Viet Nguyen wrote:
>corporate location. It would be difficult to see in what way the
>_reception_ of ideological content would not be altered by the ways in
>which films are produced, distributed, promoted, etc. For films which
>expressly attack capitalism, this becomes an added problem. Let me clarify
I'm big into ideological criticism, so don't misunderstand me as rejecting
it, but I really can't see how "_reception_ of ideological content" is or
could be altered "by the ways in which films are produced [or]
distributed." Promoted, yes, since that will influence the context /
background that viewers bring to their reception, but except insofar as
specifics about a film's production and distribution become part of the
general context / background people bring to a film (as with, say,
Waterworld), again informing the viewer's perceptions, I don't see how they
can influence reception.
Perhaps you are thinking very broadly: that film viewers are all aware,
albeit perhaps dimly at times or in some cases, that (most) films are
produced by large corporations, as profit-making ventures. Fewer but still
many viewers may also be aware that films constitute part of the US's
second largest export industry (entertainment / culture) after the
aerospace industry (and gaining fast on it) and now routinely earn, and
need to earn, at least 50% of their profits on overseas sales. Etc. That
information about production and distribution I can see affecting at least
in limited ways any ideological reading of a film, particularly a film, eg,
attacking capitalism, large corporations or US cultural hegemony.
Is that what you had in mind?
_____________________________________________________________________
Nick Chapman [log in to unmask] http://www.umich.edu/~nwc
Program in American Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
48109-1027 USA
There can, of course, be no apolitical scholarship. -- Chandra Talpade
Mohanty
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