“The Proposal” is a romantic comedy film officially released on June 18, 2009.
A pushy boss, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada. The two reach a consensus to get married under Andrew’s conditions to be promoted to the position of editor and his manuscript be published. When the government investigates, Margaret and Andrew are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Sitka, Alaska in order to sell the lie. They reluctantly accept the family’s suggestion to marry the same weekend, but really fall in love as they spend more time together. Because of this, during the wedding, Margaret decides she cannot do this to Andrew and confesses the business arrangement in front of everyone--including the immigration officer handling their case. She is then informed that she has 24 hours to get back to Canada, and thus goes back to New York to pack her things. However, Andrew shows up at the office and confesses his love for her in front of the entire office staff, proposing marriage all over again.
This American film was actually released in Australia one day before it was released in America itself, and it shows efforts by the Touchstone Pictures (one alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company)to globalize the movie to reap in higher profits from the international markets. Most of the time, high budget films such as the above mentioned guarantees high gross revenue, and the company’s horizontal expansion by exporting the movie in different countries play a significant role.
This is a fine example of the dominance of US Media Products. Most foreign viewers would watch “The Proposal” partly because of the fact that this is a US production. The US mass media industry is the main supplier of motion pictures at global theatres and home video markets. I find it interesting to note how most people view movies from US as a guarantee of a good film, so much so that even with mixed reviews from critics, as in this case with “The Proposal”, did not stop people from rushing to watch the movie. "The Proposal" earned $10 million from 10 foreign markets, with No. 1 bows in Australia ($3.3 million) and Russia ($2.8 million) leading the way.
However, what I think most people fail to realize is how such US productions are introducing a set of the foreign norms and values, subconsciously influencing us, altering and damaging our domestic culture. For instance, we might not feel that there is anything wrong with “The Proposal”, but I feel that with the movie’s main theme of contract marriage that actually infuses the idea that marriages are not that important after all is sending different messages from our cultural traditions or religion teachings that marriages should be something sacred and for life.
14 comments:
Any country's' media productions that gain a dominance would introduce their country's norms and values.
For American productions in particular, i do not think it is because American productions are of such a high standard that everyone wants to watch them. In my opinion, I feel it is due to the fact that much of the casual movie watching crowd can relate easily to such American norms and values.
It is a vicious cycle. We have been watching American productions to the point that we are so familiar with their norms and culture. More people watch American films only because it is easier for them to relate to that culture than to relate to, for example, the french culture in a french film.
Local film distributors see that the local audience relate best to American films and hence bring in more of those, using very little quality control aside from some censorship. In other words, anything shown in USA, gets shown here, even the most lousiest of movies. Whereas for European films, they usually only import those that have won awards or are highly regarded by critics.
Since film distributors have flooded cinemas with American films presenting American culture and norms, the locals would watch those films and become familiar with those norms and culture. The cycle then repeats from the film distributors eager to rake in as large an audience as possible by catering to what the audience can relate to, and then back to the westernization of the local audience being due to film distributors flooding our market with American films.
Also, It is not that films like "The Proposal" want to present some questionable values on purpose. It is that such values are already ingrained in the society, people already undergo "contract marriage", hence the movie just wants to portray a real life situation so that real life audience can relate to that.
It all depends on the individual. How impressionable are we to external influence, and how strongly established are our own beliefs and cultures within ourselves. That boils down to how the parents teach the children about values. If taught well, a child would be able to hold on to his values despite receiving all this input of foreign values from the media. He would approach films as merely a form of entertainment and appreciate the underlying messages as opposed to being influenced by such messages.
adding to what xamuel said,
How about the financial muscle that Hollywood has? I am sure the film studios spend a substancial amount of money in marketing their products. HOw very often do we hear of good foreign movies that never made it to the cinemas because they lacked the funding to lauch such a global distributing of the movie.
I agree that us, somehow are influenced by westerns media and point of view. And it surely makes a huge advantages for westerns media that it is not only give more profits, but also it means that somehow they can lead the audiences where to go with the trends after it.
What we can do as someone who cannot really make changes in the media is we simply make sure although westerns' media already has the huge influence to us, we should realise how we should stay within our norms and our basic perspectives towards right and wrong.
I do not think it is finances that hamper the global distribution of a movie, but the willingness to invest in the global marketing. There are countries that a richer than America yet they are not willing to invest as much in their film marketing as America does. Does this mean that local investors do not have confidence that their own country's films can sell well worldwide?
