These are some of the issues I want you to address in your final exam. This assignment is not about entertainers, studio politics, innovative film techniques, or even the art of film. Rather, this is a unit about the social substance and meaning of American film, particularly a comparison between Hollywood's versions of history with that of historical events. The images portrayed are combinations of fact, fiction, commerce and art. Given the need to attract and engage mass audiences, popular attitudes are represented on film more than in novels and paintings.
Filmmakers often choose to ignore reality in depicting ethnic groups or history.
By portraying only parts of life , they often misrepresent the complexity of history and ethnic groups. Popular film stereotypes of Native Americans infer negative beliefs and prejudices about these people as groups not as individuals. Films often serve as handbooks of social behavior. They introduce many audiences to people, places and events that they would otherwise never know. Therefore, films often establish basic identity of those people, places or events.