DATE=April 19, 2002

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-36204

TITLE=Hollywood's Reel America

BYLINE=Carol Castiel

TELEPHONE=

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

HOST: The September 11th terrorist attacks caused Americans to ask themselves how people around the world viewed them. International exchange and visitor programs are one way the U.S. government tries to familiarize people with American culture and society. However, as Carol Castiel reports in this edition of Dateline, an unofficial envoy might play a greater role in how Americans are viewed overseas. :30

TAPE: MONTAGE CUT 1 :30, FADE TO:

TAPE: CUT 2, ALVAREZ, :23

"If one was to go strictly to the top Hollywood films that take place in the United States, you would draw this conclusion about Americans. We're all very beautiful, we all drive very large cars, we live in beautiful homes by beautiful areas of the country, we all carry guns which we are fully prepared to use when we need to find a solution to a problem."

CC: Film expert at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Max Alvarez says Hollywood films present a powerful, if not sometimes distorted source of information about America. 1:30. He spoke at a recent conference of over 100 Fulbright scholars from sixty countries in Washington. The Fulbright program is an ongoing U.S. government initiative that sends American researchers abroad and invites foreign scholars to the United States. It was named for the late chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, J. William Fulbright.

Author and Professor Benjamin Barber also spoke at that conference. He lamented that America's exports, including Hollywood films, don't always reflect the nation's cultural and political strengths.

TAPE: CUT 3 BARBER :23

"We see Mickey Mouse, we see McDonalds, we see Hollywood. Sometimes I am confused, because America sells abroad and projects abroad the image of its cheapest and tawdriest and least precious commodities and makes a secret of all of its great strengths, its multiculturalism, its civic faith, its values, its tolerance."

CC: For good or bad, American films do provide a window into some aspects of American culture and values. And, over the past decade, the international audience has become central to Hollywood's success. Mr. Alvarez says US films are shown in more than 150 countries. He adds that the foreign market is now responsible for well over 50 percent of a Hollywood film's income.

TAPE: CUT 4 ALVAREZ :10

"In 1998, it was not uncommon for a Hollywood film to earn in theatres one and a half times overseas what it earned in theatres in the United States."

CC: Mr. Alvarez says this was not always the case. Before World War II, only one quarter of a Hollywood film's revenue was generated overseas. However, since the 1950's, the overseas market has been increasingly lucrative for Hollywood studios. //opt// Mr. Alvarez pointed to a number of explanatory factors such as the proliferation of video cassettes and videocassette players, the expansion of cable television, and the spread of what are called "multiplex theatres"--large movie houses with multiple screens. //opt// Alan Silverman who covers Hollywood for VOA concurs with Mr. Alvarez and explains further. 3:35

TAPE: SILVERMAN CUT 5 :43

"International box office has now exceeded the domestic take for the American studios. And this is a major turnaround in the last decade. If you went back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, you would see that the studios considered the international marketplace sort of gravy-it was not really something that was very profitable for them. But they've discovered that people love to go to the movies. And in fact in many countries in which democracy has been established, where there were formally governments that were more controlling of the media, film audiences have mushroomed dramatically and as a result more than fifty percent of the profit coming to American studios is now coming from the international marketplace." 4:15

CC: So what kinds of films are suitable for foreign markets? Mr. Alvarez says dramas used to generate the most revenue because they are easy to render visually and dub into a foreign language if necessary. Today, movies with special effects like the ones made by Walt Disney Productions are big hits. Again, Max Alvarez.

TAPE: CUT 6 ALVAREZ :35

"And of course, a very historical staple of the international market is the action genre. Action, being the favorite Hollywood euphemism for violence. Films that are very very, feature lots of explosions, and so for really began taking off in the 1980's. And yes there's one other thing. The films need to be what we call testosterone-driven. They must have men in the leads in the majority of situations. Films that star women tend to be coldly received overseas by distributors and theatre owners."

CC: Mr. Alvarez notes ironically that despite increased world criticism of American foreign policy, films that romanticize the United States tend to perform well overseas.

