, only after the end of the Cold War did the futility of the evil portrayal of Soviets become apparent, a fact that should not go unnoticed for members of the population that feel an unnecessary fear towards Musl本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。