The American Dream

Today's lesson was good :)
We looked at The American Dream and started to look at how Hollywood portrays it. I think this is going to be an interesting topic, because I am not sure if I am for it or against it. It's a tricky one.

First we did a brainstorm of The American Dream, like words or phrases that we associate with it.

The American Dream
- Justice
- Achieving Fame (Andy Warhol - 15 minutes of fame)
- Money
- Generations
- Opportunity
- Marther Luther King
- OBAMA
- Suburban Communities
- Democracy
- Marriage, family
- Rags to riches - one extreme to another
- Pursuit of Happiness
- High Profiles - cult of Celebrity
- Destiny
- "Jobs we hate..buying shit we don't need" - Fight Club
- Freedom
- Different classes
- Equality
- Moneyyyyyy
- Not just one American, but every American

Funnily enough, the perception we receive of America is actually a country which is uncomfortable with all these ideologies of the American Dream.
America comes across as this country with all the answers, the land of hope and opportunities. But it is really so perfect?

Statistics - from book Measure of America (Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis, Eduardo Borges Martins)
- Nearly third of all female murder victims were killed by intimate partners
- The majority of Americans cannot aford health insaurance

I want to get this book and read it!

There are many Hollywood films that embrace the ideologies of The American Dream, but there is also several others that are very 'anti-American Dream'.

For
Pretty Woman

This film as we all know is about two completely different people from different areas with different backgrounds and how they have freedom to climb the social ladder.
Hollywood often plays on this fairytale notion, such as ideologies of happy endings, princes/cess.
Basically, wealth talks + opens doors.

Coming to America

Again there is an ideology sold and America is represented as the land of dreams and particularly in this film not just for people who live there.

Against
Fight Club

I love this clip.
This clip represents this notion of what I like to call The American Cycle.
We go to school, get a good education. 'Graduate'
We then get a or are expected to get a good job, and for what? to buy things and to maintain a household.

This is the part that I am torn by.
The American Dream is essential to all of us.
To some extent I am very anti-American Dream, but on the other hand I like to think I have ambition? I don't really know, I am passionate and wish to look into this with more detail.

THEN we listed the films we remember and know that embody ideologies of The American Dream..

Filims
American Beauty! (Possibly the best film ever made)
Toy Story
The Lion King
Independence Day
Truman Show
Coach Carter
Sister Act
The Wizard of Oz
& So on...

AFTER ALL THAT :)
We started to watch the beginning of The Pursuit of Happyness. I have never seen it but I heard it is a bit of a tear-jerker, but of course being a Hollywood movie it is going to have a happy ending. Although I am more interested in cynical films that deconstruct, unravel and challenge the American Dream. I still gave this film a try and to be honest I can't wait to see the ending :)

In the opening I noticed a number of things.
- Emphasis on the Y, Will Smith's character always picks up on this mistake as it is written on the wall.
- There are no capitals featured in the title sequence, I couldn't figure out what this might represent maybe I need to carry on watching the film.
- There are flickering images of one extreme to the other (rags to riches)
i.e. a homeless person on the floor, then a rich black happy man.

I also noticed the different sub-genres of the American Dream such as:

Education
- Will Smith asks his son "Can you spell everything your thinking of?"
- Picks up on mistake 'happyness'
- "Have to go to college to be a stockbroker" (Again coming back to this idea of having a good education in order to get a good, stable job)

Health
- Carries around a medical device with him, he seems to risk and put his life on line a lot for this 'unnecessary luxury'.

Poverty
- Needing education
- Wife working double shifts
- Struggle
- Priorities
- Needing to sell things

I found this lesson very, very interesting today. I can't wait to see the rest :) :)