GRSJ224/Depiction of Immigrants in Western films
Western films play an important role in the world’s film industry. Most of the films that are played in the theatres are from the western world. Two of the most famous places for making films would be the US and United Kingdom. These films, especially those Hollywood films, are the very influential to the public. Parts of the American or British culture are spread to people all over the world through watching the films.
An example for how influential a Hollywood film can be is the film, Avatar, which is the top grossing film in the world. Avatar was released on 2009 and the worldwide gross is $2,787,965,087. The Titanic, Star Wars, the Avengers series and Harry Potter series are the other top-grossing movies in the world. As can be seen, many people were willing to spend money watching these films. It is understandable that these successful films can influence a society or even the world. Therefore, the messages brought out by a film are very important in affecting people’s values and perceptions.
Immigrants
In many Western films, most immigrants play a supporting role. Many times, these immigrants even if they are born in the States or other western countries, will have a heavy accent so that the audience can identify them as immigrants[1]. In typical Western films, immigrants are often the supporting characters while the main characters being white. Some are the “sidekicks” that are there to get people to laugh or for the main characters to play against. They usually have lower education level and some might be the villains. For example, the bad guys in many crime movies are Mafia members who are mainly Italian immigrants or if they are drug dealers, they would be Mexicans and south Americans[2][3]. One of the recent popular movie Deadpool also have an immigrant character called Dopinder who is act by Karan Soni. The character is one of the sidekicks for Deadpool, a superhero. The character is an Indian taxi driver with a heavy accent and act as a funny character for the audience to laugh at. For other films, many janitors are played by Indians or blacks. In most of the western films, credits are usually given to the white people with minimal credit for the immigrant characters.
Female immigrants
Female immigrant characters in western films are often described as stereotypes. For example, female immigrants are fast food restaurant waitress or maids. For Asian women, many will be portrayed as very harsh and strict to their children and only care about their academic performance. Female immigrants in western films are often portrayed to have a lower education level than men. Therefore, they have to work at low-income occupations or even work illegally.According to Ewen’s City lights: Immigrant women and the rise of the movies, even though in the early 70’s and 80’s immigrant women were portrayed to have a lower education level due to the society’s values and stereotypes, with the change of the modern society values. There are less and less immigrant women specifically portrayed as low income and education level people, because of the rise of the equality between men and women[4].
Impact on the public’s value
Due to how influential western films can be, many people acquire certain values and perceptions as they are affected by the films. It is common for people to assume that an Asian woman is a ‘tiger mom’[5], an Italian is a Mafia member if he comes from Sicily or a middle-age Indian as a taxi driver. Such portrayal of immigrants would lead to wrong values and cause stereotyping and discrimination towards immigrants. People may think all immigrants are like the characters portrayed in films and fail to treat each person as an individual with different abilities.Therefore, it is a serious matter for the film industry to think of changing. The way Western films tried to portrayed immigrants might also affect the people itself. For example, how would an Indian feel if every time they watch a film, they see the Indian American is acting as a taxi driver? However, their voice usually would not be able to hear as they are not part of the western society which the dominant voice of the world.
References
- ↑ McCune, M. (2011). Immigrants, family, and "ellis island whiteness". Journal of American Ethnic History, 30(4), 25-30. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.30.4.0025
- ↑ G, BERTELLINI (2004). "Black hands and white hearts: Italian immigrants as 'urban racial types' in early american film culture". Urban History. 31(3): 375–399.
- ↑ Gattino, Silvia, and Stefano Tartaglia. "The Effect of Television Viewing on Ethnic Prejudice Against Immigrants: A Study in the Italian Context." International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol. 44, 2015, pp. 46-52.
- ↑ Ewen, E. (1980). City lights: Immigrant women and the rise of the movies. Signs, 5(3), S45-S66. doi:10.1086/495710
- ↑ Gates, P. (2017). Crossing america's borders: Chinese immigrants in the southwesterns of the 1920s and 1930s. Journal of Film and Video, 69(4), 3-17. doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.69.4.0003