TAPE: CUT 7 ALVAREZ :30

"Despite frequent international criticism of U.S. policies or to the overwhelming presence of U.S. audiovisual materials, films that glorify the United States such as even American military prowess, tend to perform spectacularly well overseas. A film like Pearl Harbor for example, did well over twice its business overseas than it did here in the United States. Although, right now as the political situation intensifies, that seems to be changing slightly."

CC: Hollywood expert Max Alvarez. Despite Hollywood movies' popularity in the United States and abroad, Max Alvarez laments the fate of many excellent American films. These movies often portray a more nuanced and critical view of American life, but do not succeed globally because they are not produced by a major Hollywood studio. According to Alvarez, such films rarely are shown at even a handful of the over 37,000 movie theaters in the United States.

TAPE: ALVAREZ CUT 8 :22

"And it's an identical problem to what an alternative cinema has in the United States where the small films the independent films that don't have these formulas that are exported, don't get a lot of exposure in this country. Movies that are made very inexpensively by independent film-makers can't get onto network television or can't get major theatrical bookings in the United States, so their chances overseas are even bleaker."

CC: However film expert Alan Silverman argues that the majority of American and international moviegoers will continue to favor action and special effects-oriented films that are the staple of Hollywood. However, he notes that the sense of edginess and character complexity that are usually the hallmark of smaller, independent films, are starting to show up in some Hollywood blockbusters. He cites this year Academy award, or Oscar, winner for best picture of the year, A Beautiful Mind.

TAPE: CUT 9 SILVERMAN :43

"For instance this year's Best Picture Oscar Winner, A Beautiful Mind, is about a man suffering from schizophrenia and also involves some very remarkable international tensions as well, and so it really delves into the darker side of human nature and also suggests some very dangerous things about government agents. And as a result, I don't think you can necessarily say that it portrays either its major characters or these events in the best light if you were looking to be patriotic on screen. Now I don't think that's an example of the shinier side, and yet it's a film that had done very well at the box office and certainly as the best picture of the year according to the motion picture academy."

CC: If the September 11th terrorist attacks had an effect on Americans thinking about how they are perceived by others around the world, it also had an impact in Hollywood. Alan Silverman said in the weeks and months following the attacks, certain types of films were in fact cancelled or postponed.

TAPE: CUT 10 SILVERMAN :21

"Films that featured themes about terrorists and certainly a number of actions films were delayed if not completely removed from the release schedule. And part of that was a sensitivity to the American audienceso much of the real events were being portrayed on the news, that to dramatize them might seem to cheapen them."

CC: He also thinks that the September 11th attacks on America may induce the Hollywood studios to produce less-action and more verbal-oriented films.

TAPE: CUT 11 SILVERMAN :39

"As audiences look for answers to events that are happening in the real world, filmmakers will try to come up with dramatized stories that will help them deal with that. They feel that this is a way to draw audiences in. And as a result, while we might not see movies about terrorists blowing up buildings or dramatic rescues, we may see films that raise these sorts of issues on a more verbal level. Rather than showing the action, we'll be talking about it. And I think that's part of Hollywood trying to figure out how people are coping with this and what sorts of entertainment they'll want to turn to."

CC: Former American President Harry Truman was quoted in 1950 as saying that American films can be regarded as ambassadors of good will. Whether Hollywood films accentuate Americans' shinier or seamier sides is a question up for debate. However, experts say they do represent a window, however distorted or exaggerated, into the varied aspects of American culture and society. And like them or not, Hollywood films are a key creative outlet by which Americans are known throughout the world.

One such film, chosen by Americans in past polls as their favorite movie of all time was the 1943 classic, Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart.

TAPE: CUT 13 CASABLANCA DIALOGUE AND MUSIC AND FADE UNDER :20

"…all the hell holes in all the world, she comes into mine.….Here's looking at you kid. Play it, Sam!"

CC: … And you must remember this, for Dateline, I'm Carol Castiel.

TAPE: CUT 13 CASABLANCA DIALOGUE AND MUSIC FADE UP TO TIME.