ited States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This par

Imagine that you are living in an Islamic country whose ideology is absolutely anti-American. Today is anniversary of your country's anti-American revolution and tomorrow is one of your important religious celebration days, for example Ghadir. In this way, not only because of your country’s policy but also because of your religion (dealing with Israel and its main ally: USA), you are supposed to be an anti-American person. Imagine again, today and tomorrow are your holidays and you have enough free time to watch a movie.

You turn on the TV and choose one of the governmental channels. This channel is advertising a movie which provokes you to watch it. You never think about the movie’s director and his/her nationality and where the story of the movie is happening. You just want to enjoy and you guess this movie would satisfy you. You don’t care about this paradox that this is a Hollywood movie and the values and lifestyle which are advertised through it, belong to the country that your nation has demonstrated against yesterday. It is not your fault and it is not the governmental TV’s fault. It is because you want to enjoy your time and this channel wants to sustain its audiences. It is Hollywood’s fault. Add to this imagination the fact that there are some movies like “Titanic”, “The Terminator”, “Stars war” (all episodes) and “Harry Potter” (all episodes) ,etc. which are most popular around the world and were the best sellers in their time and all of them are Hollywood’s products.

Hollywood`s products are very powerful with regard to popular culture and are able to attract audiences from any social position and any point of view and rarely film producer and companies are capable to compete with them, both in quantity and quality. Hollywood consists of some film companies (like Time-Warner, Sony Pictures, Fox and others) which started their work in the last years of 19th century and produce their films in a special place in California under the same name (Hollywood).

Talking about Hollywood’s history is not the purpose of this paper. I’m going to talk about Hollywood as one of the aspects of American-exceptionalism. I do mean that Hollywood movies are one dimension of American power that is reproducing it (we can discuss other films which are produced by Hollywood and some of them are critique of Americans values in other times). I believe that Hollywood has an unmanifested ideology which is hidden beyond the various glorious appearances and has a close relationship with US government’s ideology and policy .We can see that in different periods of time, with different governmental policies. The Hollywood `s products will change and be adapted. Because the Hollywood `s managers are professional investors who look for their personal interests and national interests too.

In order to achieve this end, they get governmental economic supports and inspire their values to make these policies legitimized around the world. There are lots of examples when US policy persists on human rights, in most of the Hollywood movies, this characteristic is salient or when US policy emphasizes war on terror and they want to inspire that Muslims are terrorists, there are some movies about terrorist operations in which terrorists are Muslims or Arab or Iranian and the saviors of mankind are American officers in CIA or FBI. Nevertheless, they do the whole job in a pleasing way, presenting exciting and attractive images. To fulfill this, they use all their ability in picturing technology by casting good-looking and famous actors and actresses with an ordinary but exciting story to affect the audiences. After doing all this, people not only in USA but also all over the world, would accept their values unconsciously and American hegemony will be complete eventually. It is what makes Hollywood exceptional and reinforces American exceptionalism.

Second to ideology, Hollywood power could be discussed in two branches: economic power and cultural power. About economic power which is not independent of cultural power, it is enough to mention that almost 40 percent to 90 percent of all movies presented around the world, are produced in US. In 1993, US was the producer of 88 percent of the best seller movies internationally. In 1993 American films generated $ 13 billion in revenue, $ 8 billion of which came from outside the United States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This part

TV’s fault. It is because you want to enjoy your time and this channel wants to sustain its audiences. It is Hollywood’s fault. Add to this imagination the fact that there are some movies like “Titanic”, “The Terminator”, “Stars war” (all episodes) and “Harry Potter” (all episodes) ,etc. which are most popular around the world and were the best sellers in their time and all of them are Hollywood’s products.

Hollywood`s products are very powerful with regard to popular culture and are able to attract audiences from any social position and any point of view and rarely film producer and companies are capable to compete with them, both in quantity and quality. Hollywood consists of some film companies (like Time-Warner, Sony Pictures, Fox and others) which started their work in the last years of 19th century and produce their films in a special place in California under the same name (Hollywood).

Talking about Hollywood’s history is not the purpose of this paper. I’m going to talk about Hollywood as one of the aspects of American-exceptionalism. I do mean that Hollywood movies are one dimension of American power that is reproducing it (we can discuss other films which are produced by Hollywood and some of them are critique of Americans values in other times). I believe that Hollywood has an unmanifested ideology which is hidden beyond the various glorious appearances and has a close relationship with US government’s ideology and policy .We can see that in different periods of time, with different governmental policies. The Hollywood `s products will change and be adapted. Because the Hollywood `s managers are professional investors who look for their personal interests and national interests too.

In order to achieve this end, they get governmental economic supports and inspire their values to make these policies legitimized around the world. There are lots of examples when US policy persists on human rights, in most of the Hollywood movies, this characteristic is salient or when US policy emphasizes war on terror and they want to inspire that Muslims are terrorists, there are some movies about terrorist operations in which terrorists are Muslims or Arab or Iranian and the saviors of mankind are American officers in CIA or FBI. Nevertheless, they do the whole job in a pleasing way, presenting exciting and attractive images. To fulfill this, they use all their ability in picturing technology by casting good-looking and famous actors and actresses with an ordinary but exciting story to affect the audiences. After doing all this, people not only in USA but also all over the world, would accept their values unconsciously and American hegemony will be complete eventually. It is what makes Hollywood exceptional and reinforces American exceptionalism.

