The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film

In Chapter 4 The Hollywood Sign, the intro “The Culture of American Film” discusses the variety (and lack thereof) of movies in Hollywood, highlighting that the industry is filled with prequels, sequels and a whole lot of remakes while questioning their true meaning. The intro brings up the issue of Hollywood being stuck on reruns and doing repeats time after time. This leads to the discussion of postmodernism, a historical period and an attitude, that refers to the culture that has materialized in the wake of high-tech era, on obsessed with the latest electronic imagery and the products of society’s majority. When interpreting the signs of American film, movies can be viewed as metaphors for larger cultural concerns, for example the intro states that the original Godzilla was essentially a metaphor for the nuclear era. This chapter will definitely give you more to think about the next time you go to the movies.