No, I won't harken back to the days when men were men, and women were women, and movies were movies. I'm just stunned by the lack of creativity in film. We have cartoons brought to life; X-men, Spiderman, Transformers. All fun, but they are, after all, cartoons. Then Hollywood gets a movie people like, and they spawn like giant fleas. Star Trek and lots of sequels, Night at the Museum and sequel, the anti-Christian Da Vinci stuff, then back to cartoons with the "Ice Age" franchise, followed by remakes of the "Land of the Lost", and "The Taking of Pelam 1 2 3". The remakes are of 'B' movies, so I guess maybe there's room for improvement, but the plots are so lame I don't really think so.
I read much, and there's some great stuff out there. Hollywood needs to learn how to read. I remember a discussion with my brother about records, about if anyone puts together a concept album anymore (like The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull and The Who did, to name some). No, not going to happen, because the hit is the thing, the sound that will put money in the pockets of the execs. It's not about the music. The movies, it now appears, is all about the execs and income. It was why United Artists was formed; to put the art back in film and curtail the execs. It lasted a little while. Sure I enjoy this new generation of flicks. They're fun. It's just been a lot of years since I've walked out of a movie awed by the story. I've been touched, moved, emotionally engaged, but it's been awhile since I've walked out at the end surprised and enthralled.
The last two movies that totally captured me was "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner" (2002)and "Mongol" (2007).
2 comments:
Sadly, Hollywood knows all too well how to read ... profit reports.
This is just a continuation of the trend we see on television with reality shows. It's about spending the least amount of time (including creative time, thinking time) to produce something that will satisfy people with short attention spans and a craving for the gladiators at the coliseum. We claim to want progress for the country, for humanity, but we don't want to think, we'd rather just sit and watch the same old stuff regurgitated. And on television, it seems that, based on the ratings, what most people in the United States of America want is to watch people curse each other, hurt each other, embarrass each other, lie to each other.
Some will say it's all just an act for the cameras. I'm sure that's partly true, but if you do something long enough, no matter what the reason, it becomes a habit, it becomes ingrained. And if you watch something long enough, you start to see the world that way. People used to have this argument about violent cartoons ... strange how the criticism has gone silent now that we're dealing with human beings. Now we're teaching people that the way to be popular, the way to make money, is by hurting, shaming, embarrassing, humiliating, demeaning, belittling, fellow human beings ... just for the sport of it.
And the "talent" shows? If you only got truly talented people on there in the first place (instead of lots of people who obviously are willing to look like idiots just so they can be on tv), and if the judges were truthful but kind in their ratings ... you'd soon see these shows go away. And you'd hear the wailing of television executives as they realized they now had to put some thought into shows instead of getting rich off people willing to advertise their stupidity to the world for a pittance.
It's interesting how society rails against "corporate America" and rich people who they accuse of ripping off the poorer ones ... yet these same complainers are the ones who condone and encourage the exploitation of middle- and lower-class America via these reality shows. They're kidding themselves. Entertainment executives are laughing laughing laughing at the middle and lower classes, they're laughing as people line up to be humiliated, as people line up to spend their own time and money to be humiliated.
It's sad.
Great commentary, I love this.
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