If even the locals have a lack of confidence in their own local films, how can a film be expected to break past their borders?
Hi S gunawan,yes I guess if we can hold on to what's good about our own values, and also learn from what's good about others' culture, that situation will be extremely ideal.
Apart from viewers perception that US movies is a good film, US also boasts many notable actors and actresses. Sandra Bullocks is one of them. Star quality also attracts and retains viewers to American movies.
Also, i feel that the Asian culture is undergoing change. In asian dramas and movies, the theme on contract marriages is widely used. Therefore, i feel that asians who are exposed to this theme will have a lower likelihood of changing their traditional beliefs as they understand the unrealistic nature of this theme. This lowers the impact of this movie on the cultural beliefs of Asians.
In a country as small and impressionable as Singapore with citizens blatantly and blindingly subscribing to the American culture and the Japanese/Korean Culture, we have turned into a nation of zombies, towering for the idealized representations of foreign media.
although i do not deny that western imperialism has indeed seeped into every nook and cranny of our society, it can bring about benefits as well. Taboos and deviant activities are becoming more mainstream and are gaining acceptance. Topics such as homosexuality, divorce or even tattoos are becoming so inline with the liberal western ideals that Singapore can indeed push for its status as a global hub.
We being so accepting of external influence can conversely work to our advantage as we can offer what no other Asian Country can to the world.
For your point on the "dominance of US Media Products", I do agree with it. Singaporean, like many other countries, used to have their own cultures. For Singaporean, as an Asian country, we are depicted as more conservative and less individualistic. However, gradually, after watching the huge amount of US media, we have become more open-minded about many issues. For this movie, as we can see from the trailer, the characters are pretty open-minded by treating marriage just as an exchange, instead of it being one of the most important event, and they are individualistic as the reasons for getting married are for their own selfish gains, and only thinking about themselves, instead of for the group's benefits.
American movies seem to never have problems getting high budgets fundings. And with all that funding, even when the movies are not that good (as can be read from critics's reviews), this does not dissuade the public from buying a ticket and wtching the show.
Yes Xamuel, I agree with you partially, about media productions like "The proposal" are just building on the values that are already ingrained in the society.
But I also feel that foreign media products like such were also those which taught these values to the society in the first place. After all, there is almost nothing as powerful as the media in instilling such values in people so effecively.
As for the individual's personal values, I agree that they are very important factors. I hope that parents are teaching their children the correct values in the first place, and children keeping the values passed down from their parents in mind.
XY, it is true that parents/family plays an important role in socializing the children in imparting values, but the truth is, with both parents working these days, children are learning more from the television than their parents these days. Parents are spending less time with their children not only from the parent's busy schedules but children are also spending more time in school and thus friends play a bigger role in influencing their mindsets.
I think children learning from television is just another form of "conformity". They conform to what they see, in this case, the liberal values and norms presented in the media. Also, he does not have to learn from just his parents but other agents of socialisation as well. Whether one gets affected by the values portrayed in the media can also be determined by how his friends view such values. If his group of close friends do not allow themselves to be swayed by the values presented in the media, then the child will also develop a strong resistance to the media messages
It is undeniable that the US media indeed has a great influence over the world and the cultures in different countries. One must understand that the American culture which have influenced our lives, as what it can be seen now, is not done merely overnight. It started way back since the 50s, after the WWII, the spread of American culture (or i can say "propaganda"?!) apparently had started. People viewed the America as the next "big thing". Hollywood is one of the important tools that can be used to convey the American ideas and thinkings to the large masses in the shortest time. And through these years, American movies give many audiences the impression that American products are the next "big thing" and provides alternative choices to the locals. However, I think it is important for locals to analysis and judge for themselves on the content of these Hollywood films and not just merely accepting it, or just plainly following the majority's thinking. I think it is best for any individual to understand his own moral values first. It will not be of any harm to watch what the Americans have to offer by looking from a different angle, and making informed and wise decision for yourselves (taking his own moral values into consideration too.) Under the great influence of foreign culture, it is our responsibility to safeguard our moral values, while enjoying what the American industry has to offer us.
The trailer of the movie is such that people would want to watch the movies to know what went about it. when people see such trailers, they do not really care what kind of values it will instill in them as they only want to know if it can entertain them. And before we know it, we are using those things that we saw in the movie without realising it.
so of course they effect us and then we go around claiming that it is part of the asian culture when of course it is not.
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