Abstract

The aim of this stud is to analyze the essence of American culture throughthe study of life and death which are used in movies. This is because, it was not only
based on Christianity but also the American social conditions, and the American
Founding Ideals. They have been studied as a single research topic on how they arerepresented in individual scenes of the film. I thought it would be possible to analyze
American culture from a more multifaceted perspective by using the view of life anddeath that unites these. For these reasons, I thought that the study of life and deathusing movies was meaningful in analyzing the components of America mentionedabove. Therefore, I decided to analyze this view of life and death from threeperspectives: American religious views, social situations, and Founding Ideals.
As a way to clarify the relationship between life and death and the values
and events that make up American society, I categorized several American movies
into important aspects that dominate the movie.
First, Chapter I analyzed the movie's view of life and death based on a
Christian worldview. In this chapter, disaster movies depict Christian end-of-life. In
this kind of movie, the protagonist is portrayed as being almost immortal, often
surviving in a situation where death is considered inevitable. In addition, since thedescription of characters is clearly different between those who die and those who
avoid death, I analyzed the regular view of life and death from a Christian worldview.
As a result, it was revealed that the Christian view of life and death was adopted inmany disaster movies, and it was confirmed that not only the Bible and Jesus Christ,
but also the way of seeing time axis in Christianity accounted for a large proportionof the Christian view of life and death. In the United States, where many people
believe in Christianity, it is presumed that these are designed to gain the sympathyof the audience.
In Chapter 2, I analyzed the outlook on life and death in American movies
from the perspective of American social conditions. American films assume thatAmericans, the most important consumers, are the top priority audiences. Therefore,
I thought that the social situation in America, which the majority of Americans werevery interested in at the time of production, is likely to have influenced the view oflife and death in the movie. In this chapter, I divided the American scene right after
9/11 and the movie set in the Iraq War into a description of the inevitability of death1and a dwarfed description of the inevitability or existence of death. This showed thatthe complex social situation in the United States, where feelings about 9/11 and theIraq war vary depending on how they are perceived, was reflected. Although there
are differences in the context of portraying the inevitability and avoidability of death,it has also been revealed that both adopt a common view of life and death thatenhances anti-Islamic sentiment.
In Chapter 3, I looked at how the American Founding Ideals which
Americans view as supreme is reflected in the portrayal of life and death in the film.
These ideals were seen as a component of the movie's view of life and death. This
chapter aimed at works in which the ideals of America can be clearly read behindthe view of life and death. The results revealed that the American film view of lifeand death positively used American philosophy, each explaining the validity of death.
The above analysis revealed that the cultural background of Americans could
be read from their outlook on life and death in terms of Christianity, American social
conditions, and American Founding Ideals. This means that American movies reflect
the essence of American society and culture.

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