The Last Samurai Hollywood and Orientalism - 2947 Words

Hollywood and Orientalism have traditionally had an inter-twined relationship that continues to persist even today. Orientalism can be described in three different ways. Firstly, as Edward Said illustrates in his great work â€Å"Orientalism† illustrates, â€Å"it is academic in nature; composed by people who write, teach, and research on the â€Å"orient.† (Said, 1978, 4) Secondly, â€Å"Orientalism is also a style of thought based on an ontological and epistemological distinction between â€Å"Orient† and more often than not the â€Å"Occident† (Said, 1978, 5). In other words, Orientalism creates, through the binary opposition between the East and West, a means for dealing and understanding the Orient, and western self-understanding through opposing itself against the â€Å"Other.† (Said, 1978, 5) Orientalism is used when describing European-American views on the region of Asia, and has often led to western Eurocentric views proclaiming their do minance over East Asia through an uneven exchange of power. In short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient (Said, 1978, 5) Additionally, it has created a regular pattern for the idea of European Western having political, intellectual, and hegemony over Asia. The Hollywood film industry has particularly been a fertile ground for Orientalism. In the late nineteenth and twentieth century western narrative and cinemas inherited and narrated visual traditions, as well as the cultural assumption, on whichShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagestwentieth century. And the reunification of Germany and the reemergence of international terrorism, which were powerfully symptomatic of the unprecedented reach and intensity of the processes of globalization on either side of the otherwise unremarkable last and first years of the old and new millennia, represented both a return to trends reminiscent of the opening decades of the twentieth century and a major break from the prevailing dynamics of the cold war. In addition to the problems posed for conceptualizing