Oscar and The Death of Movies
I read the list of this year’s Oscar nominations and thought at once, “The movies are over.”
This is not to say that the movies are bad. Not to say that the people making them are untalented. Not to say that some films don’t make money. It’s simply to point out that the form is sinking into social irrelevance.
Every art form has peaks and valleys of relevance. Shakespeare could say of stage actors that they were “the abstract and brief chronicles of the time,” whose portrayals could destroy a reputation. Percy Bysshe Shelley could declare with a straight face that poets were “the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” James Joyce could have a budding intellectual novelist proclaim — with youthful grandiosity but not without legitimacy—that he was setting out on his career, “to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.” Which stage actor — which poet — which intellectual novelist — could say such things today and be taken seriously by anyone but his doting mother?
So too, there was a generation of movie makers—several generations—who brought the dreams of the world to life. Neal Gabler in Empire of Their Own talked about how movies once “colonized the American imagination,” and in the same vein Geoffrey O’Brien called film The Phantom Empire because it captured — in more senses than one — the way people thought and felt about their country and the world. But the list of nine Oscar nominees shows how far the art form has receded from its imperial moment. As John Nolte at Big Hollywood pointed out, only one of the nine nominees — The Help — was a major hit, and the films of the year that were major hits — Rise of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: First Class — weren’t Oscar-worthy. In other words, Hollywood is less and less capable of making important pictures of high quality that the general public wants to see.
In a wonderful post earlier this year, Nolte offered his advice for how to bring the movies back to full vigor: give us real movie stars, stop insulting America and Americans, emulate the NFL’s respect for its audience, etc. But I wonder if Doctor John might be writing a prescription for a patient who has already died.
Films are kind of boring nowadays. They rely a great deal on verisimilitude to suspend one’s disbelief but then violate that by their casting right off the bat, putting a black god in Thor and Nick Fury becomes black and casts look more like the cast of “Glee” or “Rent” than a movie that should subvert such considerations to the material. That type of social engineering/tokenism doesn’t play very well in film because it simply draws too much attention to itself, like a poem where every T is capitalized because of some current fad – I can’t forget the Ts.
Some films don’t play into that at all, such as the Bourne films, but at other times we’re breathing a sigh of relief that Lord of the Rings didn’t have Shaq as a 7ft tall ogre. The politically correct casting of movies and even worse, TV, smacks of the “world that should be” mentality, like I need to be told to go out and recruit some minority to make my neighborhood look better. The Republican Party is doing this and I think it is a huge mistake. Rather, they should be asking minorities why they are voting by color rather than issues and come and show at least a modicum of racial unawareness by joining the Republican Party like half of white folks do.
Tokenism and social engineering make Hollywood a boring place and perfectly normal movies seem even more unlikely than science fiction. Watch any Bollywood movie and in every single dance scene there is a Sikh in a turban dancing right next to the star, a nod to inclusiveness. Social justice is a term so warped nowadays that it makes me want to be against it just on principle and root for Dr.Doom.
I agree with what you are saying about casting becoming “politically correct”, but I fail to see how that was relevant to the Lord of the Rings movies. If that were the case, there would have been a racial mix of hobbits, elves, and men.
Perhaps what Saile was alluding to was the blast of criticism the LOTR movies received from leftist commentators for making all the Elves good guys and all the Orcs bad guys. Racism, get it? Or perhaps speciesism, though according to Tolkien in The Silmarillion, Morgoth the Enemy bred Orcs from captured Elves whom he twisted and tortured until their natures changed completely.
Also, the LOTR movies had no black actors in prominent roles. Why not cast Denzel Washington as Elrond Halfelven? Why not cast Don Cheadle as Saruman the White? My God, how much more obvious can you get, Peter Jackson, you racist, you!
Never underestimate the Left’s ability to introduce completely irrelevant political ideology into anything at all.
Exactly my point – LOTR didn’t play into the “politically correct” casting either. Reading Saile’s original post, the commenter seems to infer that PJ bent a little bit, but stopped short of casting Shaq as a 7ft troll (interesting image). I don’t see that at all. In fact, if anything, PJ stayed very true to the original intent of the novels, even at the expense of getting some leftist panties in a bunch.
Honestly, who cares what Charles Barkley or Denzel Washington think about the “diversity” of a particular work? It’s not their work, and the fact that they see things through the prism of race just points to their own hypocrisy.
