Excavating American Values in Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (2002) Movie by Rudi sujarwo
Abstract
This study looks at how Rudy Soedjarwo's 2002 Indonesian film Ada Apa Dengan Cinta portrays American ideals. Using Robert Kohls' (1984) framework of American values and Stuart Hall's theory of representation, this study uses a descriptive qualitative approach to find and examine cultural signs and symbols incorporated into the story and visual components of the movie. The analysis shows that the film's ideological fabric prominently incorporates a number of American values, such as individualism, personal freedom, the pursuit of self-expression, informality in social relationships, and the emphasis on romantic love as a personal choice. According to the results, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta serves as a cultural text that mediates and negotiates Western, especially American, value systems for domestic audiences in addition to being a love story set in a modern Indonesian setting. This essay contends that the movie is a reflection of larger cultural globalization processes in which local representations of youth, identity, and romance are reshaped by transnational media influences.
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