Abstract EN:

What image of American society does Hollywood project? To answer this question, 99 blockbusters, produced between 1985 and 1994, have been analysed for their genre, their tone and their themes, all of which are drawn from the fads, myths and tends of thought which characterize America at the end of this century. Indigenous American genres, such as the western, the cartoon, or the musical, have been grafted onto others, creating a new identity for commercial films which directly addresses the audience's collective unconscious. The plots increasingly depart from the rational and venture into the supernatural and a fictional world of science. Spiralling around the personality of a central actor who provides his interpretation of the classic American hero. The tone of these films attempts to be realistic. The vocabulary is usually colloquial and often profane. Violence is graphic, sex explicit, though prefrontal or total nudity seldom makes an appearance. One could easily conclude that censorship has all but disappeared. However, it has merely taken another form: the unswerving observance of the tacit rules governing the politically-correct American society. The identity crisis in the United States, which followed the post-war years of economic prosperity and the defeat in Vietnam, are reflected in Hollywood’s blockbusters. These films reveal the fission of the nuclear family, and the incessant duel between solitary heroes and corrupt or ineffectual social and political institutions. The right to succeed and the pursuit of happiness are accompanied by societal duties, such as the defence of democratic principles. A determined individual who believes in god, America and himself, always defeats evil. The deformed image of American society projected on the screen by the blockbusters bears testimony to the fact that the American dream, in all its mythical splendour, is alive and well, and thriving in Hollywood.