You really can’t claim that some themes have universal meaning, and then in the next breath claim only blond haired, blue eyed white guys can play them. I think the fact that some people are bothered by seeing a black face where they expected a white one, are simply displaying their own lack of imagination. You know doubt have a problem with all those Shakespearean plays, moved to Japan by Kurosawa. Do you also complain about “The Seven Samurai” being remade as “The Magnificent Seven”? Or “Yojimbo” being redone as a “Fistful of Dollars”?
You’re missing my point: I liked comic characters Luke Cage and The Black Panther as a kid. If they were made into movies should a white guy play them? If they did the Left would howl and people would cry “why.” That’s not going to happen because this tokenism only works in one direction. Having a black god in Thor is plain imbecility. Let Luke Cage be black and Thor’s realm white, I don’t want to be reminded of stupid multicult social engineering when trying to enjoy fantasy.
Mike Giles, are you serious? How can you make the argument that universal themes can withstand different races in the same movie (no matter the content, time of place, etc.) and then use movies that took the same theme but applied it to different cultures and settings but stayed true enough to the setting to make suspension of disbelief more likely.
I don’t want to see white actors in a Kurosawa movies when its about feudal Japan. I don’t want to see black actors. I want the actors that look like they could have come from feudal Japan.
Like most liberal arguments yours turns on itself. Why have women and minorities play parts at all. Why not have males play female roles like they once did. Why not have Paul Muni types in every Hong Kong film. After all he was fine in The Good Earth in 1937. Why not have white males only in all roles given some themes are universal. Oh right. Then it wouldn’t be authentic.
I think that there is a difference here between theatre and cinema. Theatre audiences are used to a black Henry V, Indian Olivia, or Chinese Mark Antony (yes, I’ve seen all of those). They are also used to seeing the expected settings of plays transplanted through time and space.
Cinema-goers, I believe, expect a more literal presentation, where, I’m afraid, it’s harder to get away with, for instance, a non-white Hamlet. Where film is concerned, translating the production entirely to a new milieu (Japan, South Africa, Nigeria) may work, but that’s not the same as having a black Hamlet and a Chinese Ophelia in the same production on film.
Regarding the Japanese “Ran”, based on “King Lear”, I think it’s a train-crash. Possibly for Japanese cultural reasons, the makers belittled the important role of Regan (and hence that of the trinity of daughters), pretty well missing the whole point of the play.
I understand that there are very good Italian translations of Shakespeare, but the Italians also invented the great proverb: tradutore, traditore.
Let’s put it in a way Mike might understand cuz this fear of a black face thing smacks of imbecility so let’s take that away.
I don’t want to see Jerry Lewis playing Indiana Jones cuz he financed it and I don’t want to see Don Rickles playing Sherlock Holmes and I don’t want to see the Fantastic Four as all-female and I don’t want to see the WRONG faces in the WRONG places – it has nothing to do with race per se but casting the damn movie to strength and not outside weakness that really has nothing to do with the film.
Yeah, I don’t see what you’re saying about race… Who cares if a Norse god is depicted as African American..? or African Scandinavian, for that matter. Samuel Jackson – who can be tiresome – is a kickass Nick Fury.
As far as “Tolkienism,” I don’t think a few black faces would have hurt LORD OF THE RINGS. I was surprised the new HOBBIT movie didn’t throw in a few Af-Am Dwarves, just for fun.
African-Americans themselves are a little damaged and self-hating on this topic. The Spike Lee crowd is attacking Viola Davis for daring to play a “black Maid” in THE HELP, for instance. As if these women never existed and don’t deserve to be depicted by modern actresses as full human beings.
That’s cuz the Spike Lee crowd want blacks folks shown as Presidents, astronauts and scientists rather than anything that might reflect an actual reality. The world they live in is coulda, woulda, shoulda cuz reality sucks.
I had no problem at all with either the black god in Thor nor the current Nick Fury. (Nick Fury is often black in modern incarnations of the comics, by the way.)
There is a point where it gets to be too much, but neither of those movies were it for me. Maybe if we had more black actors being given principal roles, like Will Smith, it wouldn’t be such a shock, but it remains that in some ways Hollywood is still very conservative. They’re afraid to risk black actors in principal roles, assuming that “racist middle America” will not go and see such movies. I’d rather they risk it, and see what happens, but as everywhere, Mammon is king ans perception trumps reality.
What the OP was saying was that people were relieved that Peter Jackson did NOT bow to political correctness when he cast LOTR. Instead, he remained true to the spirit of the books.
I think there have always been movie makers who preached at us from the left. Problem today is, the ones we have now just aren’t very good at it. Or maybe the actors aren’t very good at it. I was just reading Tom Joad’s famous scene from The Grapes of Wrath. It’s pure leftist propaganda.
