Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Observation

"British actor Michael Caine has observed that Superman is how America sees itself, and Batman is how the rest of the world sees America."

Hmmm.....

6 comments:

Lone Chatelaine said...

I don't think I understand that. Is Batman bad or something?

Cerulean Bill said...

The article from which I found that quote went on to say that America is viewed as a vigilante, as is Batman. I don't entirely agree with that, but I think theres more than a little truth to it.

STAG said...

I don't view America as "vigilante", though I do have to admit to noticing that Americans in general like to "take care of things themselves" more than the rest of the world. In England, a leaky faucet would mean you "get a man in", in America it means you get the parts and do it yourself. This attitude seems to apply to a lot of things...education should be as local as feaseable, policing should be local rather than State or (horrors) Federal, medical service should be as local possible, with the big guns like the Mayo Clinic, Atlanta Centre for Disease Control, and for that matter FEMA, are always available if required.

Nothing bad about that. Nor is it consistent, but it is the way the world looks at America when they really stop to think about it. At least it beats the knee jerk "too religious, too fat, too egocentric" view which substitutes for rational judgment in too many European minds.

America is judged by the movies, just as Japan is often judged erroneously by Anime (shudder),
and Germany is judged by "Hogan's Heroes".
And lets face it, TV shows like "The First 48" and "Cops" tend to show the seamier side. On the plus side, TV shows like "Law and Order", the CSI franchise, and so forth portray Americans as fundamentally good people whose kids are out of control.
On the other hand, Michael Caine may be just trying to push the Batman franchise since he is a star in it...grin!

So, I have to agree with LC above, who asked "is this a bad thing?" Well, actually, no it is not.

Cerulean Bill said...

Perhaps. But he'll always be Alfie to me....

STAG said...

Well, to ME he will always be the snot nosed Lieutenant in Zulu.

Cerulean Bill said...

I heard a funny story about that. He said that he wanted to appear imperious, and the model he chose was one of the Royal Family who always walked with his arms behind his back. After Caine did that for a while, one of the producers told the director to get that kid to stop doing that.