Hollywood's Lane: 'The Ongoing tale of the American Dream that No Longer Exists'

It is no surprise to find out the usual themes in the Hollywood big screen: money and power. Two of the big films now showing and giving a lot to talk about spin around these themes. American Hustle, a film starting Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, tell the story of a couple that cons their way to the top starting a loaning business that scams people. Later, the couple will find trouble as one of them is busted and has to cooperate with the FBI in operations to capture mafia members and representatives of congress who are willing to take bribes. All of this, while money and power become the protagonists of the film. The Wolf of Wall Street, starting Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, makes of money and power an emblem in the film. The film tells the story of Belfort, a stockbroker that succeed by mal-practicing creating a firm that overpriced penny stocks for big corporations. Money and power become the central theme in this movie as well, as Belfort moves from one succeeding step to the other, living a hedonistic life until he is caught by the bureau.

The fascination with these stories lies in that they are somewhat true. Hollywood does not produce movies that will sell, but they produce movies that will sell for a reason. The market of everything, including the film industry, is knowing why your product is selling. In this case, the reason behind why these movies sell is that the spectator secretly wants to be one of these con-artists portrayed in the film--of course, with the exception of being caught (which is why must of us don't do it.) These movies feed the so called 'American-Dream,' only with the twist of being able to do it at all cost, even if this means doing it illegally and immorally. These movies not only feed our dirty desires to become wealthy and powerful at all cost but of course first they sell the idea that it is possible by telling us that some people have done so even through wrong means.

The American culture is not only doped with the idea of being successful, wealthy and powerful as part of the American dream, but Hollywood is gushing the idea down our throats. This is no longer an ideal that is no longer possible as class mobility is disappearing in the the United States and the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. The American dream is becoming an unreal and unattainable fantasy, but our sense of entertainment still speaks of a culture that is somewhat fixed on that dream.

For many the bottom line is that Hollywood sells movies that people want to watch. If the spectators want to praise characters like Jordan Belfort or couples like Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser the story will go on. Of course, there is a clear line between entertainment and reality. Hollywood is an entertainment industry. To take it as anything more than that would be to give it too much credit and importance and too little accountability and responsibility to the watcher. But is this so? After all, entertainment is an essential part of culture and films describe society. For the industry, it is in its best interest to sell people the idea of being able to become successful and rich. If they don't, not only do they detach themselves from American culture but become counter-cultural and as a product of this-- movies will not sell. In other words, if people crave a dream that no longer exists, you can still sell it. Ironically, the theme of both of these films is to create profit no matter what. In this case, Hollywood has embraced the philosophy perfectly.