“…one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin’. And I been wonderin’ if all our folks got together and yelled…”
“…maybe I can do somethin’… maybe I can just find out somethin’, just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that’s wrong and see if they ain’t somethin’ that can be done about it.”
And of course, “I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad…”
Any OWS activist, any leftist college professor, any liberal member of Congress, any liberal at all could identify with Tom Joad’s sentiments – would probably identify him/herself with Tom and his plight. But I don’t know of any liberal screenwriter today who could have written those words and I don’t know of any actor today who could speak them as convincingly as Henry Fonda.
Well, Steinbeck was a leftie, as was Fonda, and, Lord, look how his daughter turned out. The communists have owned Hollywood since the late ’20s; on this McCarthy and HUAC were very, very right – and they still are.
My view is that Hollywood has always been populist, which is not at all communist, as so many conservatives believe. The WASP Progressives who were running things when the movies were invented had little use for entertaining the immigrant masses who flocked to the new entertainment.
I am more interested in the fascination with violence and horror movies, that penetrates television as well. I tried to write a little about that here: http://clarespark.com/2012/01/31/the-numbers-game/. The blog is mostly about hyper-violence as an escape from women into the higher masculinity, using Twain and Melville as examples.
The movies pander to a lower common denominator than ever. North American ticket sales are plummeting, but worldwide ticket sales are up. If you try to appeal to an audience as big as the world without offending any major audiences, you end up being unable to make movies about anything remotely resembling human beings. (Observe that to the extent that television is in a golden age, it is mostly on cable with niche audiences with only a fraction of the audience of major motion pictures.)
And to the extent that American conservatives don’t count in the category you cannot offend, well, we are a less important demographic than China or India or Ukraine or Sub-Saharan Africa.
Heroica – That’s a good point about the importance of worldwide sales, but I don’t agree with your conclusion. A story about a virtuous hero is universal, and it’s likely to appeal to American conservatives and people in sub-Saharan Africa. The odd thing is that it doesn’t appeal to the Hollywood studios.
I think it’s a natural process for a field of art to peak then peter out. The one art I know about, classical music, attained perfection around 1800. The composers that followed had to try new things, to push the limits, and unfortunately most of the limits were there for a good reason. I think the same is true for film. Take crime dramas. There were perfect noir films in the 1940′s, compelling character studies of criminals in the 1970′s. Now all that’s left to do is Quentin Tarantino movies, because no one had ever done them before. And no one had ever done them because they’re incoherent and bad.
I’m speaking broadly, of course. It’s possible to still do a great crime film. But you’re doing it with Hitchcock and De Palma looking over your shoulder. If Klavan is right, and time eventually takes the luster off of each art form, then there are going to be postmodern video games in a few decades. I hope that some new medium will have come along by then.
Personally, I’m not too impressed by TV’s current “golden age”. I don’t have pay channels, and the only thing on broadcast TV is reality programming.
Armies in the field have to move around periodically, just to get away from their accumulated waste. Hollywood has been camping on the same spot too long, and the stink’s getting pretty bad. The industry needs to relocate, or at least to scatter a little. Which, thanks to technology that makes moviemaking and distribution cheaper, is just what’s happening.
Apple is trying to make Final Cut the MS Office of film making. The personal computer killed typewriters, the recording industry, and (soon enough) Hollywood.
I wish we could say that media gatekeepers are finished, but judging by the present state of the internet I fear they are simply moving online.
Blame movies on:
1. Lack of critics. The echo chamber its makers live in, where they never ever meet anyone who disagrees with them (c.f., David Mamet addmitted this);
2. Lack of education. Too many film types either dropped out of college (where they might have learned how to think) or studied acting with a minor in social justice;
3. Lack of religion. Without the godly perspective, a person surrounded by sycophants runs the risk of thinking he is more than he is. Belief in a higher power quashes this tendency and helps mankind remember who’s in charge here;
4. Enabling audiences. People who just need to get out of the house often end up at the movies, no matter how bad the films are. Instead of conversation, literature, and physical exercise, they hand over $10 each to the lords of culture, which allows Hollywood to think it is just giving the audience what it wants; and
5. Cost. It’s risky to make a movie that costs hundreds of millions of dollars and must appeal to 12-year-old boys the world over. That’s why we get comic books and nonsensical YA novels as movie sources. Audiences simply do not demand more. Anybody see “Of Gods and Men”? QED.
