Why does the USA see the English as the bad guys??

Started by 17-21l, 28 March 2010, 08:59:14 PM

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17-21l

Is it me? (or is it cold in here?) but in my most humble opinion our cousins on the other side of the pond do seem to be giving the mother country a rum old time of late>  Most of the baddies in the movies are "English" and all of our history is not good enough for us to claim.
Let me state a few eg's  Memphis Belle (original about Lancaster crews) Enigma ( obviously found by the Yanks - not the Royal Navy) Braveheart -utter rubbish historically-and utterly anti English.  and another Mel gibson great- Patriot -nuff sed.
We should be proud of This England-the inventions the technology the Empire and culture given to the world.  An Empire lost after a war when, at one time, we stood alone against a mighty enemy. We, the British, are a proud nation and I am proud of what my county (countries) have acheived in its brilliant past.
No offence, but it seems to be perfectly fine to be Welsh, Scottish, Irish British - but to be British English is often frowned upon - sorry to tell you this but without England the world , in my humble opinion, would be a far darker place- with less technology and oh yea - we'd probably all be doing the goose step and eating Bratwurst.
Oh yea, while Im at it - start spelling our words correctly - it is English your speaking.
Fyew - that feels better :o

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Leon

Hahaha!  I'm not sure where to begin?!   :-\  Our nations obsession with being PC, at the expense of patriotism, is something that I can't see changing anytime soon, which is a real shame.  It wouldn't be tolerated in other countries, America being one of them, where pride in your country is still seen as a good thing.  Places like Australia/New Zealand also have a 'do it our way or bugger off' approach to immigration, which protects their national identity.

I don't really mind the film industries portayal of Brit's, as long as the film is good it doesn't bother me.  If people are quite happy to believe everything Hollywood tells them then that's their own fault.

The dodgy spellings get on my nerves a bit, but then I'm completely obsessed about correct spelling and grammar.  My own personal bugbear is 'text-speak', which is slowly eroding the English language.

So, it could be better, but it's going to get a lot worse unfortunately.
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lentulus

Years of propaganda.  The fact that they fought a rebellion to get what the  commonwealth got by being patient has probably left them bitter  :D   And remember, if you were a brit and wanted to emigrate and stay one you could go to Canada or Australia.  The US built itself out of the charter members of the  "We Hate The English" club.

More seriously, their "creation myths" are centered around the English (and very specifically, the aristocracy) as villains  -- I'm a Canadian and I grew up with Daniel Boone on TV.  Of course, as a Canadian I also get to claim Frontenac (who we consider to have beaten the new Englanders, even if they were British subjects at the time).

Hollywood does need to sell movies so they want to get Americans front and centre.  And after all, telling our stories is our problem.  I'd love to see someone turn Farley Mowat's "And No Birds Sang" into a Canadian "Band of Brothers."


Megamatman

Blimey guys  :o.  I'm going to come out in support for the USA here.  I haven't got a problem with USA myself, infact, for the most part, I think its an abolutely brilliant country, athough not as brilliant as our own  ;). What it bolis down to really is that America is too big to be worried about dear old Blighty, and that bothers us? Doesn't bother me.

In terms of patriotism I think it still lives on strong in this country, our national identity is changing, maybe for the better? Discuss   :)
Megamatman

Luddite

Quote from: lentulus on 29 March 2010, 02:10:12 PM
The fact that they fought a rebellion to get what the  commonwealth got by being patient has probably left them bitter  :D   

Still speaking English and fighting our wars for us...really cut the cord din't they?!   ;) ;D
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Paint it Pink

Actually I thought that the Memphis Belle film was a remake of a documentary/propaganda film. Here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Belle_%28film%29

Quote "Memphis Belle is a 1990  film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and written by Monte Merrick, starring Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz and introducing Harry Connick Jr. in his screen debut. It is a fictionalization of the 1943 documentary Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress by director William Wyler, about the 25th and last mission of an American B-17 bomber, the Memphis Belle, which was based in England during World War II. The 1990 version was produced by Wyler's daughter Catherine and dedicated to her father."
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Captain Verbeek

Billy Yank here.  Americer, did i say that with the proper English accent,  ;) is a very large diverse country, should probably be three to six seperate countries, the great melting pot of European, Asian and African peoples.  As a pseudo capitalist society our films are geared to make as much money as possible and who spends the most money on going to watch movies, drum roll please, American teens who have absolutely no interest in History other than WWII.  So films are made with the teen intellect in mind.  But I do have one hypothesis that you have not considered, the villian in american movies always has a posh accent if the character has a lower class accent he is the hero, Johnny Depp as captain Jack sparrow most recently.  I believe it also has to do with the American need to route for the underdog.  Example well he sounds rich and condesending he must be a bad guy.  Just my two cents.  Me personnaly I am quite the euro-file.  Speak German married in Italy and generally prefer the Euro-lifestyle.

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Dave Fielder

I like Americans, I'm off to play with them soon in a warm country so I'll make it my business to re-educate them about tea and not coffee (they got confused in Boston one day when they were a bit bored), soccer/football and not any other variety (World Cup coming up soon), correct spelling and grammar (OED). Once I have sorted all that out there shouldn't be anymore 'bad guy'syndrome. BTW (text-speak) Bond is streets ahead of Bourne, the young wipper-snapper (arrgghhh ... that's an Americanism).
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Last Hussar

Why are the bad guys in movies English?  Well for starters to play a baddie well you have to be able to act- Come on, who didn't cheer on Alan Rickman in Die Hard?

At the risk of antagonistic Humour, allow me to quote Al Murray, the Pub Landlord:
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