A Kaleidoscope of English Movies

I today would like to talk about something that has often lingered at the back of my mind; especially when watching Hollywood movies, do movies influence people in real life or is it movies that are influenced by life around us. One would probably be quick to answer, it obviously is real life from which movies are inspired, after all is it not that writers and directors draw inspiration from things around them and dramatize them on the screen. But if that were really the case why is it that sometimes we need to censor certain films, why is it that we say violence in movies is taking a toll on our society, is it that we sometimes choose to turn a blind eye to the reality in our society or probably are not comfortable with it, and hence don’t movies at times only act as a mirror to those same incidents that probably take place in our day to day lives. Going back to the beginning of my article where I used Hollywood films as a frame of reference, my sole reason for doing so was simply because not only do Hollywood movies have the furthest reach globally but they also have the maximum global appeal. Who amongst us can deny emulating or at least hoping to be like either a Hollywood starlet or at least like some role they might have played onscreen. Be it some guy hoping that his girlfriend had the lips of Angelina Jolie or some girl hoping his boyfriend had a physique like Brad Pitt’s or probably the other way around. On the flipside many of you might remember an incident where a guy was so influenced by the movie ‘Taxi Driver’ and its leading lady Jodie Foster  that he tried assassinating the then President Ronald Reagan just so that he could impress her, now that is life imitating cinema! In the hundred odd years of motion pictures each era has influenced its movies and vice versa, majority of us of wouldn’t have known an Oscar Schindler if a Schindler’s List didn’t get made, many of us would probably have a very obtuse view of the Germans in that era, I myself used to wrongly assume that every German sided with the Nazis, this movie not only changed that perception but also presented a visual account of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, sometimes text books and written media don’t really leave the kind of impact a visual medium does, the movie certainly helped raise the general awareness of the holocaust, globally. There are numerous examples where the relation between Cinema and real life has been symbiotic. Take  another unusual example of the movie Rambo, many serious film critics and thinkers would probably dismiss it as just another action movie that was made well, but if you look back at it ,doesn’t it at some level highlight the plight of an American soldier who has just returned from Nam (Vietnam) where he has seen atrocities being committed by both sides,  he has seen his friends die in the most horrible manner and when he comes back to country the which he fought and gave up everything for, he is treated like a criminal. I am sure the director meant this as a message to all the viewers of that era so they could see the other side of the coin, isn’t this a classic example of a movie being used to influence real life, I am sure when we watch this movie today probably many of us don’t think on those lines, but I am sure it did at some level get across its point to its target generation.I am probably stepping on sticky territory when I sight these examples, and I profusely apologize to anyone who feels I haven’t been able to sight these examples with enough sensitivity, I have sighted these examples only to reiterate the fact that movies are but a reflection of our society, the good and the evil around us, and if there is anything that they do, its entertain us, inspire us, point out what’s wrong with us and probably even teach us how we could better ourselves.It takes a lot for someone to inspire people positively through a Forrest Gump, but it doesn’t take much to be influenced negatively by a Clockwork Orange, although all it does is present an exaggerated version of the degradation of our society.

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