Lack of education, Kenny? Is college really the place one goes to “learn how to think” these days? Sorry but I’m skeptical. What most universities have become are liberal indoctrination centers, but even before they took this dramatic turn to the left (sometime in the early 1980s, when the flower-children took over the professorships) I am not sure what percentage of first rate filmmakers attended them. Welles, Ford, Hitchcock, Capra, George Stevens, Richard Brooks, Sydney Pollack, et al. — did any of these guys attend a university? I doubt it. (And yeah, that list may be cherry-picked, but there are dozens of other big names I haven’t mentioned)
I think he’s right, they do lack an education. Only, they lack it because they stayed in college instead of dropping out.
And then stayed in Hollywood too. One echo chamber to the next.
Colleges were pretty far to the left during the 1970′s when I went too. I was a Vietnam Vet, and a couple of my hard-left professors literally singled me and other vets out for individual public denigration and ridicule in class when challenged about the tripe they were pushing on us students.
Since I have no cable TV, I have begun buying and watching dvds of several TV series.
It is notable that these are stories that must sell to Americans, not to the Euro or Asian markets. To be successful over time, they must have a good story, with interesting characters, and reasonably good actors. To maintain quality for more than 2 seasons is quite an accomplishment, and should be recognized with more than a ‘special collector’s edition’ dvd.
I wonder why there is not an award for the best of these? My nominees would be ‘Lie to Me’ (Tim Roth); ‘Foyle’s War’; ‘The Closer’; “NCIS”.
Because of many comments on the Interwebs, I have begun to watch “Firefly”. And “Game of Thrones” is causing a lot of comment, too.
I think even technical standards reflect different cultural values. PAL region (typically Asian or European) has better color and resolution at the cost of frames-per-second. NTSC (U.S. and Japan) goes the opposite way to show better motion.
Try “Justified.”
I’d agree with ‘Justified’. After finding its rhythm, the show continues to get better. Try to catch the new ‘Sherlock’ on MasterPiece Theatre. Set in modern day, each episode is better than the previous. Next season starts with ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’, an outstanding production and runs 90 minutes.
I haven’t been in a movie house since the day ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ was released. Have no cause to visit one anytime soon.
This is a very tiny thing … that struck me last night. I only watched the last bits of the SAG awards … or maybe I saw it on the news ….
An actress, I don’t know who she is because I hardly pay attention any more — was being asked about her dress. It had a train. She described how — the mechanics of how — she turns around and walks in it — and then said “I learned how to do that an hour ago.” Such a simple thing, but I thought, “Wow, what a spoiler — I mean — what’s the point of that beautiful dress with it’s long train — if not the image/fantasy it creates? She brought it down to the ordinary — broke the spell. There’s no glamour anymore — nothing to dream about — it’s all just about the kitchen sink.” I miss the days when there was mystery about the “movie stars” — it gave us dreams — set off our imaginations. That’s gone. Sad.
The #1 Hollywood propaganda of the last 5 years or so,is that “Soon,all movies will be in 3D”.
Even if they end up being that way, if they’re the same Leftist BS from Sean Penn,James Cameron,Lars Von Trier,Matt Damon,Leonardo DiCaprio,Tim Burton,Julia Roberts,Johnny Depp,Oliver Stone,Terence Malick,Jack Nicholson,etc,etc,3D won’t make them any more worth sitting – make that suffering – through.
Cameron and his “Avatar” cost some One BILLION dollars. It’s return was One and a HALF BILLION dollars.
Twilight, universally disdained, cheaply produced, cost $40 million, and returned $4 HUNDRED million.
3D is a matter of hope over reality.
oh, the numbers on the first twilight are even better. They publicized some crazy huge amount- you $40 million sounds right- but I’ve heard from bystanders in the industry that the first movie cost less than a fast-food ad campaign. The person said they spent more on their single season of fast-food commercials for a second- tier restaurant chain, than the whole first movie.
Summit went from being, basically, an exploitation/teen movie chop-shop, to a real studio with real industry clout.
It really is the content. It really is the script.
There is another aspect of the Twilight phenomenon: the ongoing politeness and charm shown to the fans by (primarily) Rob Pattinson. The Twilight actors take AGES to go up the carpet, signing posters, posing for pictures, always incredibly pleasant about the whole thing. And they have been doing this for years. Annddd.. they don’t spill their guts about their politics, either. At least, not in public.
Contrast this with George Clooney, who ran along a wire fence (other side was crowded with fans), running his hand along the metal. But then, George doesn’t have to be nice to the peasantry, does he?
