Pro's And Con's Argumement About the Incluence of American Culture on Irish Film
Martin McLoone's book Irish Film: The Emergence of a National Cinemasuggests that Ireland's recent birth of a creative and fertile filmindustry, particularly with films such as "The Crying Game" and "My LeftFoot," has functioned as a kind of response to Hollywood and Englishrepresentations of Ireland film. In particular, recent English portrayalsof Irish violence as a "Celtic Tiger" of Catholicism, poverty, and anger,has been answered with filmed depictions such as "The Crying Game" thatshow that even IRA members have reasons and rationales behind theiractions. Even so-called Irish terrorists, the film suggests, are not puremonsters. The activist who keeps the British solider captive takesinterest in the man's girlfriend, showing that he too is human, with humandesires. "My Left Foot" encompasses both the sentimental beauty of theIrish landscape, as well as the human, common drama of the frustration of
This false goodness mayhave been emotionally sustaining during the worst of the Britishoccupation, but ultimately it is functional neither as an artistic identitynor as a national identity for Ireland. But recently, not only have individual Englishpeople been more positively portrayed in Irish film-although the policiesof the English legal system and English government continue to becriticized in films such as "In the Name of the Father," but a greateracknowledgement of the contradictions of modern Ireland has also come tothe forefront. Irish films of this time frame, whichtranspired shortly after the British occupation of Northern Ireland, wereoften quite militant in theme and showed a strong British versus Irishconflict with an absence of any humanization of the British side. ' (11) RecentIrish-made films might thus be said to offer a response to such a placethat functions as an 'out' for aspiring immigrants, but also does not givea portrayal of the Irish nation in its cinematic industry that gives realintellectual weight to the full range of Irish humanity and concerns. The Irish parliamentarylegal system, even if independent, has an homage in its structure toEngland, and Irish writers and poets have become part of the British aswell as the Irish literary cannon, individuals such as James Joyce andBeckett. living with a disability and also the parent's perspective of raising agifted child with a disability-a subject that is anything but beautiful,sentimental and bucolic in nature. McAloone notes that the concept of a 'happy Gaelic life' disturbed byBritish interference is not simply a glossy American version of Irish life,but a dearly held cinematic and cultural trope with a great seal offolkloric investiture in the Irish mindset as well. No matter how positively viewed as well, for a smallnation, there is always a sense of 'us' versus 'the other. To beIrish, it was implied, was to be anti-British and anti-English, andpreferably anti-Protestant. This filmed humanization of the actors of the Irish 'trouble's ofrecent date may be said to function as a kind of response to the anger ofthe Irish during the 1970's. (11) Recent films thushave had to do battle with both American and Hollywood valorization of afalse but beautiful and perfect rural Ireland. Still more complex, however, is the American portrayal of Ireland onfilm, often combining an unattractive sentimentality, a dewy focus on thequaintness of rural and provincial Ireland combined with a celebration ofIreland's supposedly unique national consciousness-Hollywood style. The films that criticize Britain after all, as well as themodern, spoken dialogues of the everyday modern Irish people, are inEnglish, the language of the British imperialists. Yet America as a place of profit and opportunity for Irish immigrantshas ultimately resulted in a mixed attitude amongst Irish filmmakers to theland of opportunity.
Common topics in this essay:
Joyce Beckett,
Left Foot,
British Irish,
Name Father,
Ireland America,
American Hollywood,
Game IRA,
Recent Irish-made,
National Cinema,
Northern Ireland,
11 recent,
british occupation,
crying game,
british irish,
left foot,
legal system,
ireland film,
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Acceptance Essays
