What’s wrong with movies these days?
June 25th, 2007 ~ Pop goes the cultureAs sometimes happens, the conversation that emerged from this post became more interesting than the original post, and so I’m bringing the conversation into a new post. Make sense?
Barbara commented:
The last time I saw a full house at the cinema was for the three installments of the “Lord of the Rings”. Friends in France and Russia report the same phenomenon in their countries. There is an audiencce out there, but apparently it does not desire the sort of films that Hollywood is producing today.
I don’t think the lack of audiences is due to home viewing of DVDs. Going to the cinema is a social event, and the theatre version usually has nicer sound, and there is a rather marked difference in seeing a film on a larger screen. So, the only reason for the decline in audience has to be viewer disgust with the visual pap were are offered.
The phrase “viewer disgust” absolutely sums up how I feel about it, but I didn’t know whether it was fair to apply that generally or not. But I suppose I don’t care — I’m getting sick of how obtuse the entertainment industry is and how completely unwilling they are to fix their own problems, so I’m willing to go on a short screed.
I will grant these guys that the changes in technology and the problems of video piracy mean that they’ve got challenges that are out of their control, but I think they could ride those things out if they continued to offer the public a product good enough to merit what they want to charge for it. For the reasons that Barbara gives, I would rather go to a theater than watch a movie at home if I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be an unsatisfactory experience.
The country (heck, the world) is in need of good storytellers now more than ever. And the entertainment industry swears that it wants to make a profit. And yet, box office successes like the Ring trilogy, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Passion of the Christ” are ignored so that we can be offered what? Two different films (”Capote” and “Infamous“) coming out a year apart about Truman Capote writing “In Cold Blood”? There’s something sinister to me in needing to make sure that we all got to see a morally-challenged egotist writing about the brutal murder of an innocent family.
So are we really supposed to miss the fact that moviemakers are in the business of putting out messages? And if the messages don’t sell, is the answer really to keep putting them out in a slightly different package? How many times have we seen movies tell us that religious people are dangerous, traditional values are irrelevant, counter-culturism is virtuous and all the rest of the tired lexicon of failed secular dogma?
They wonder why the public is tired of them. I actually wonder why they’re not tired of themselves.
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June 25th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Hellywood is the biggest, best financed self referencing propoganda brainwashing machine in the world outdone only by prime time television, possibly. Are producers and writers savvy and purposeful philosophers? No, they are merely unthinking, uncritical non-philosophers who are immersed in the spirit of the age and when something like “The Passion” or “Lion, Witch…” go blockbuster they are only capable of reacting and superficially imitating them as “art”.
I have no strong opinions on this matter……..
June 25th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
S-P,
“. Are producers and writers savvy and purposeful philosophers? No, they are merely unthinking, uncritical non-philosophers who are immersed in the spirit of the age and when something like “The Passion” or “Lion, Witch…” go blockbuster they are only capable of reacting and superficially imitating them as “art”.”
Not true. A very good friend of mine just got accepted into the American Film Institute –no small thing, as you know– and this was just after he earned his Masters at St. John’s College in Annapolis MD. St. John’s is a ‘great books school’; lots of thinking and philosophizing going on there, I assure you!
Remarkably, before my wife and I became close with my pal and his wife, I felt much the same as you. But listening to him talk about movies (not the mass-marketed, sophomoric pap) and screen writing has actually given me a renewed interest in film as a medium, and somehow my NetFlix queue is now overflowing.
I’m just saying that there are people out there who are actual thinkers and have insight into the human condition and how we struggle through today’s world. It’s unfortunate that we have to look for them sometimes, but they’re there. FWIW.
—–
Hi Grace! ;)
June 25th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Woo hoo! Who knew you had a flame-thrower on you? Well, I’d come running to their aid, but unfortunately I agree with you.
I remember a cartoon that came out after “Titanic” was such a monstrous hit. One half was titled “In a dream world…” and featured Hollywood types around a table saying “So it turns out that the public will still respond to good writing, good characters, a good plot, gripping action and historical relevance!”
The other half was titled “In the Real World” and featured the same group saying, “Let’s make more movies with water in them.”
I used to just think they were dense, but nobody is this dense. I think you’re right, they’re propagandists.
Oh, but I’m glad you finally got around to watching “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” At the rate you’re going, you should make it to “Titanic” in just another 20 years or so.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
LOL! Actually I’ve been watching “The Holy Grail” since it came out on the big screen originally. I’ve had it in Beta, VHS, and now DVD. My kids can’t believe I can quote whole scenes. “Titanic”? Probably never. Leonardo’s best performance was in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”. I really thought he was “retarded” (I worked with kids like that…his performance was astounding, he should have won an Oscar for THAT.) The movie I MIGHT just see… Die Hard 4. For some goofy reason I love Bruce Willis when he plays the sarcastic tongue in cheek parts. He was great in Moonlighting (at least the one episode I saw), his best flick was “The Last Boy Scout” (not “Sixth Sense”), and welll…. he’s just cool when he’s blowing things up.
