Spotlighted Hate Crimes in Movies set in the Midwestern Idyll (PDF)

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2014 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Kultur und Landeskunde, Note: 2,3, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The Great Plains and acres of farmland might be some of the first associations one has when thinking about the Midwest. Through various documentaries and movies a certain image of this area has been formed, a stereotypical ideal image so to say. The wide open range of the country is subject to many songs and more so to many movies.

The rural idyll is an expression that everybody can link at least a few thoughts and images to. Mostly, it is not only a stereotypical way of seeing the Midwestern towns and their residents, but it describes the idyll of an American town. Filmmakers and writers widely put this idyll to use with different goals. If either to underline the beauty of a love story or to use the idyll as a way to contrast with a plot telling a gruesome story.
Can the landscape of the Midwest, in the sense of a stereotypical idyll, be utilized to emphasize the brutality of hate crimes?

In order to answer this question, the construction of rural idyll will be explained, as will be the consequent concept of anti-idyll. Further the use of landscape in cinema will be described. In the analysis The Laramie Project (2002) and Boys Don't Cry (1999) will be used to show the utilization of landscape. The last part will explain how the use of idyll and anti-idyll can influence the perception of brutality.