Okay, so why are the stars of Twilight routinely portrayed in the gossip pages as rude, shallow and self- centered?
Mr Clooney is consistently portrayed as a misunderstood romantic, a deep thinker, and a clever interview subject.
I know interviews with people who know the actors of Twilight- they say they are charming, humble, hard-working craftsmen. I know I would be upset about enquiries about my private life- so I can see Mr Pattinson being driven to rudeness. But- routinely being misrepresented? I’ve never heard of them being gracious to fans. I’m really glad you wrote about them being kind and gracious.
That’s really infuriating. I wonder if it’s the same sort of thing- Tebowing. I don’t know what their private attitudes are. I know that it seems each of them is deeply involved in some charity or another. I know the supporting characters have all given interviews mentioning their wives and agents, and so on, in most positive ways. I like that. I like that they have, apparently, integrity, decency, and a good sense of privacy. I don’t want to know their appetites. I’m glad they are doing good work. I wish them well.
Have you met them? At this point, I think I’d be squealing and swearing to never wash my hands, just about like a teenybopper faced with Frank Sinatra.
Spot on commentary once again, Mr.Klavan. Please keep us appraised of any MSM critical response–if any of them are brave enough to take you on point for point. (I’m not holding my breath.)
The Western writing of Elmore Leonard sprang to mind when it came to the last couple of paragraphs and you were talking about the best artists and creators moving on to different media, and Art forms coming and going. From what I remember Leonard saying in an interview, he basically decided for market reasons alone–Westerns were becoming an increasingly declining niche market–to switch to character-driven contemporary crime novels. I don’t think that the public was abandoning the Western genre; I think that the practioners of the Western genre were increasingly abandoning the public.
Anyway, kudos and thanks.
Well, could movies go back to the slinking from theatre to theatre, building buzz? B/c then filmmakers would have senses of what works, regionally.
I don’t know that critics have any sense of what they don’t know. My acquaintance, the professional critic- ten years as a published, well-paid critic, a book, awards, all that- had no idea there was a thriving black cinema market, with its own stars, magazines, production companies. It’s a southern thing, I think, and she’d been in the north. Literally had no idea of this segment of the industry.
We see, as a family, one or two movies a year. It’s a hit to the entertainment budget, but it’s special and we budget for it. The conservative films? Somehow, the marketers have no idea how to find our family. We had to drive out of town to the dollar theatre to find The Eagle. The clerk at the movie store was talking about acting technique, and hated it. I had to find a blog post to find out the story line and themes, and that it was in the theatres at all. The video clerk though Kung Fu Panda was better than The Eagle- without noticing that teen boys might prefer, you know, real men with real muscles.
WE drove OUT OF TOWN to find a movie. We live in a town with twenty different theatres showing the same ten films, to find the ONE film about honoring your father, and patriotism and honor.
That is seriously a distribution failure that I cannot fathom. I know the theatre owners have their hands full supervising teenagers popping popcorn, but can’t they drive up to the local conservative/ country radio station and say “hey, we’ve got a film for you”?
That same trip, my daughter and I saw Tangled. Which had been slammed on the right for encouraging rebellion. That’s so stupid, I’m stuck. A girl was freed from the wrong family, and the guy talking about rebellion became part of the good family, and became a good prince. So, even on the right, the critics are taking too much no-doz to think clearly, and cogently.
Say what you will about george lucas and steven spielberg, they put peaches in the peach can, and slap a peach label on it. you know what you’re getting. you know it’s safe. you know it’s sweet. you know your family will enjoy it. I’d love it if more filmmakers could do what they do, in their own special way.
Ari, “Tangled” is a wonderful movie. I have a dvd copy, because it is worth watching more than once.
We TOTALLY bought that DVD as soon as I could pry some money out of the husband’s hands. Little-girl owns Tangled.
As soon as Cinderella comes out again, she’s getting Cinderella. For whatever reason, she’s pretty indifferent to the other Disney movies, so we haven’t even seen them. Which is odd. I was looking forward to snuggling on the couch, popcorn bowl at ready, watching Ariel and Belle find their true loves.
We bought Wall-E.
I haven’t seen any dvd’s available, but we’d buy that gross movie- American Carol, if it came out for less than $20. The kids can still sing “1968.” They think it’s funny, and it gets its point across without preaching too hard.
