why in sci fi films?????

I even wrote a highly succesful essay on that topic! (this is not it, however )

Every time aliens attack they come to america first. And it\'s always america who saves the rest of the world; like in Independence Day, when they say something like "now we know how to beat them. Spread the word." yep, and everyone is united in celebration. OF COURSE the other countries couldn\'t have figured it out for themselves. They (we) need the superior culture of the USA. Its language is so superior that even aliens from distant galaxies speak it. But naturally they have strange & unsual accents, because weird creatures (such as \'foreigners\' - from america\'s point of view, aliens & mutants) speak in an accent unlike the american one.

U can see this in other media too - if someone doesn\'t speak in an american accent, he is considered "funny" and "amusing". Especially if he sounds like a person from India. In fact, the only acceptable accent in this world is american. If you sound British you\'re probably evil. If you sound european you\'re "cute" or something like that.

Speaking of languages, I think it\'s unfair for americans to assume that everyone can speak their language, that they don\'t have to learn any others. It should be mandatory for EVERYONE on this planet to learn at least one other language. Even if your mother tongue happens to be the most precious language in the world, english.

Now it probably sounds like I hate America & English. That\'s not the truth. I\'ve been there many, many times and loved it. English is my favorite language. I just like to think about things like these.

The problem with american culture is that they HAVE TO BE THE BEST.  They HAVE TO WIN.

Independance day.  The aliens are attacking the whole world destroying everything.  Americans plant the virus, destroy the mother ship, and figure out how to destroy the little ones... "get on the horn to the rest of the world and tell them how to bring the SOBs down!"

U571 - Based on a true story.  It really was one of the turning points in the war.  They were very true to the truth, too.  Oh, except that in the war, the sub wasnt\' AMERICAN, it was BRITISH.  sigh.

(non movie) - Canada\'s soft lumber export (COVERED UNDER FREE TRADE).  When challenged by the US (cause they can\'t make lumber as cheaply as we can) 2 independant boards held up the free trade agreement, saying that even though American lumber companies had a hard time competing, the US couldn\'t punish our lumber companies, they would have to subsidize theirs (or such). So, the US ignored them, and our "free trade" agreement, and slapped a 50% duty on importing soft lumber from Canada.  So much for equality and free trade, even with their biggest trade partner (by far).

[nO-One]

What bugged me the most about ID.4 was that they just created a virus for a alien computer,using some strange alien OS with out a problem.Then they had no problem interfacing with the alien comp.How convinient that the aliens a used TCP/IP connection.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by nO-One
What bugged me the most about ID.4 was that they just created a virus for a alien computer,using some strange alien OS with out a problem.Then they had no problem interfacing with the alien comp.How convinient that the aliens a used TCP/IP connection.

Alien OS? Yeah right. I thought you knew your sci-fi films. Everyone knows that the Aliens in ID4 used Windows 95.
Duh!

[nO-One]

Sorry,ofcourse I should have known that Billy G\'s grasp reaches beyond Earth\'s solar system

why does it seem like evryone on this forum always has something they hate about america?

[nO-One]

Soon America will go down,and Iceland will reign supreme

Originally posted by FatalXception
The problem with american culture is that they HAVE TO BE THE BEST.  They HAVE TO WIN.

You know, I\'ve been around the world, and I\'ve met people from many many different countries, and the first thing I learned is that no one hates the United States as much as the Canadians do.  I\'ve also been to Canada many times, and I really liked it.  So, that\'s all I\'m going to say about that.  BTW, FatalXception, where in Ontario are you?  I have friends in Waterloo.

Now regarding all this other stuff about Americans\' roles in Science Fiction movies...  Rather than build some complex analysis of the American psyche, why not acknowledge the real reason why Americans always save the world in those idiotic films?  Hollywood, California, USA is the world capital of the film industry, and ALL the big international science fiction films that everyone\'s heard of were created by American production companies.  THUS they were written and marketed with the American public in mind.  If you waste your time watching a piece of sh1te like "Independence Day" then don\'t blame us if you find the story doesn\'t represent your nation/culture in a favorable light.  The film wasn\'t created for you, and international distribution is just the gravy on the studio\'s balance sheet.  It\'s not the meat.  Likewise, science fiction films produced in the UK are filmed in England, and usually written as if the rest of the world didn\'t exist.  Same with Australia, Germany, Japan, etc etc etc.  

Now to a more important subject:  Weltall is correct.  Spain has the hottest women on Earth.  Man I couldn\'t believe it when I was there.  Ain\'t that right, Joyda?

Originally posted by Deadly Hamster
why does it seem like evryone on this forum always has something they hate about america?

Well, I think the main issue is that a lot of non-Americans have had enough of those Americans (not all of them, but those this applies to) that seem to think the world = America. They think they\'re superior in every way, their language is spoken everywhere, they can do as they wish and everyone had better kiss their @sses. I know not every American is like that, but that\'s the image they send out in most parts of the world. A lot of them seem ignorant and arrogant. They want the world\'s attention and fail to recognize that there IS in fact people out there with great lives, in great countries that (while not as big as the US) are at least on par with the US technology wise, if not better - that also applies for many other aspects: freedom of speech, \'liberty\' etc. The world doesn\'t equal USA to the rest of the 5.75 billion people out there. The point in this being: Americans aren\'t better than other people. They\'re just as good and the US is a nice, modern western country like many others.

