Hollywood Perpetuation of American Mythology: The American Dream and American Adam Synthesis
Hollywood Perpetuation of American Mythology: The American Dream and American Adam Synthesis

Summary/Abstract: Hollywood continually recycles the American myth to restore what Gilmore calls a “symbolic script […], a cultural construct, endlessly variable, and not always necessary” - the image of manliness. It does so by utilizing the main male protagonist’s performance of the dream pursuit as a means of performing their manliness that directly reflects the predominant models of American manhood. And because Hollywood considerably invests in the representation of male protagonists and their experiences within American socio-cultural contexts, these representations are often interwoven with other idealized constructions that place the protagonists within American contexts, and thus create collective American experiences that effectively address American men. In this context, the pursuit of the American dream, in which the American man is often engaged, presents a potent correlation effectively exploited by Hollywood cinema.

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