Tangled- she and I saw in 3-D, and I tell you, I was laughing out loud when the lanterns floated by. 3-D can have an emotional impact. I was also bawling my eyes out when the guy sacrificed himself for her, and then she cried, and her last bit of magic saved his life. Bawling my eyes out, and I’m near Spock-level cold, according to the spouse. He thinks I’m Sheldon on Big Bang, which is just creepy. but still…..
If Valkyrie had taken the three minutes to show Tom Cruise dancing with his wife, to show how towering his love is, it’d be the perfect married date movie- heroism, love, children, glamour, Hitler……as it was, it was cold for women. I mean, Top Gun had the blonde girls- one married to goose, and the one he was courting. They took time for that- why not Valkyrie?
I saw Twilight, too. It got great when Steph Meyer took production control. I hope she has a long, satisfying career as a producer. I’d be a content lemming.
We’ll buy 300 when it goes out of heavy cable rotation. I own Love, Actually, Ever After and Mystic Pizza. I’m not seeing this as a failed formula- real, true love against all odds. Or duty, honor, country…. fit young men having big adventures. Treasure Island has never gone out of print….
Crazy Stupid Love. I’m considering purchasing.
Water for Elephants. A friend said it was the best movie she has seen in 2011.
Other rom coms that still work:
Soapdish!
Legally Blonde.
and
Sense and Sensibility (the Brit one written for screen by Andrew Davies)
and
Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth!)
And tonight: another portion of “Firefly.”
Check out My Body Guard and, for the holidays, The Christmas Tree. Two of my favorite movies though both *really* old. Holden, Virna Lisi, and the inimitable Bouvril are in the second one. I think kids would love them. Ditto the more recent Ruffian.
Also check out http://www.movieguide.org if you don’t already use them. I think they perform a real service and deserve to be supported, whether one is “Christian” or just an ordinary, decent human being.
Most weekends, I make a 50+ mile round trip to see a movie. The local cinema has converted most of its (tiny) theatres to 3-D. But they were offering The Grey so I went Sunday. I try to time things to miss most of the pre-feature schlock, but still catch at least a preview or two. Wildly off this time and after 20 minutes of unimaginable trash, somewhere between tears and vomit, I finally had to get up and leave. It took hours to physically settle down and throw off the visceral revulsion that enveloped me. I actually ended up with a refund of my $2.75. (By God, that’ll show’em, won’t it?
) The final straw, supposedly based on a true story, was about some serial sadomasochist who tortured young women. I can’t tell you what it is because I had my hands over my eyes. I was driven out by their blood-curdling screams, but not before I watched the *little* boy next to me, accompanied by his *father* (who ought to have been hauled outside and slapped silly) soaking it all up like a sponge while mesmerically eating popcorn.
I very much believe in self-fulfilling phrophecies, so giving up without a fight and merely accepting a doomsday scenario about our country is something I strongly reject. Or in the words of St. Augustine, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the result of faith is to see what we believe.” I try really hard to live this. But some days it’s hard. I also believe two other classic lines from the good book: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
What in God’s name are we doing to our children?
I dont go to movies with stars in them who are overtly political. I won’t support someone who is obviously trying to
undermine my beliefs. Matt Damon, George Clooney, etc might as well retire as far as I’m concerned. Maybe my absence will not be noticed, but if more people took this approach the market would ultimately produce the kind of movies we want to see.
A current Clooney movie, Ides of March,is out on pay per view. It should be required viewing for any conservative/Republican as a know your enemy course. Clooney, lefty idiot that he is, thinks he’s talking about the pressures on ideological purity and leftist idealism in the “real world” of running a campaign and dealing with eeeeeeevuuulllll Republicans. What it turns out to be, though, is about as accurate a view into the minds and thought processes of Lefty political operatives and candidates as you’ll ever get. They have no self-awareness!
White Irish Drinkers – see it – live it.
Thought the fella from Star Trek might have potential, Capt. Kirk. We’ll see.
Academy Award-winning Geoffrey Rush is just one perfect example of what Mr. Klavan is talking about. Rush just won Australian of the Year for his contribution to the arts. Not surprisingly, Rush is part of the Aussie left-wing government apologist group that also includes Cate Blanchett. Miss Blanchett currently warps her way through Aussie TV spots warning us of climate change (or Chaos or global warming or whatever other terms it’s morphed into) and why the new federal carbon dioxide tax is such a wonderful thing. A tax, by the way, the now sitting leftist government said they wouldn’t introduce – before the election! Yes, start sweating another 4 years of Obama in power.
