Is all of Hollywood a “pro-Western propaganda machine”?

There is a claim that Hollywood movies and series convey a pro-Western, in particular pro-American, worldview, but does this really apply to all productions from the “land of opportunity”? Can it be the opposite as well?
When we think about patriotic Hollywood films, we may tend to remember the Reagan-era action films, for instance Rambo 2. Rambo gets recruited again to investigate POWs in Vietnam, but instead of allowing him to retrieve them, Washington DC’s representatives tell him he should only take pictures as evidence. It has to be said that the discourse about alleged remaining POWs in Vietnam, the trauma of the lost war, and “becoming strong again” was part of the background noise at the time, and some “bureaucrats” were blamed for being weak. The film sends contradictory messages, but in general, what remains is a “clean lone-hero patriotism” vs. “lame, untrustworthy bureaucrats”.

On the other hand, Rambo 2 is by no means an anti-war film, and there were plenty of anti-war films, especially about Vietnam. Apocalypse Now, for instance, one of the most famous films in general. Or the series of anti-Vietnam War films by Oliver Stone, who is famous these days for his friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin. [1]

A favorite of many conspiracy theorists is Oliver Stone’s JFK, about the assassination of President Kennedy. That Stone has a quite “flexible” view on historical accuracy is not only visible in his political films, if we listen to Ray Manzarek, organist of the Doors: “I looked in the man’s (Oliver Stone’s) eyes and I saw something wrong there. Something’s wrong with this guy. The Doors movie is a pack of lies.” [2]

Modern-Day Storylines Also Contain Twists and Conspiracies

While the 90s began with a series called The X-Files, which was nothing more than a mixture of conspiracies across several seasons, the present has not managed to get rid of conspiracy theories. This phenomenon is even visible in the hit drama series The Diplomat: “A British warship is bombed and suspicion immediately falls on Russia. It later turns out that it was not the Russians. The British Prime Minister secretly hired a Russian mercenary to carry out the attack on his own ship. He staged the incident to appear as a strong leader and to prevent Scotland from leaving the United Kingdom. The true culprit was within the British government.”

In general, almost every major film, even a shallow blockbuster, features a conspiracy, or at least a major twist, “nothing is as it appears”, and unfortunately some people took that way too seriously.

The development regarding China in US films is interesting in a different way. While we had some films critical of China during the 1990s, famously Red Corner with Richard Gere, these days Hollywood films prefer to portray China in a good light or avoid portraying the country negatively. Some even speak about self-censorship.

The new version of Red Dawn is a particularly interesting example. Originally, Chinese troops were supposed to be the invasion force attacking the United States. After the movie had already been filmed, they were digitally altered to become North Korean. The flick remained deeply patriotic, like its predecessor from the early 80s, but China was removed from the plot. In this case, a real country, North Korea, was used as a villain. In some films and especially video game productions, a fictitious country was used that only represented (often in a stereotypical way) a certain region of the world. [3]

In an early trailer for Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the Taiwanese and Japanese flags on Tom Cruise’s jacket were replaced with fictional symbols. This sparked criticism that the filmmakers were trying to appease the Chinese market. In the 2022 release, both flags were restored, and it has been reported that Chinese investor Tencent had withdrawn from the project. It is unclear whether Tencent’s withdrawal was the reason for the flags’ reappearance. This does not change the fact that both Top Gun films (1986 and 2022) were supported by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy, which provided access to fighter jets, aircraft carriers, bases, and technical advisors.

This creates an interesting contradiction in the debate about “pro-Western Hollywood”. Western governments, intelligence agencies, corporations and militaries have for decades appeared as villains, conspirators or corrupt institutions in mainstream films and television series, while the portrayal of China became increasingly sensitive as the Chinese market became more important for US productions.

Hollywood has always taken great liberties when it comes not only to history and geopolitics but also to science. This is visible not only in the genres of supernatural and sci-fi productions. The question remains: Do we view films, no matter whether they are patriotic, shallow, or “deep”, as entertainment or “semi-documentaries”?

Maybe we should remember the words of William Shatner, aka “Captain Kirk”, who said in the famous Saturday Night Live sketch to a group of Star Trek fans: “I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show!”

Sources

[1] The Guardian (2017) – Oliver Stone discusses Vladimir Putin and The Putin Interviews.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jun/13/oliver-stone-vladimir-putin-russian-people-never-been-better-off

[2] Classic Bands (Interview, 1991) – Ray Manzarek criticizes Oliver Stone’s The Doors.

https://www.classicbands.com/RayManzarekInterview.html

[3] Los Angeles Times (2011) – Hollywood replaces Chinese invaders with North Koreans in Red Dawn.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-china-red-dawn-20110316-story.html