Film and Popular Culture in The West
Karate spread rapidly in the West through popular culture. In 1950s popular fiction, karate was at times described to readers in near-mythical terms, and it was credible to show Western experts of unarmed combat as unaware of Eastern martial arts of this kind. By the 1970s, martial arts films had formed a mainstream genre that propelled karate and other Asian martial arts into mass popularity.
- The Karate Kid (1984) and its sequels The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), The Karate Kid, Part III (1989) and The Next Karate Kid (1994) are films relating the fictional story of an American adolescent's introduction into karate.
- Karate Kommandos, an animated children's show, with Chuck Norris himself appearing to reveal the episode and the moral contained in the episode.
| Practitioner | Fighting style |
|---|---|
| Sonny Chiba | Kyokushin |
| Hiroyuki Sanada | Kyokushin |
| Sean Connery | Kyokushin |
| Joe Lewis | Shorin-ryu |
| Fumio Demura | Shitō-ryū |
| Takayuki Kubota | Gosoku-ryu |
| Dolph Lundgren | Kyokushin |
| Richard Norton | Gōjū-ryu |
| Wesley Snipes | Shotokan |
| Jean-Claude Van Damme | Shotokan |
| Cynthia Luster | Gōjū-ryu |
| Michael Jai White | Shotokan |
| Tadashi Yamashita | Shorin-ryu |
Many other film stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Phillip Rhee, Don "The Dragon" Wilson come from a range of other martial arts.
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Famous quotes containing the words film, popular, culture and/or west:
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—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)
“You are, I am sure, aware that genuine popular support in the United States is required to carry out any Government policy, foreign or domestic. The American people make up their own minds and no governmental action can change it.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“We were young, we were merry, we were very very wise,
And the door stood open at our feast,
When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes,
And a man with his back to the East.”
—Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907)