Name: EL-BUAINÍN VIEIRA MACHADO NUNES
Publication date: 25/07/2019
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| LUÍS EUSTÁQUIO SOARES | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| LUÍS EUSTÁQUIO SOARES | Advisor * |
| SÉRGIO DA FONSECA AMARAL | Internal Alternate * |
| WILBERTH CLAYTHON FERREIRA SALGUEIRO | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: This thesis seeks to analyze the heroes and its related antagonists of the films The
Amazing Spider Man (2012), Man of Steel (2013) and Deadpool (2016). The main
question is: what is the ideology that these characters promote? Considering the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which is the state institution of the
United States (USA), regulatory agency of the production of these films, the
theoretical framework with which the research studies these characters consists
mainly of the concepts of cultural industry (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 1985), of
movie industry (BENJAMIN, 2012), of discourse and ideology (MARX; ENGELS,
2001; EAGLETON, 2003), of cultural industry of American imperialism de (IANNI,
1976), of mastery over the minds (ROMANO, 15 nov. 2016), of Pax Americana
(SOARES, 2015) and of messages and propaganda (COMBS; COMBS, 1994). The
reading of these productions is made from excerpts of the screenplay and their visual
context. These characters are allegoric and they represent dichotomously the good
and the Evil, as I could see in this investigation. The Good is associated to what the
USA, as a State, represents, since its army until the lifestyle that it intends to
promote. The Evil is associated to any discourse that stands in opposite to its good,
to a greater or lesser extent. I chose these films because they were the most
successful among the ones that tell the story of the origin of a hero up to 2016, when
this study started. That is to say, billions of people around the world saw these films
and the impact that this phenomena can cause might not be calculated. In identifying
themselves with the main characters, who always have a tragedy in their fictitious
family life, audience tends to choose the Good side; that is, they tend to choose the
American ideological version of the world, submitting themselves to the Pax
Americana and to its mastery of the minds.
Keywords: cultural industry; superhero; cinema; ideology.