I guess its a guy thing…. sigh……
June 26th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
s-p:
I thought of another one you and your wife might like, if you haven’t seen it: Princess Bride. Sort of reminds me of “Holy Grail”, but without the dangerous rabbit.
Can’t help you with the guy thing. I look at movies where a lot of stuff gets blown up and think “Who the heck is going to clean up that mess?”
June 26th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Hi Jim!
I’d like to have a connection into that world — it would give me a little hope. But I think I’d have a lot more if someone who has all the good qualities you list would be one of the ones trusted to make the next blockbusters. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the current flock of nihilists will rule the roost for some time. It’s really hard to change an entire culture. Glad to know there are people trying, though.
Still, I would imagine that in film right now the situation is the same as it is in most other avenues of culture — the monopolies of the “Big Interests” has been shattered and there are opportunities for smaller alternative pockets to get their message out. So even if it’s only making YouTube videos or independent films with no stars, they might get a chance to bypass the big Hollywood types. That’d be nice — I’d like to hear from someone else for a change.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Everyone,
BTW, going back to my original disgust about the entertainment chatterers crowing about what a record-breaking summer they were going to have, it looks like they’re having to admit that it was just wishful thinking.
From Reuters (HERE): “Hollywood’s hope for record summer fades”.
It’s worth the whole article just for the mention of “widely hyped sequels like “Spider-Man 3″ that opened to huge ticket sales but failed to keep audiences returning the way their predecessors did.” Thank you, thank you, American public, for restoring my faith in human decency. “Spiderman III” had to be the DUMBEST sequel I’ve seen. And that’s saying plenty.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hi Grace,
We actually have Princess Bride… yeah, another one of my faves, actually.
A clean movie can actually be good…. why don’t they make more like it?
sigh….
June 27th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Grace, s-p, Jim and all else who read and lurk: I just finished a class on film and truly enjoyed it. One significant revelation (it probably isn’t rocket science here) I took from the class was that making movies is an expensive, tedious, resource heavy and risky enterprise - therefore, they supposedly churn out the formula drivel to keep selling tickets.
On Jim’s point, though, there are many thoughtful artisans out there who are making films that require some thought, that have some depth and are not propaganda machines. Certainly everyone has a story to tell and a message they want to convey, but at least the artisan’s are doing it in a way that is clever and original and make good use of all of the elements of the medium.
One of the films I was required to watch starred Bruce Willis, and it certainly messed with your head - a film called “12 Monkeys” - I had to watch it twice to truly appreciate the director’s concept of time.
Sadly, most of the artisans who are creating these films do not propagate the Christian world view, much less an Orthodox view - it would be great to see more Orthodox believers become involved in filmmaking as I think we could offer something unique in the marketplace.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Nicodemus,
Hooray for artisans! You’d think that eventually there would be a “school” of them that wouldn’t be afraid to look at the Big Questions of Life and at least TRY to dispense with the approved formulae that reduce them down to either:
* your own personal problem
* something you can completely forget once you’ve satisfied some primal urges
* someone else’s headtrip
* the gods being capricious
… or whatever other weird thing is fashionable that week. People seem willing to entertain the most outrageous possibilities for Why We’re Here, What Life is About etc., ANY hypothesis as long as it’s not what came from the Church and the Gospels.
But anyway, there’s opportunity in the current environment where amateurs have at least a podium (if not much of a paycheck). Right now, it’s a big free-for-all, and you only have to venture onto YouTube to discover that it’s near jungle-rule as far as what message gets out there. The still, quiet voice of mere Christianity can never hope to out-number the other messages, and it certainly can’t out-shout them (I wouldn’t think the Devil himself could do that these days), but it can be the one that gets remembered, that gets people thinking. In that way, I suppose nothing much has changed in the last couple millennia.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:00 am
What about trailers? Can we all agree that movie trailers are the highest and most entertaining art form of our age? :)
June 29th, 2007 at 11:20 am
The summer has for many years been a notorious wasteland for ‘thoughtful’ films while the industry shifts to high-energy-special-effects-blockbuster and silly comedy releases. I think it’s some bastardized version of the ancient and venerable practice of campaigning on the battlefield in summer and then sitting around the fire and quietly telling stories in the winter.
But seriously, for an example of what Jim Nee is talking about in thoughtful filmaking, I might recommend “The Namesake” which probably is just leaving theatres and will be shortly (or perhaps is) on the DVD rack at the rental shops.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Greg,
You missed it. We gave trailers two thumbs up way back HERE and HERE
June 29th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Eric,
Thanks for the recommendation. I went and reserved it on Netflix — it isn’t available yet, but will be soon, I expect.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
It’s an excellent book, too. I’d recommend.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:12 am
Hello…I Googled for bride from russia, but found your page about s wrong with movies these days?…and have to say thanks. nice read.