Why does Europe hate us?
It’s
a question that comes to mind for many Americans when they see French
farmers attacking McDonald’s outlets or read opinion polls proclaiming
that one out of two Europeans sees America as playing a mainly negative
role in the world. “The Anti-Americans” not only
explores this pointed query with disarming humor, but also provides
powerful insight, told from the “other” point of view.
“The Anti-Americans (a hate/love relationship)”, airing Monday, August 27, at 9:00 p.m. on KUED-Channel 7,
is a whimsical yet serious look at the estrangement between Europeans
and Americans, especially in the era of the Iraq war. The documentary
travels to Ireland, France, Poland and Great Britain to examine the
thesis that each country responds to American culture and society in a
unique way, based on its own cultural needs, history and prejudices.
“The Anti-Americans” is one of the wide array of documentaries commissioned as part of the celebrated AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS
series. This initiative, created by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (CPB), was designed to create an in-depth, provocative
series of films exploring the challenges confronting the world
post-9/11.
“The Anti-Americans (a hate/love relationship)”
is a telling travelogue. In each country the film visits, viewers get a
taste of the resentment many Europeans feel for the American goliath.
In Dublin, the Irish capital, America, much to the delight of a
night-club audience, is the target of an inspired pair of Irish rappers
called White Cholera. The scene sets the tone; America is to be sneered
at, laughed at and feared.
Perhaps
no European country inspires more anger among Americans than France,
and the film demonstrates that the feeling is mutual. At the studios of
Les Guignols de l’Info (News Puppets), viewers meet what has become for
many French the embodiment of American might and attitudes — a series
of Sylvester Stallone puppets (les Slys), which display all the
arrogance, ignorance and bluster that the French assign to their Yankee
allies. These puppets represent the reach of American power —
economically, militarily, even religiously.
To
the French, the American dominance even extends to their beloved
tongue. There are 19 committees within the government’s Ministry of
Culture charged with crafting French words for English terms. The film
takes viewers to a remarkable meeting of one of these panels as they
discuss the merits — or, as they see it, lunacy — of the term “airbag.”
What
the French call joie de vivre Americans view as a lack of drive and
ambition. This conflict becomes clear in the small southern French town
of Montauban, where the barbs are sharp and the anxieties heartfelt,
all brought on in large measure by the American behemoth that is our
popular culture, often represented by McDonald’s golden arches.
Yet
the idealized French image of their lives is dashed in the housing
projects that surround the country’s major cities. Here immigrant
youths struggle to break into what they view as a closed society. “The Anti-Americans” visits with a group of aspiring rappers, Grand Boulevard, who feel that America offers opportunity for all.
French
commentator Clotaire Rapaille sums it up: “The key for the French is
very simple: ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Not ‘I do, therefore I am.’ …
So the French think, and they think they think for the rest of the
world. And there is one thing that they are absolutely sure [of]: the
Americans don’t think.”
Are
Franco-American relations salvageable? One would think not after a
visit to Lycee Henri IV, an exclusive Parisian school where future
French leaders are educated. The children are asked to draw their image
of America — and it’s not pretty. One young girl puts it succinctly:
Americans “are massacring the planet.”
But
Americans have friends in Poland, right? Maybe. Many Poles view the
United States as their protector after the horrific Nazi occupation
that was followed by a half-century of communism under the Soviet
thumb. The film features a number of Poles who have a genuine affection
for America, including Michael Lonstar, a leading Polish
country-western singer. Lonstar has brought the image of the country
musician to life, dressing like a contemporary cowboy and orchestrating
a dance troupe named “Sexy Texas.” But while Americans may be amused,
Lonstar speaks poignantly about how American music and imagery helped
him and his countrymen through the bleak years of communism.
At
Piknik Country, one of the oldest and largest country music festivals
in Eastern Europe, viewers learn of one of the obstacles to real
harmony between Poland and the United States: the American visa policy.
A limited number of visas for Poles may be seen as wise management by
the State Department, but it is an insult to the Poles, longstanding
allies who were even part of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.
A
pair of opinionated Warsaw taxi drivers provides real insight. On a
tour of their city, they point out numerous projects made possible by
foreign capital, mostly American. To them, it is merely the latest
chapter in a centuries-old story of the foreign invasion of Poland.
The final stop on “The Anti-Americans”’
magical whimsical tour is Great Britain, the mother country and an
empire that handed off power to the United States 60 years ago. Our
respective governments have proclaimed the “special relationship”
between America and Britain, and the Brits have embraced this idea
throughout their society. Yet British citizens are constantly brought
up short when Americans seem totally unfamiliar with the concept.
Britons
— especially intellectuals and commentators — revel in pointing out the
weirder extremes of American life. They also feel far superior to
Americans — more gracious, more intelligent, less brash. A group of
British teenagers is asked to spout what an American would say in
London. “Omigod!” seems to be the extent of the American discourse.
The
British fascination with American zaniness and lack of taste comes
together in Jerry Springer: The Opera. A hit in London’s West End, the
production encompasses all the ridiculousness and profanity of a
typical Springer show, including a KKK chorus line and fat men dressed
as babies. “The Anti-Americans” includes excerpts from the opera and illuminating interviews with the show’s creators.
As
journalist and scholar Tony Judt said, “America is so present in
everyone’s lives, so present in everyone’s minds, in their references.
Everyone wants to be American without losing the right to say that
America is misbehaving. So there’s this sort of permanent love/hate
relationship.”
The
film suggests that, while opinions wax and wane, underneath it all are
some fundamentally unvarying attitudes toward the U.S., often based on
Europe’s own psychological and political needs. Clearly, the
transatlantic conversation will continue to be shocking and amusing for
some time to come.
