Over the past decade or so, much air has been wasted on debating whether the world should take Donald Trump literally or seriously. Or neither. Or both. The only indisputable conclusion is that no proposed scheme is too deranged for him to give it at least a half-hearted crack.
Who can therefore blame the world’s film-makers for wincing at the US president’s recent proposal to slap a 100 per cent tariff on films “produced in Foreign Lands”?
“Honestly, we’re all scratching our heads,” Ed Guiney, one of the founders of the Irish production company Element Pictures, said this week.
The film community had some difficulty making sense of the scattershot statement. Trump’s initial focus on “Other Countries” (he lives to capitalise all things Abroad) offering incentives to US film-makers suggested his concern was Hollywood productions shooting overseas.
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Donald Trump says the US is in danger of ‘messaging and propaganda’ from international cinema. Pull the other one
It has long been commonplace for the American industry, profiting from tax incentives and lower labour costs, to film thousands of kilometres from Sunset Boulevard. Ireland has done well from such incoming investment over the past decades. Who would not be concerned?
But the statement, in its most bizarre passage, appeared to be also swiping in a different direction. “This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat,” he said. “It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
[ Trump film tariffs could hit thousands of jobs in Ireland, industry figures warnOpens in new window ]
What the hell is he talking about? We must surely read this as concern at films originating in foreign parts (or should that be “Foreign Parts”?) poisoning frail American minds with their decadent social attitudes.
The upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was shot largely in the UK, with additional filming in Malta, South Africa and Norway. On the evidence of the last M:I film, we are unlikely to see much anti-American “propaganda”.
What there is will surely have little to do with the film touching down in Valletta and the English Lake District. The “messaging” would be the same if Tom Cruise were doing his abseiling in Cleveland.
No, Trump here seems to be railing against actual foreign movies. You know? Films in French, Spanish and Mandarin. Maybe even one or two in Irish. He seems to believe overseas cinema is having an undue influence on the American mind. How to put this delicately? As if!
There are suggestions of the quota China imposed on films not produced by domestically licensed production companies. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this strategy, the authorities can point to American films that have landed enormously in China. Avengers: Endgame took about $500 million there. The Fast & Furious films are also hugely popular.
There is no such challenge from abroad at the US box office. Get away from the nut-loaf art houses of the coastal metropolises and there is nothing but the Rock and the Cruise from sea to shining sea.
There were, towards the end of Trump’s first term, signs of his uneasiness about pesky foreign titles polluting American souls. In early 2020, after Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite became the first film not in English to win the best-picture Oscar, Trump pulled on the nativist tabard and ran up the corresponding flag.
“What the hell was that all about? We’ve got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of it they give them the best movie of the year?” he said. “Let’s get Gone with the Wind. Can we get, like, Gone with the Wind back, please?”
It may be only a coincidence that he picked a film romanticising the antebellum south over a ruthless satire on economic inequality. (To be fair, he also mentioned Sunset Boulevard, revealing at least a smidgen of good taste.) But the impression remained of a man keen on shutting out all disruptive foreign influences. You know? Like Enver Hoxha in postwar Albania.
In truth, the US has never had much affection for movies originating outside the 50 states. Even British films can be a hard sell. Just observe how, earlier this year, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, ultimately a smash in most other anglophone territories, was not even granted a theatrical release in Trumpland.
You will struggle to find a genuinely foreign film among the 100 highest-grossing films released in the United States in 2024. No, Bob Marley: One Love, at number 23, was developed and financed by Paramount. Okay, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a box-office disappointment at 33, is an Australian story, but it would never have made it on to the screen without Warner Bros. The closest to a genuine overseas release is the Japanese animation Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, way down at 76.
So, no, the US is in no danger of “messaging and propaganda” from international cinema. There is as much possibility of such indoctrination happening via free jazz, imagist poetry or equestrian dressage. Chance would be a fine thing.