Second to ideology, Hollywood power could be discussed in two branches: economic power and cultural power. About economic power which is not independent of cultural power, it is enough to mention that almost 40 percent to 90 percent of all movies presented around the world, are produced in US. In 1993, US was the producer of 88 percent of the best seller movies internationally. In 1993 American films generated $ 13 billion in revenue, $ 8 billion of which came from outside the United States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This par

es are one dimension of American power that is reproducing it (we can discuss other films which are produced by Hollywood and some of them are critique of Americans values in other times). I believe that Hollywood has an unmanifested ideology which is hidden beyond the various glorious appearances and has a close relationship with US government’s ideology and policy .We can see that in different periods of time, with different governmental policies. The Hollywood `s products will change and be adapted. Because the Hollywood `s managers are professional investors who look for their personal interests and national interests too.

In order to achieve this end, they get governmental economic supports and inspire their values to make these policies legitimized around the world. There are lots of examples when US policy persists on human rights, in most of the Hollywood movies, this characteristic is salient or when US policy emphasizes war on terror and they want to inspire that Muslims are terrorists, there are some movies about terrorist operations in which terrorists are Muslims or Arab or Iranian and the saviors of mankind are American officers in CIA or FBI. Nevertheless, they do the whole job in a pleasing way, presenting exciting and attractive images. To fulfill this, they use all their ability in picturing technology by casting good-looking and famous actors and actresses with an ordinary but exciting story to affect the audiences. After doing all this, people not only in USA but also all over the world, would accept their values unconsciously and American hegemony will be complete eventually. It is what makes Hollywood exceptional and reinforces American exceptionalism.

Second to ideology, Hollywood power could be discussed in two branches: economic power and cultural power. About economic power which is not independent of cultural power, it is enough to mention that almost 40 percent to 90 percent of all movies presented around the world, are produced in US. In 1993, US was the producer of 88 percent of the best seller movies internationally. In 1993 American films generated $ 13 billion in revenue, $ 8 billion of which came from outside the United States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This par

or Arab or Iranian and the saviors of mankind are American officers in CIA or FBI. Nevertheless, they do the whole job in a pleasing way, presenting exciting and attractive images. To fulfill this, they use all their ability in picturing technology by casting good-looking and famous actors and actresses with an ordinary but exciting story to affect the audiences. After doing all this, people not only in USA but also all over the world, would accept their values unconsciously and American hegemony will be complete eventually. It is what makes Hollywood exceptional and reinforces American exceptionalism.

Second to ideology, Hollywood power could be discussed in two branches: economic power and cultural power. About economic power which is not independent of cultural power, it is enough to mention that almost 40 percent to 90 percent of all movies presented around the world, are produced in US. In 1993, US was the producer of 88 percent of the best seller movies internationally. In 1993 American films generated $ 13 billion in revenue, $ 8 billion of which came from outside the United States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This par

ited States. Such a no_competitor economic power is closely dependent on its cultural power. All the people around the world are interested in Hollywood or American movies and all of them can enjoy such films, young or old, poor or rich, common or intellectual. These movies are able to fascinate majority of people in various levels of economic capital and social status in different thinking manners, from populist to intellectual. One of the reasons that Hollywood movies are so popular is that all of them are in English and most of them have English subtitle. In addition they decrease the dialogues as much as possible, as a result even illiterate people could enjoy them.

I want to make an example with a movie whose name is “Island “(which has been broadcasted in IRIB, recently). This film has two parts and is about genetic copy of human beings. In the first part, one of the contemporary problems of human society became propounded: Are we permitted to copy a human being or not? (A problem which has been discussed with Jurgen Habermas recently) or are they humans or not? This part of film might be more interesting for intellectuals and philosophers and sociologists than the others. But in the second part, you can watch lots of action sequences which are attractive for everybody. In the meanwhile in both parts quality of directing, performing, cinematographing and all elements of the film were the best. Through these nice pictures, American values and virtues are publicized, from the poorest African people who have access to TV channels or cinema to the developed European countries.

In Hollywood movies, advantages of American lifestyle are exaggerated to seem desirable for all nations with various cultures. American characteristics like “extreme individualism, liberalism, feminism, have a simple and easygoing mind, perseverance, are successful and optimistic, request more and more and consume more and more, are careless about familial restrictions and have free sexual relationship etc”. These are some of the appeared and hidden features of American life which are publicized as norms of the best life and make Hollywood movies more popular. Hollywood’s investors and directors, directly or indirectly, advertently or inadvertently have major impacts on the social and individual life anywhere, in this way they are changing local values into American values. They are mighty in producing and reinforcing a culture or destroying a culture. They can design and orient the popular mind and collective conscience very easily but gradually and step by step. Also they are producing their own truth and impose their own will on other weak nations. When Arnold Schwarzenegger (an Austrian sport champion who had become popular in action movies like Terminator, because of his body) with no formal education and past record in managing, is elected as California’s governor, it shows how Hollywood is powerful to change people’s mind and even their political choice.

Conclusion:

Hollywood is not equal to America in reality, but all of its investors intend to inspire American primacy through these movies to show USA and American life as myth which is desirable for most of the people around the world, even in anti-American nations.

In this way one of the dimensions of American exceptionalism is crystallized in American movies; i.e. Hollywood movies. American movies hegemony complemented by other factors like military power, political and economic power, which even Anti-American countries have to accept. Nevertheless it could be more effective because its affects are unconscious, when Asian and African people (men or women, no difference) change their hair color from black to blond they never care about the cause of their reaction. They just think about being good-looking and beautiful, and norms of beauty are defined by American actors and actresses. This is the Hollywood hegemony.

References:

1- Miller, Toby. (1999), ”Hollywood in the world“, in film studies, edited by Hilary Radner (oxford University Press,1999), pp371-75.

2- Gomery, Douglas, “Hollywood as Industry“, in the Oxford guide to film studies. ed. John Hill, Oxford University Press, NewYork 1998