2018年英语四级美文：What is a Typical American Film?

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　　What is a Typical American Film?

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　　Is there such a thing as a typical American film?

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　　It is true that there are many features that mark a movie as American,

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　　but perhaps the most essential feature is the theme of the loner-hero.

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　　From the earliest days of silent films

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　　until the recent extravagant science fiction films,

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　　the American movie has concentrated on the role of one individual

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　　who spends his or her life combating the forces of evil —

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　　and the good guy, the hero,

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　　usually wins by the end of the film.

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　　In the western movie,

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　　which comes out of many legends of the American West,

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　　a typical figure is the lonesome cowboy.

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　　He wanders into a town and straightens out its troubles.

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　　Those troubles can be cattle rustlers or out-laws.

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　　Then the strong and independent hero fades off into the sunset alone.

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　　Americans like this image in their films

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　　because they are highly independent themselves,

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　　and individualism counts a great deal with them.

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　　An individual who is able to correct the evils of the world,

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　　or of a small town, is someone to admire.

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　　Even the gangster movie,

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　　a very popular form of the typical American film,

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　　usually has a hero.

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　　Either he is a lawman out to catch the criminals or a gangster

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　　who suddenly sees the light and tries to go straight.

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　　During the violence?ridden period of Prohibition in the 1920s,

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　　it is natural that the gangster movie would grow in popularity.

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　　These films kept the same tone as the western —

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　　the bad cannot triumph!

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　　One good person can save the innocent.

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　　Recent science fiction films deal with the same themes.

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　　Against the forces of alien powers,

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　　people will fight to protect their ideals.

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　　Here, too, the action centers around a single individual,

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　　but now he or she must save the world.