The images I have selected that highlight the positive and negative images of America are vastly different; one is the image of care free, don't-give-damn, do-what-the-hell-that-want kinda guys, and the other is of two young men literally forcing their way into history.
The first image, a still from the 1969 classic
Easy Rider, stars three of American cinema's most enduring and well regarded actors, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Perhaps the idea of choosing a film still, or something that is a not real but rather a Hollywood creation is strange to you. However, I feel that this film is so culturally significant to the time it was made, that it is difficult to deny. In the film, the characters play two hippies smuggling cocaine across America. While the plot isn't exactly representative of all Americans at that time, it gives an interesting indication to what audiences at that time were willing to watch, and how in the space of 10 years American cinema had gone from peachy-keen Beach movies to watching two hippies take LSD, have bad trips and visit prostitutes, all with added gun violence. The film is also significant due to its genre - the 'road movie', a quintessentially American sub-genre, usually starring two or more men who either find fun, adventure and women, or familial,
bromantic love.
Easy Rider is not a film that could have been made in 1965, or 1955, it was a creation of its time. Every shot, choppy edit, every accompanying musical piece, whether it be from The
Byrds or
Steppenwolf, marks the counter culture of America at that time. It is positive, good, because it challenged the perception then, and indeed even now, that America was a place of great personal freedom, where everyone was the same, one nation under God. It shows through its violent climax with classic 'hillbilly' characters that Americans as people could be as vastly different as the land the two lead characters Billy and Wyatt where trying to cross.
Above is a still shot taken from the cafeteria security camera, showing Dylan
Klebold and Eric Harris of Columbine High School, re-entering the cafeteria after killing 34 students and teachers. Eleven minutes later, the pair had committed suicide. The significance of this image, a haunting portrait of American teenagers, shocked the entire world and then became part of the international view on America. Since the Columbine High School massacre, there have been countless other violent situations at many other schools and colleges in the US, and while school violence isn't only an American problem, they are two things that the British and European media have now come to associate. Of course, this image and the massacre famously sparked countless debates on gun control in America, but that isn't the only issue at hand. The young man on the left, Eric Harris, had a history of anger management, and to this day there is speculation over whether he was a sociopath. Harris came from a normal American household, his father was a retired military officer, and Dylan
Klebold was raised by his older brother because his parents died when he was young. They were picked on and bullied severely for many years, until they started to bully younger students themselves. Like many teenagers, they bonded over music, the Internet and games, in particular they both played
Doom a first person shooter famed for it's graphic violence. Aside from the obviously negative aspect of the massacre, the reaction by the media, and wild speculation, caused the video games they played and even their taste in music to come under scrutiny. Famed and controversial industrial shock-jock Marylin Manson had to repeatedly issue statements condemning and distancing himself from the attack, as did
Neue Deutsche Harte band
Rammstein. As Marylin Manson would later claim, the attacks on him and the other artists that
Klebold and Harris liked seemed to show America's need to find blame, to find a scapegoat, whether the blame be on music, the Internet or violent games. Another controversy came from the post mortem examination of Harris' body. Present in Harris' system was the drug
Luvox, which had first been prescribed to him for his anger management issues the previous year. In America, the issue of anti-depressant medication has been controversial for many years, and the subject of a
Louis Theroux documentary. So, in terms of negativity, my issue with the massacre and the image this conveys is that, to put it as simply as possible, in Britain, procuring a gun is tough. Getting medication is tough. Yes, school is tough too, but if American teen films are anything to go by, the cliquey nature of high schools is ridiculous, driving some poor, mentally unstable people to do unspeakable things. So, really, to me, this image is negative because it represents all the bad sides of American
adolescence and high school, and the failure of American school system to properly protect and deal with issues of immense self loathing and bullying.
Personally I feel that this image of Captain America, is a positive view of America. The character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in the early 40s seems to detail what an American should be like. The character itself embodies the American spirit/dream. He is strong, courageous, righteous and dispenses justice to evil doers. This reflects how America is seen not just by other countries but by America itself, as this saviour of the world. This character is all things patriotic about the country, he wears the red and white stripes, he fights America's enemies, he defends his country. No doubt most Americans would do anything for their country, channelling the spirit of Captain America and the country itself.
this first image was a positive image of America as it represents it's diversity, as well as the way it is all interlinked to create one large ball, or in America's case, a country. All the different colours, for me, represent a multitude of the USA'a attributes, for example gender, sexulatily, cultures and beliefs, race, languages spoken, etc and the way that they all work together to make something vast and internationally influential. It could also be seen as negative due to its exclusivity, for example their reluctance to lower their carbon footprint, as well as in a good light with their mutual strength (patriotism, morale) to support each other as a country.