And it seems you have to \'feel superior\' about living in the US. I don\'t feel that way about living where I live. I like people all over the world, no matter where they come from. I think of myself as being a \'citizen of the world\' or whatever, and the Internet has certainly helped a lot here. The country in which you live doesn\'t matter much to me - it\'s the person you are inside that matters - what you do, how you act, how you feel etc. For all I care I might as well live in every other western country, I don\'t hate any of them or the people there. Nor do I feel a huge patriotism or pride in my country. I like it, but I can\'t say I\'d do anything to \'protect\' it - I am who I am and that\'s what matters to me. Not the country I live in (so you can see I don\'t believe in \'pride for my country\' etc - I think it\'s foolish and leads to a lot of anger. Why not just accept people for who they are, not where they were born (it\'s not like you can choose where to be born anyway).  There are great people from all around the globe.

I certainly know lots of nice Americans who doesn\'t think that way, so it\'s not meant to be a sound as if I "hate" all Americans or something, because I don\'t. I just wanted to point out some issues about the US that some Americans have difficulties admitting to or even understanding. So don\'t be offended by this, but try and think it through and see it from a non-US perspective before flaming me out of patriotism or whatever.

Note: This was quite a large post and I didn\'t feel like proof-reading it all. So if there are any errors please live with it.

C\'mon guys. You are complaining about American movies. When was the last time you saw a film for the American public that had another country save the day? Why is it that in Godzilla movies it is always the Japanese that save the day? :rolleyes:

As for other countries not liking the US. I still say it is mainly because we are one of the main world powers. Its like how the less popular kids talk about the popular kids behind their backs. I don\'t hear anyone talking about Sudan and the crap going on over there. I know the US isn\'t the greatest country but it is far from the worst. Pretty much the US is damned if we do and damned if we don\'t.

BTW, Canada is one of the coolest countries. IMO, In a lot of aspects it is what the US should be; but I think that could be because they don\'t have a lot of the responsibilities that we do.

Might want to try Jackie Chan 70s to 80s martial arts movie, they are riched with martial culture,or Jet Lee and Bruce Lee.

I think Hong Kong movies are the 2nd best overall.In fighting movies,HongKong rules...in Sci Fi and action..Usa rules.

Originally posted by Gohan
As for other countries not liking the US. I still say it is mainly because we are one of the main world powers. Its like how the less popular kids talk about the popular kids behind their backs.

Well, believe it or not, but other countries don\'t go around talking about the US all the time. Outside US people know it\'s not the center of the world, but some Americans are full off it.

I have a funny story about this thing. I talked to someone on ICQ a while ago, and he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Denmark and he asked (I don\'t remember the exact words): "What do you guys think about the US?". When I told him the US wasn\'t really that big a subject here, he couldn\'t believe it. He thought we had to be talking about it. He couldn\'t understand that other countries do their own country stuff and have their own subjects to talk about. To them the US is just a good/bad (depending on who you ask) country like any other - and when some Americans fail to recognize this I think that\'s where the so-called "hatred" against the US arises. People think most Americans full of themselves. Fair or not, that\'s how it often is.

//just an analysis, no need to flame the messenger //

Originally posted by Samwise
Well, I think the main issue is that a lot of non-Americans have had enough of those Americans (not all of them, but those this applies to) that seem to think the world = America. They think they\'re superior in every way, their language is spoken everywhere, they can do as they wish and everyone had better kiss their @sses.

Samwise,

I agree with you 100%, and you made some valid points.  I\'ve encountered this view of americans from many people.  While I think of it as a stereotype, I will admit there is some truth in it.  Every country has stereotypes about them, so I guess this one is ours.  I think people get this impression of us through our media (movies, television, music).  However, as I said above, those media products were mostly created with an American market in mind.  The media conglomerates believe a product is more reliably profitable if it doesn\'t require the consumer to stretch their thinking.  Therefore the media corporations give us products that reinforce our thinking instead of presenting a different view of the world.  Because of this, I think the images of americans you\'ve encountered are not a mirror of who we are, they are just some corporation\'s idea of a perfect product.  I don\'t have any strong nationalist patriotic feelings about the US.  That would require me to support all the horrible things my government has done around the world in the last 50 years, so forget it.  I also don\'t think the US is superior in everything, in fact I\'m surprised when we\'re superior in anything.  The only thing I can do is try to remind people through my example that we\'re not all like the stereotype.

BTW, Not all of our media products run on this idiotic "USA No.1" mentality.  I assume you receive "The X-Files" in some form????  That to me is a good representation of what the US is REALLY like.  For eight seasons it\'s been an unforgivingly self-critical portrait of everything that\'s wrong with the United States, and a few things that are right with it.  In addition, it\'s become a highly successful television property, so it has proven that the American public doesn\'t always want to see what it\'s already familiar with.

Thanks for your reply Coredweller, I\'m glad to see that someone can agree to the points I made. I agree with you that the media probably plays a large part in this. I know not all Americans are like what I described - a lot of them are nice and \'ordinary\' people, but with some 260+ million people there are bound to be lots of different opinions. "Bad apples" are a universal problem.

[nO-One]

I also agree with good\'ol Sammy.But he neglected to mention that the guests on Jerry Springer also give Amercans a bad name,and the people on Jay walking,one guy thought he had multible hearts and another thought the Earth had 6 moons and yet another tought the Earth had no moons.

Ignorant yankees