Friday, August 27, 2004
Statist propaganda in movies
I just saw Hero, a Jet Li movie with gorgeous sets, cinematography, and a Crouching Tiger feel. I actually liked it much better than Crouching Tiger (the director of Hero also directed Raise the Red Lantern, a similiarly good movie). The story is told in non-linear fashion, in successive approximations of the "truth".
The movie was also the ultimate pro-state propaganda film. This is obvious by the end of the movie, but I saw it coming from the beginning (being a political scientist has got to be good for something, right?). The message is that the unity provided by the state (which saves us from chaos and civil war) is more important than individual lives and loves, and must be protected and submitted to. Very Hobbesian, yes, but as far as I understand, even more Chinese. My Chinese friends are welcome to correct me, but ever since the Warring States period depicted in Hero, the greatest bogeyman in the Chinese political lexicon has been "instability", and the state has ruthlessly put down even mildly discordant elements all the way down to today's Falun Gong.
The movie choreographs this message throughout; the King of Qin (who goes on to unite China) has an army that acts as one unit, an organic symbol of the state's power, and his courtiers speak as a single chorus. The rebels are the only individuals, and in the end they submit and die. Even the King has little personality; he is Leviathan incarnate.
Not the first statist movie of the year; Troy also had a statist message, though a bit more conflicted, as suits a Western movie (our states have a far more tumultous history than the Chinese). But Agammenon had a name at least. In Hero, I didn't hear the name of the King. And the rebel who chooses to submit to the state, ending the rebellion, is Nameless. I guess someone still believes in the social contract.
The movie was also the ultimate pro-state propaganda film. This is obvious by the end of the movie, but I saw it coming from the beginning (being a political scientist has got to be good for something, right?). The message is that the unity provided by the state (which saves us from chaos and civil war) is more important than individual lives and loves, and must be protected and submitted to. Very Hobbesian, yes, but as far as I understand, even more Chinese. My Chinese friends are welcome to correct me, but ever since the Warring States period depicted in Hero, the greatest bogeyman in the Chinese political lexicon has been "instability", and the state has ruthlessly put down even mildly discordant elements all the way down to today's Falun Gong.
The movie choreographs this message throughout; the King of Qin (who goes on to unite China) has an army that acts as one unit, an organic symbol of the state's power, and his courtiers speak as a single chorus. The rebels are the only individuals, and in the end they submit and die. Even the King has little personality; he is Leviathan incarnate.
Not the first statist movie of the year; Troy also had a statist message, though a bit more conflicted, as suits a Western movie (our states have a far more tumultous history than the Chinese). But Agammenon had a name at least. In Hero, I didn't hear the name of the King. And the rebel who chooses to submit to the state, ending the rebellion, is Nameless. I guess someone still believes in the social contract.