As for Rush, he accepted his award with the proclamation that the arts have a role “to put an arts perspective” on climate change, asylum seekers, and gay marriage. Read: entertainment out, propaganda in. Like may lefty actors he also has a unique take on illegal immigration. Here’s a quote: “I put a call out to the writers of Australia. I would love a writer to write a fabulous great miniseries … I want to see the stories of why these people (Afgans, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis) are coming here (Australia) at great peril to their lives with such extraordinary bravery.” Low TV ratings and low box office receipts are seemingly not a problem for his consideration.
Of course, “the actor” leaves out the part of the immigrants expensive plane trip to Indonesia (one of several Islamic countries bypassed to get to welfare-hand-out Australia) and the rickety boat trip from Jakarta to Oz where passports are dumped at sea before the coast guard picks ‘em up. No, he doesn’t call for writers to tell the story of Corporal Mark Donaldson VC, who while with a US and Australian convoy performed Blackhawk Down-like courage to save many including an Afghan interpreter. No, he wants heart-warming stories about passport-dumping illegal immigrants that don’t speak English to be forced on the public. Meanwhile, the gallant real-life Donaldson does beer commercials to raise funds for returned servicemen.
The Australian movie industry is in a laughable state surviving on tax payer handouts and the ticket-buying public, like the American public are not naïve, or plain stupid. Mr. Klavan may be right in saying long live the arts but if “the actors” get their way the world-wide arts community will be a propaganda machine for climate lies, gay stuff, female equality, and open boarders.
I don’t often go to the movies, but I did go to see “Tin Tin.” It is a splendid movie, and I intend to see it again. Why is it not mentioned as among the recently produced movies?
I still enjoy “The Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland, which I recently saw on TV.
Great post as usual, Mr. Klavan. The film industry has seemingly always been pathetic, but I don’t recall a time when it was quite this bad. Isn’t strange how family films tend to do much better than most at the box office, yet are never considered on the same level as the others that tanked? I was shocked to see that The Muppets only got a single nomination when it was one of – if not the only – unabashed successes of the last year. Then again, who still watches the Oscars anyway? It’s always something; last year it was not considering the girl from True Grit as the lead when she clearly was.
It’s not really politics that have killed film.
One thing that has gravely wounded it, like sports, is the price of tickets. It’s just too expensive to go to the theater that often, just like, instead of seeing a dozen or so ballgames each summer, now folks might go see one or two.
More importantly though, just as rap in the 1990s destroyed music as a booming industry, so too has reality TV destroyed storytelling ability. There are so few good films out there because there are so few good stories being written. And half the stories that are written are sequels or remakes — recycled ideas.
Hmmmm, wonder how many Japanese cars were nominated for awards sponsered by the UAW?
The problem for Hollywood is it’s become a closed shop. Maybe not in the strict union sense (though that too), but it’s an isolated community that came to believe it had a perpetual monopoly.
When that happens, someone usually comes along to eat your lunch sooner or later.
This is a curious piece. Something is amiss, that’s for sure. Look, many of you commenting see this story from such a shallow looking glass. People are actually blaming high ticket prices? That is just as much out of touch as anyone can get.
The film business is the TV business and the TV business is the film business. We’re talking about conglomerates now. Not film studios. Wake up everyone. You are not looking at the big picture.
The movie business and the TV business are both failing. TV does not have success like it used to. Everyone looks to cellular phones or ticket prices as the culprit. Hogwash.
To get the big picture, look at a reflection of it. Look at the Soviet Union– Not Russia. The Soviet Union. Can you recall a great Russian film or a great Russian composer circa 1955? What about American?
The problem is Socialism mixed with media companies consolidating. All of film, TV, magazines, news are controlled 100% by conglomerate companies. Everything now is run top down.
The talent has been following the money. Talent is just talent. That’s all it does. So the true artists end up on cable channels where you still have some independent thought. I watched celebrities/stars flock to studio films in the 80′s, then to the indie films during the 90′s craze, and now onto TV. However, the bad apples always follow the talent. Even TV sucks now. It’s homogenized. No one is doing anything differently.
The film/TV/News/Media business is now top down Socialized, and many many artists are long gone. It’s being run a lot like the US government. Many who have no talent are being kept workingbecause, well they are working. It doesn’t have to be good. You can write the worst thing ever written, and NBC will air it if they “know you”.
And like the government, you would have to replace 99% of the people in charge in order to fix it. Unfortunately in Movies and TV, no one gets to vote. And get used to it. We’re living in an early 19th Century Russian-type existence where despotism rules the land and the people are void of any enlightenment.
