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Michael Giraudy
Professor Monique Mironesco
POLS 430
6 March 2015
Society vs Hollywood
Does society influence Hollywood or does Hollywood influence society? Are we
a product of our environment or do we inherit genetic qualities that make up our personalities?
Sometimes the answers we are looking for are not a very simple and they require taking a look at
all the evidence and coming to an objective conclusion. One you examine the question
objectively you discover a third option, both. Both, nature and nurture influence who we are as a
person, similarly both Hollywood and society influence each other in different ways. The social
climate must be right first for a film to have any effect. Throughout the history of cinema,
American society’s ever changing views on specific social issues like racism, foreign policy and
gay rights have untimely have determined what movies were made by Hollywood and ultimately
seen by the majority of Americans.
American society’s evolving views and influence on racism has been has been
reflected in what movies have been made in Hollywood. Many movies that society deemed
appropriate in the past, have no place in today’s society. For example, the film Birth of a Nation
(1915) is considered, “one of the most admired and profitable films ever produced by
Hollywood” (“The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest”). This movie, which is held in such high
regards, depicts the civil war and the South’s reconstruction efforts after the war. The film is shot
from the view point of the whites, who are viciously against the progress that the African –
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American population is achieving. The movie perpetuates the popular notion of the day, that
whites are superior to other races. The film also portrays leaders of the black community, that
have been newly elected to the South Carolina legislature, to be “ lolling in their chairs, their feet
bare, eating chicken and drinking whiskey, leering at white women in the visitors’ gallery” (“The
Birth of a Nation and Black Protest”). This film uses intertitles or on screen text, during scenes
sympathetic, and even supportive, to the Klu Klux Klan. These intertitles were taken from
Woodrow Wilson’s 1902 book A History of the American People (“The Birth of a Nation and
Black Protest”). Since Wilson was the president when this movie was released, Birth of a Nation
was the “first movie ever to be screened at the White House” (“100 Years Later, What’s The
Legacy Of ‘Birth Of A Nation’?”). Also it is believed that Wilson describe the film as “history
written in lightning” (“100 Years Later, What’s The Legacy Of ‘Birth Of A Nation’?”). Now
