How Hollywood and US Foreign Policy Mirror Each Other to Produce Surrealism

As a soft power tool, Hollywood has successfully exported American values, ideals, and exceptionalism to the world. In a way, this influence has shaped global perceptions on how Americans view themselves and how the world views the country. As art imitates life, it is only natural that Hollywood came to produce films that deal with US foreign policy (US FP) issues. Over the years a solid relationship between Hollywood films and US FP has grown so intricately, that some argue that the US government is an un-named producer on films that portray themes on US FP. It is not only the US FP that influences Hollywood, but the surrealism or ‘make believe’ narratives that Hollywood produces can be seen in the way US FP creates its own narratives, which sometimes appear detached or self-absorbed, as if operating in an isolated bubble. This two-way mimicking phenomenon is referred to as ‘mirroring’. There are number of points to this protocol namely: re-scripting, desensitizing, how intelligence agencies are framed, how racism and stereotyping injected with the Hollywood ending, and the unapologetic Hollywood hero, and film accolades are presented. This paper unpacks what is termed as the ‘mirroring protocol’ to explain the relationship between Hollywood and US FP.