Galen Anderson
American Factory
I saw American Factory at the Schiede showing and my first response was that it made me think about what it means to be an American. This isn’t really a revolutionary thought, since the film centers on the workings of a Chinese run factory in the United states, but I had just seen Marty Supreme about a week before so I was considering the concept specifically as it pertains to work and income going in. The film has a centerline of these two people, one Chinese and one American, both working at this plant. The plant is an automotive glass factory that is a piece of a larger body that originates from China.
These guys and their relationship kind of represent what makes the two cultures and their people similar, what makes every person somewhat similar, even aside from the discussion of how they both fit into the working culture of the factory, which is another large theme in the movie. They interact with each other with compassion. There’s this scene with the Chinese protagonist where he talks about his family back home who he doesn’t get to see since he works in the US, while smoking on a balcony. He is actively being kept captive by a system that does not really care about his wellbeing or happiness. He is smoking this cigarette – popularized in the United States. He is working at an automotive glass factory – an industry that began in the United States. The United States has a grip on every day of his life. He still goes into the workplace and shows kindness to this American who is otherwise almost totally inconsequential to his life. I think this is probably the point of the movie.
Marty Supreme along with other American cultural works like Top Gun and Die Hard show this combative way to a successful life, but after watching American Factory I don’t think it has to be that way. For people who do work, and live with workers, the top isn’t the priority. There is something else that keeps these people going. In the end credits of this movie it is written that the wage in the plant did not increase for a few years after the movie was filmed. This is hard to imagine without working at the plant, why you wouldn’t move out of a place that has seemingly no regard for your condition after so long. Living in the midwest, probably the most American part of America can sometimes feel like this. I frequently find myself asking why I’m here. I think it’s probably because of the people.
Galen Anderson
American Factory
I saw American Factory at the Schiede showing and my first response was that it made me think about what it means to be an American. This isn’t really a revolutionary thought, since the film centers on the workings of a Chinese run factory in the United states, but I had just seen Marty Supreme about a week before so I was considering the concept specifically as it pertains to work and income going in. The film has a centerline of these two people, one Chinese and one American, both working at this plant. The plant is an automotive glass factory that is a piece of a larger body that originates from China.
These guys and their relationship kind of represent what makes the two cultures and their people similar, what makes every person somewhat similar, even aside from the discussion of how they both fit into the working culture of the factory, which is another large theme in the movie. They interact with each other with compassion. There’s this scene with the Chinese protagonist where he talks about his family back home who he doesn’t get to see since he works in the US, while smoking on a balcony. He is actively being kept captive by a system that does not really care about his wellbeing or happiness. He is smoking this cigarette – popularized in the United States. He is working at an automotive glass factory – an industry that began in the United States. The United States has a grip on every day of his life. He still goes into the workplace and shows kindness to this American who is otherwise almost totally inconsequential to his life. I think this is probably the point of the movie.
Marty Supreme along with other American cultural works like Top Gun and Die Hard show this combative way to a successful life, but after watching American Factory I don’t think it has to be that way. For people who do work, and live with workers, the top isn’t the priority. There is something else that keeps these people going. In the end credits of this movie it is written that the wage in the plant did not increase for a few years after the movie was filmed. This is hard to imagine without working at the plant, why you wouldn’t move out of a place that has seemingly no regard for your condition after so long. Living in the midwest, probably the most American part of America can sometimes feel like this. I frequently find myself asking why I’m here. I think it’s probably because of the people.