Hollywood's Tiananmen Amnesia

One of the best films of success that you and I have never seen is what Hollywood has ever made, about events that occurred 25 years ago in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. So lets have a look and get your emergency information.

The Chinese authorities require their people forget, or at least pretend to have forgotten, the troops of the People's Liberation Army of the paper against the young pro-democracy demonstrators in which hundreds or perhaps thousands died on June 4, 1989 25th anniversary this year brought a particularly aggressive campaign "maintaining stability", with more arrests and detentions than usual in an attempt to respect the cultural amnesia. The Chinese authorities have also warned Western journalists square.

Even if Beijing can keep inner silence on its suppression of the Chinese democracy movement has no power to crush Index - historical or dramatic - the question here. But where can you find an American movie about Tiananmen Square?

If you are particularly interested in the subject, you can watch "The Gate of Heavenly Peace," a documentary that has attracted so much criticism in the West and loud condemnation of the Chinese government on its launch in 1995. A short documentary Canada 1998 "Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square" directed by Chinese artist Shui-Bo Wang and was nominated for an Oscar - but I doubt that most people would be able to name the films nominated for Best Short Documentary This year, much less 16 years ago.

It is a little known 1992 action film "Rapid Fire", where the slaughter of June 4 only serves as a tragic backdrop for the main character. Some Chinese filmmakers have approached the issue in feature films, directly or indirectly, usually with the help of European manufacturers or distributors, as was the case with "Black Snow" (1990), "Lan Yu" (2002) and "Summer Palace" (2006). So where is the well-market, big-budget film made about the massacre America - or even Chinese film that has the full support of distribution and marketing of a large American company? There's no.

This is surprising considering the cinematic legacy of the 1980s has been a recent resurgence of films related to the early days of the AIDS crisis in the United States, including an Oscar winner last year, "Club Dallas Buyer "and the new adaptation of the play by HBO" Normal Heart ". The fall of the Berlin Wall a few months after the Tiananmen massacre inspired a wide range of films, from serious to the frivolous. Unlike lesser known films have played Tiananmen, ordinary American moviegoers have probably heard or seen actually "Charlie Wilson's War" or "Jarhead" about the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War, respectively.

He has written or considered writing a good script on the events in Beijing 25 years ago? It's possible, but unlikely. The most obvious reason for the US film studios that have avoided much simpler issue: the economy. Hollywood bows suspect the Chinese government to keep the distribution rights in what has become bigger, to some extent in the world of protection against piracy second Chinese film market.

Hollywood is not shy about wanting to exploit the market in China, despite the relatively small profits filter for foreign producers. Blockbusters like "Iron Man 3" and "Total Recall", a bonus movie or deleted by selecting the films to attract audiences or Chinese censorship. The remake of the 2012 film "Red Dawn" has been widely published, including the release of the US, to the North Korean original Chinese antagonists instead. (The film was a flop, and even though the change may have appeased the Chinese government, "Red Dawn" still can not play.) Although all movies to come to China, of course American studies, want to all they can to maximize their opportunities in China, as well as advantages in films that are allowed to be included.

Needless to say, a Western, or even including the assault on Tiananmen Square would be banned in China. I do not think that this fact alone is the cause of a film of this type does not exist. Instead, I guess the major studios want to avoid the risk of being part of a Chinese version of the blacklist of the McCarthy era. Art-House Company Focus Features movie could Greenlight prestige in Tiananmen Square in itself, but its parent company NBCUniversal is unlikely that the risk of Chinese retaliation that could jeopardize the box office results "Despicable Me 2," which grossed nearly $ 53 million in China last year. Each producer, director or star in the context of a film of this type could be prohibited, personally and professionally, from Beijing to Lhasa. While an individual actor or director may be willing to take that risk, producers and studios are reluctant to leave.

There is a great irony in the hatred of the American community of the film in the history of our country, with blacklists while the introduction of this almost total self-censorship on unflattering portraits of the most populous countries in the world . Hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers who do not see a work in theaters today, were able to watch it online or traveling abroad. More importantly, their children and grandchildren have the opportunity to return to these films in their own country and classic.