firky said:
There's some things the Americans can't do and that is food, wine, cars and films.
You're kidding, right?
I realize that mindless, all-encompassing dismissals of America are
de rigueur in some parts of the world, but why is it that the same people who constantly imply that all Americans are dull and ignorant display the same ignorance themselves when talking about the United States?
Food: plenty of Americans do food very well. It might make you feel better to believe that McDonald's is the only food eaten on this side of the Atlantic, but the fact is that Americans have an extremely diverse and interesting array of food cultures, and that there is an incredible amount of very good food available over here.
Like many places, getting the really good stuff can require some willingness to look for it, and often also requires a decent amount of money. But in my experience, America has a similar range of cuisine to most western countries, i.e., it runs the gamut from absolute crap to the sublime. At the highest levels, America has produced some of the world's best chefs.
Sure, there's a lot of European and Asian influence on many types of American cuisine, but show me a country whose cuisine is totally and exclusively local. Even the French make use of techniques and produce from other cultures in their modern styles.
Wine: anyone who believes Americans can't do wine has, quite simply, no idea what he's talking about. It's one thing to say that you prefer the wines of Europe or Australia or whatever, but that's quite different from saying that Americans don't know how to do wine. The top American wines stack up very well against their French counterparts, and at the middle and low ends there are plenty of American vineyards that produce very good quality at very reasonable prices.
Yes, the style and the body of American wines often differs markedly from French or Italian or German wines, and i think the wines of California have more in common with other New World wine producers like Australia's Barossa and Hunter Valleys than with European wine (from the oakiness of some Chardonnays to the particular berry nose and finish of the Cabernets). But if you're willing to spend some money, you can get some outstanding quality wine in the United States. Just because you can't find good American wine at the off-licence in Scunthorpe doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
And as for the idea that Canadian wine is better, on the whole, than American wine? That is either wishful thinking or sheer balls-out bullshit. I love Canada. I was born there, i lived there for a while, and i'm still a citizen. But there's no way on earth that the Canadian wine industry--despite its improvement over recent years--is anywhere near the level and consistency of the American industry.
Cars: well, i've always preferred European cars myself, and some of the Japanese models. I prefer Euro sports cars because i've always had a thing for designers like Bertone and Pininfarina, and because the Europeans have made some beautiful cars. I prefer modern Euro sedans over American ones too, and i also get annoyed at what often seems an American obsession with horsepower over subtlety.
But that doesn't mean that Americans can't build cars. And a ton of factors, from distances to fuel prices to costs to auto industry profit-seeking, have helped to determine the trajectory of American car-making.
Film: well, you've already conceded in this thread that some Hollywood films are good. And there are also Americans who make excellent independent films. So the question is not whether or not Americans can make good films--clearly some of them can--but
why it is that many of their films are so bad, at least in your opinion.
One thing you might look at is the financing structure. You know one thing you see at the end of nearly every Australian-made film? A credit acknowledging the assistance of the Australian Film Commission, a government agency designed to promote the art of film-making. Many European countries also get considerable government support for their film industries. I think this is a good thing, and that it often leads to some very high quality work.
For better or worse, American film doesn't generally get the same level of support. It's a profit-making venture with large corporations seeking a return on their investment. As others have noted, most American film, especially the sort of Hollywood blockbusters that you seem so fond of dismissing out of hand, wouldn't get made at all unless they were projected to turn a profit.
I guess you could argue that the world might be better off if Spiderman 3 had never been made. I'd probably agree with you. But the fact that it was made doesn't mean that Americans as a whole "can't do film." Americans have a share of talented and creative and thoughtful people that is, as far as i can tell, no smaller and no larger than anywhere else. I think there are structural and probably also cultural factors in America that tend to "dumb down" a lot of films made here, and that an industry that spends as much as Hollywood should probably produce more good movies than it does, but arguing that Americans have some national or congenital inability to "do film" isn't even an argument, it's just a display of ignorance.
