Screening Difference: How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

(Paperback)

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Did you know that Pocahontas probably never fell in love with John Smith, as the Disney and other film versions of those events pretend That Godzilla was originally an anti-American and anti-nuclear movie, heavily cut and supplemented with new material That Zorro was not created by an American author but derived from the much older Mexican struggle for independence That Anna and the King was largely invented That the myth of the sexually eager Hula girls is based on misunderstandings by the first explorers That Black Hawk Down and many other war movies were censored and indirectly subsidized by the Pentagon Screening Difference takes us on a fascinating voyage through major movie blockbusters that deal with the encounter between 'us,' based on white Hollywood, and 'them,' the filmic representations of other races, ethnicities, and cultures. Looking at subtle orientations in casting and make-up, sets and props, lighting and camera movements, music and language, this lively book follows the best-known genres and subgenres: from animated cartoons to wilderness films, from romantic movies to colonial adventures. Screening Difference tracks the stories back to their origins and patiently dissects the hidden messages that have gradually crept into them.

Reviews

Screening Difference combines sociological, cultural, and cinema savvy to provide a penetrating treatment of ethnocentrism in recent Hollywood mega projects. Telling details make it an enjoyable read. The author is a distinguished psychologist of mass communication. -- Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology
Jaap van Ginneken's new book offers a splendid and illuminating analysis of the hidden messages in Hollywood's most popular films. The Hollywood images that van Ginneken skillfully dissects are profoundly disturbing. Well written and carefully documented, Screening Difference should be on the reading list of everyone interested in how the exotic dreams of Hollywood shape the cultural stereotypes that millions of people are exposed to. Great for students and teachers in film and media studies.... -- Cees J. Hamelink, professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam
Jaap van Ginneken's new book offers a splendid and illuminating analysis of the hidden messages in Hollywood's most popular films. The Hollywood images that van Ginneken skillfully dissects are profoundly disturbing. Well written and carefully documented, Screening Difference should be on the reading list of everyone interested in how the "exotic" dreams of Hollywood shape the cultural stereotypes that millions of people are exposed to. Great for students and teachers in film and media studies. -- Cees J. Hamelink, professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam

Author Bio

Jaap van Ginneken is an independent author and lecturer on psychology, culture, and communication based in France. He has published seventeen books in thirty-two editions and five languages to date. He formerly taught in the area of entertainment studies and public opinion at the Department of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam as an associate professor.