Political Unconscious: American Film. Image Conservatism

"The films of one country reflect the spirit of this nation more directly than any other kinds of media arts." Siegfried Kracauer, a German film theorist, pointed out as early as 1947. A detailed analysis of films as popular culture could give us an insight into this nation's collective unconscious motives and desires for two reasons: first of all, a film is one kind of socialized product; secondly, it must make the audience get satisfaction of their imagination. In fact, the history of film development has always been talking about a theme: the national mentality.Hollywood is the first industrial system which produces and disseminates ideologies on an industrial-scale in human history. The United Nations Development Program pointed out in a report published in 1999 that US's film and television programs in entertainment industry have been ranked first in US's exports by the end of the 20th century, and the "Dream Factory" , Hollywood , has become the largest U.S. exporter. The US's motion pictures, at the same time, as the best-selling products, are also the best ideological tool.Conservatism and liberalism and socialism have been referred to as three trends of political thought from the 19th to 20th centuries. Keeping conservative to liberalist traditions and as constraint strength on liberalism, the conservatism produced in symbiotic relations with liberalism. Compared with other political ideas, conservatism does not have a constant, substantive value objective, and it's difficult to sum up its ever-changing allegations. Overall, however, its political ideology can be summarized as follows: to treasure the stability of tradition, cherish the natural order of society and people's moral standards. It is beliefs and values on how government and society should operate healthily and how a good society should be shaped. Conservatism emphasizes order and stability, and tends to maintain the status quo, while opposes drastic and radical change. The reason lies in the original sin with which Conservatism interprets Christian, and it holds that human nature is imperfect, unstable and fragile. Defects in human nature must be made up for by a stable political system. US domestic politics is a two-party one in which the Democrats and the Republicans take turns in power with the guidelines of liberalism and conservatism respectively. Having experienced three stages of development of contemporary US's conservatism (ideological movement, social movements and political movements), its branch, neo- conservatism , mastered the right of political discourse, and had profound impacts on the internal affairs and then on diplomacy of the United States.Today, after Conservatism developed more than half a century, it has moved from the fringes of American politics into the center of it, and has rivaled the liberalism. Conservatism thoughts are reflected in all aspects of social life in the United States and it is the important component of US's ideal and spirit. If we hope to understand the character and the action of the United States, it is essential to study conservatism.Research on US's conservatism in western countries develops with the overall concern about it and has accumulated considerable academic insights. The study of conservatism in China (include Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) became profound learning during the 1990s, and have made significant achievements. Works on US's conservatism were translated into Chinese, and scholars wrote books and articles to promote its introduction and researches. Different disciplines in their respective specific language environment had gone into the conservatism in different dimensions: philosophical, sociological, economic, cultural and political. The study of international politics emphasizes the latter two.Both domestic and international politics spheres appear to have much study on US's conservatism, but most of them associate the idea of conservatism with foreign policy, and focus on regrouping the segments of facts and interpretation, many of which are already very familiar to the readers. This article attempts to analyze the elements of conservatism of the national mentality that are showed in the films by combining theoretical methods of three disciplines: sociology, comparative culture and political science and by using a number of ways of psychoanalysis, ideological criticism etc.Here, the author is not to negate the results and the importance of previous studies. On the contrary, this article tries to interpret operation process and pattern of conservatism from another angle. This is precisely to prove the researches of the past from the sides.Based on the analyzing of American mainstream films (the Oscars and blockbusters), this paper is trying to reveal how the conservatism—its political ideas and values—was manifested and disseminated via films, how the American mainstream films play the role of ideology. Domestically they construct the social ideologies. Internationally they convey the soft power of the U.S., spreading its influence and building its image. Induced by these films, the audience accepts the conservatism without any reluctance. Liberalism conveyed by these films is also mentioned in this paper, only to set off the main topic.The ideology manifested by the American mainstream films (the Oscars and blockbusters) is a compound of liberalism and conservatism, just like the symbol of Tai chi, in which the two parts are indispensable, setting off each other and complementing each other. Still those films convey a strong color of conservatism due to the producers and the judging panel of the Oscars.As the leading form of mass culture and using the common language of the world -- video, the film is doubtlessly a sharp weapon of political culture and can achieve maximum effects with little effort in conveying information. Politics are one corner of the flying cultural flag. Culture, the most important media to disseminate ideologies, can be one of the most gentle, enduring, and effective form. American political ideas and strategies are just kid in the giant shadow of the invisible American culture. The kid is led and directed by the giant. To study America in depth one should not only see the kid but also see the giant behind him. Only in this way can you find the unchanging things among the changing political strategies. Rather than just following the political strategies, you can judge the kid in light of the giant, and find something that is in advance.Two ways can be used to explain the critical role that conservatism plays in American society and diplomacy, and they are the traditional international politics perspective and the film study perspective. Both paths are parallel. What the author is trying to do is to connect the parallel paths with a structure of"U". The relationship of the conservatisms in American film and that in American society is one of the deep, distorted reflections. Conservatism in American films is decorated, implied, and above the reality. In this paper, using both paths to explain the conservatism, the author finally comes to conjoining point.While analyzing American films, in the perspective of the conservative ideology, the author is trying to understand the modern American culture profoundly via class, ethnic and gender differences conveyed by the films. In other words, the author is trying to understand the American culture in a broad perspective, that is, the Hollywood films, the leading American cultural industry.This paper mainly analyzes mainstream films such as"The Lord of the Rings","Crash","The Human Stain", and"Wanted", as well as other films. These films are either the Oscar best pictures or the blockbusters, or both. The Oscar best pictures and blockbusters respectively imply the tendencies of the elite and the common people. Films that are both the Oscar best pictures and blockbusters best reflect the mainstream conservative ideology of the American society. In addition to the analyzing of mainstream films, other analyses are in certain random with some abiding by the above criterion, some finding the conservative elements in common films. By doing so, the author can provide a comprehensive argument.The connotation, cultural origins of Conservatism, and the tradition, historical experience of American Conservatism, with its development phase have been summarized in Chapter 1. Meanwhile, the internal relations between American Conservatism and American film have been given an explanation in this chapter. In view of giving a clear explanation of the relations between Conservatism and American film, the content of Chapter 2 has been unfolded for an appropriate explanation of the relations of American Conservatism and liberalism. And a comparative study of Conservatism and American film, liberalism and the screen-image relation of American film have been finished in this chapter. The second section of Chapter 2, selected from those corresponding American film texts, has explained the main narrative pattern of American film, and foreshadowed the complete explanation of the next text.A meticulous text analysis has been carried out in Chapter 3 and 4. In the two chapters, the conservatism racialism and patriarchal order and imperial feelings as displayed in those American films such as"Crash", and"The Lord of the Rings", and the other American films, for example,"the Brokeback Mountain","The Human Stain","Milk","Wanted","Collateral Damage"etc, have been selected as some auxiliary analysis.The Chapter 5 is the concluding section of the whole thesis. This section has discussed its content from the relations of American film and Conservatism to the soft power and cultural leadership, and has studied all the contemporary conservatism's potential, lasting and effective influence on the American politics and values through the culture and strategy. Consequently the reference foundation would be got when we play game of politics and culture and make foreign policy related the USA.