From: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: hollywood movies
Date: 13 Dec 92 16:15:01 EST
Reply-To: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

JJS>>You took the words right from my mouth. Its quite interesting to notice
JJS>>that about 99.999% of the films listed here are made in USA. Come on people
JJS>        Well, a goodly percent probably are; the U.S. has been the only coun
JJS>that really seems to pump a lot of money and effort into moviemaking.  Many
JJS>more American movies are given wide release outside the U.S. than foreign
JJS>movies play inside.

     This situation exists because Hollywood has dominated the film markets
     of the entire world for at least the past fifty years.  World War I
     and World War II devastated the European film industry, and America
     flooded the Continent with movies, thus capturing a ridiculously high
     share of the market there, as well as drawing away nearly all of the
     most talented actors, producers, directors, and nearly anyone else
     who knew how make movies.  There have been occasional bursts of
     creativity, such as with the French New Wave and Italian neo-realism,
     but these film movements proved short-lived.  They had a lasting
     effect on the way movies were made, but they did not wrest their
     countries from the grip of Hollywood.

     Latin America suffered from totalitarianism throughout most of this
     century, which stifled creativity and prevented the rise of a true
     film industry there.  Once again, Hollywood filled in the gap, sending
     expensive and well-crafted movies to those countries and dominating
     the market once again.  Again, there have been times when independent
     films began to gain in popularity (such as with the "guerilla cinema"
     movement or the flowering of Mexico's film industry during the forties
     and the seventies), but these situations were temoporary as revolution
     and financial crises quickly killed any chance these countries had of
     competing with America.

     The Far East has seen the rise of their own movie industries - such
     as the Hong Kong, Japanese and Chinese film markets, but they've all
     had problems of their own.  Specifically: Hong Kong specializes in
     cheap action-thrill movies (which occasionally see the creation of
     genuinely entertaining films); Japanese cinema is so focused on the
     Japanese culture that it has little appeal outside of Japan (Akira
     Kurosawa's films were heavily based on American Westerns and films
     noir, which was a major factor in their appeal to American audiences;
     and Japanese animation is gaining popularity in America because it's
     finding an audience among science fiction fans); and Chinese cinema
     is likewise made for China, and there is little incentive for China
     to export its films to other countries.  And once again, Hollywood
     has a large piece of the film market over there.  Note the success
     of Tokyo Disneyland, or the many Hong Kong movies that contain
     references to American action movies like DIE HARD or THE TERMINATOR.

     And also, remember that because Hollywood has a monopoly on the
     American film market, very few people in America ever bother seeing
     ANY movies made outside of the USA.  Hollywood certainly doesn't
     provide any incentive for the audiences here to see any movies made in
     other countries - or even independent film studios.  Furthermore,
     Hollywood owns the biggest theater chains like Loews; Hollywood spends
     the most money in advertising and promotion; Hollywood does everything
     it can to make sure very few people EVER see non-Hollywood films.

     This is why we see so many "Favorite Movies Of All Time" lists
     containing nothing but Hollywood movies.
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