Hollywood Goes Global

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Editorial Section -- "Comment" column

Published March 3, 2006

Hollywood goes global
Special Oscar international IQ test

By Allan E. Goodman, president of the New York-based Institute of International Education

More Americans watch the Oscars than the TV evening news. Even if that were not the case, the networks devote less than five minutes per night to world events, so the average adult American learns little about the world from newscasts. Just 1 in 5 Americans has a passport, and 87 percent of college-educated adults in this nation cannot locate Iraq on a map; 65 percent can't find France. Fewer than 1 percent of American college students study abroad.

To compete in the global marketplace and to continue to lead in meeting the world's challenges, Americans need to raise their international IQ.

Perhaps as we watch the Academy Awards show Sunday, we might think about movies' power to take us to distant places and into issues that are shaping our world. While our attention for the news may be limited, Americans seem to have an insatiable appetite for movies, and fortunately there are numerous foreign themes in this year's most popular films. So, in addition to guessing which movie will earn Best Picture honors, we can test ourselves in the first Hollywood Goes Global quiz:

    1     George Clooney's "Syriana" is a political thriller set in an unnamed oil-producing Arabian Gulf country. Can you name the five countries that supply the largest amount of oil to the United States?

    2     The diplomat-husband (Ralph Fiennes) in "The Constant Gardener" is assigned to what country? Can you find it on a map?

    3     What was the name of the principal terrorist organization active when the events depicted in "Munich" took place and with whom Black September was affiliated? Who was its leader?

    4     Before Edward R. Murrow worked for CBS in the events depicted in "Good Night and Good Luck," where did he work? And what agency of government was he appointed to head when he left CBS?

    5     "Why We Fight" contains video of the warning of President Dwight Eisenhower about how our foreign involvements often entangle the U.S. in military conflicts. What other U.S. president warned about the same thing? What else did he and Eisenhower have in common?

    6     "Memoirs of a Geisha" is filmed in the ancient capital of Japan. What makes this city unique in the history of World War II?

    7     "The New World" is about the first immigrants to America. How many immigrants does the U.S. currently get on a daily basis?

    8     "Downfall" is about the last days of Hitler. What two elected heads of state today deny that the Holocaust happened? What two European political party leaders have expressed similar doubts?

    9      Academy Award winners Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier all practice (or did) the exercise method Pilates. Why was it developed?

    10     "The Brothers Grimm" featured in the movie wrote what was to become the most popular book ever published in Germany. How were the brothers' political views received?

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Answers

    1     Canada is the leading supplier of oil to the U.S., followed by Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria.

    2      Kenya. It is between Uganda and Somalia.

    3     Palestine Liberation Organization. Yasser Arafat.

    4      Institute of International Education, where he spearheaded the Emergency Committee to rescue displaced scholars before World War II; United States Information Agency.

    5     George Washington; they were both commanding generals before being elected president.

    6      Kyoto was never bombed in order to preserve the cultural heritage.

    7     One every 31 seconds; it's probably twice that if illegal immigrants are included.

    8     Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (president of Iran) and Mahmoud Abbas (president of the Palestinian National Authority). Jean-Marie Le Pen (France's National Front) and Joerg Haider (Austria's Freedom Party).

    9     Interned as an "enemy alien" in England during World War I, Joseph Pilates developed his famous exercises, using the springs of hospital beds, to strengthen fellow internees and rehabilitate victims of the 1918 flu pandemic.

    10      The brothers lost their university jobs because they objected to the breach of the constitution by the king of Hanover, who sought to provide security and peace at the expense of civil rights.