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At 04:22 PM 5/3/99 +0100, you wrote: >E.g. Have there been any fictional >US presidents that aren't white and male? Moreover, I would take issue with >the view that the continuity style is something universal, rather than >emerging from a complex set of historical circumstances and disciplines - >modernity, urban life, industrialization, etc - within which it made >perfect sense. It may not be difficult to learn to understand a Hollywood >narrative, but it is learned nonetheless. >Yours aye, >Kris > > There have been Hollywood fictional films that depicted non-white male presidents: the president in _Armageddon_ was a black male, and I know that in another recent film the president was portrayed as a white female (I can't recall what the film was; anyone remember?). I'm not sure that the fact that there are such examples (and there are probably more, and certainly will be others in the future) makes much difference re: ideology, however. With respect to learning how to understand various kinds of narrative, images, and editing techniques, the important point (that is, the point that several members of the list seem to have been trying to make) is that many Hollywood films - especially the action-adventure 'blockbuster' types - rely on what are probably *minimal* learning requirements, given that the images and narrative structures require little else for their comprehension other than what is required to comprehend human action in everyday life. The heavily reliance on sequenced images and sound effects makes these films easily comprehensible across diverse languages and belief systems (the central components of such representations make use of those aspects of human culture and perception that are widely shared). This is one reason some film theorists are critical of treating film as if it were a language, with complex 'codes' that require prolonged exposure and use for comprehension. Jeff Jeffrey T. Dean Department of Philosophy University of Wisconsin, Madison [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%