World Politics on Screen: Understanding International Relations through Popular Culture, by Mark Sachleben. University Press of Kentucky, 2018.
The World That We Watch
Unlike the news, which is mostly based on real-world events and historical facts, motion pictures are neither real or factual. They can be based on history and actual people, but by their very nature they are interpretative and exaggerated fictions. But what they do reflect most effectively is how the popular culture sees the world, explains itself, and learns from experiences.
"The stories we tell each other describe who we are, who we want the world to think we are, and what we think the world looks like. Stories become the metaphors for our lives," says Mark Sachleben in World Politics on Screen, a film study text that explores the curious relationship of politics and popular culture.