This sad trajectory is also taken by kid-oriented animated films, most notably the total demise of the blockbuster Disney musical. While my oldest was raised on such fare as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, the youngest hasn’t ever seen one in the theater. When I look at the list of Disney movies, most of the recent successes have actually been Pixar, none have been musicals, and in the past ten years, while there is the occasional successful movie like The Incredibles, Tangled and Up, there is just nothing on par with Toy Story or The AristoCats (although I see Toy Story 4 is coming out, that’s a sad commentary all by itself).
I’ve read a little bit about this and one thing that seems to come up is that there is just an extreme lack of heros. I’m sorry, but there is just not enough inspiration for your average kid in, say, a rat who struggles to become a French chef against the expectations of all the other rats (I’m not kidding, this was the plot in DIsney’s big 2007 movie, Ratatouille). Of course, that’s where the video game market has stepped up to the plate, but it does make one wonder what’s Disney’s next new ride going to be- Wall-E’s Trash Dash?
Disney has always been better at appealing to little girls, with their line-up of Princess movies, but even there it seems like the enthusiasm for the newer ones is weak. Probably the last true superstar is Jasmine from Aladdin- and it saddens me to think that we’re unlikely to hear anything as truly brilliant as Robin William’s Genie ever again from Disney.
I don’t think that’s correct; between Pixar and the revived Disney Animation Studios, we’re seeing some of the best animated movies ever right now–and some of the most conservative. And some (Princess and the Frog, Tangled) are even musicals. The problem for Disney at the moment is their terrible marketing of the new princess movies (and watch as they screw up Brave too).
Princess and the Frog is one of Disney’s best written stories, with universal and extremely conservative themes. Early Disney characters wished upon stars; Tiana works for her dream. The heroes of the story find out the importance of family alongside hard work; Naveen settles down from his bachelor playboy ways while Tiana remembers that family matters as much as work. The villains try the easy way, using magic and thievery, and are punished for it.
The problem is that Disney marketed it as “Disney’s first black princess!” The tone of the advertising was, “Aren’t we great for being diverse and having a black princess?” Even though the story was universal, it stunk of racial pandering and alienated non-black families. So Disney’s best movie since The Lion King was roundly ignored by the public, its appeal limited to the 15% or so of Americans it tried to sell to.
The same sort of thing happened with Tangled, one of Disney’s three best movies of all time (alongside Beauty and the Beast and Lion King). The trailers featured scenes wnot even in the movie that made it look like Rapunzel was an Action Girl, beating up Flynn with her hair for no apparent reason while a horse mocked him. It looked like gender pandering, the typical feminist claptrap we’re used to seeing. The actual movie turned out to be a moving love story, in which Rapunzel’s only act of violence is a reasonable and terrified act of self-defense, and in which Flynn goes from a rogue to a hero. One of the most masculine heroes in a Disney romance, a role model for young boys, and there was no way to tell that from the trailers.
Disney Animation Studios is on the rise right now, having only picked up in 2008 when they hired John Lasseter away from Pixar, and the last few movies and shorts show the difference. For the first time since The Lion King, Disney’s led by someone who wants to tell moving stories, and who knows how. The marketing department unfortunately hasn’t caught up.
I concur with you and Elena that Tangled is a great movie- it’s one of the few recent Disney movies that we actually own. My teen daughter really loves it. But it isn’t a blockbuster (maybe that’s because of the marketing, maybe because it isn’t a musical).
Regarding Pixar, that affiliation has literally saved Disney, rescuing it from its PC tendencies and poor story lines and breathing new life into the franchise. Those movies usually do have a more positive message- another really good one that comes to mind is The Incredibles (with its emphasis on a happy nuclear family, celebration of being exceptional, and good vs. evil, it’s about as far from recent Disney fare as you can get)- but again, Pixar doesn’t often offer up the musicals we’ve come to know and love over the decades. Perhaps that kind of movie is just not the fashion any more, it certainly isn’t for adults. Or maybe they’re too expensive to produce. However, the musical is what really set Disney apart.
Disney used to knock out amazing musicals nearly every year. But I think it’s a shame that we now have to listen to soundtracks that are anywhere from 15 t0 50 years old. Despite the quality, Pixar movies aren’t going to translate to a spellbinding Disney stage show, toe-tapping tunes in the back seat of the car or a Broadway play that’s still running. Music is an integral part of the Disney magic-it’s part of the reason why a trip to Disney World is more like stepping into another universe rather than just visiting a theme park like Universal Studios.
you know, once they hit it out of the ballpark, they can do the direct to video stuff all over the place- and we’ll buy it. It’s okay that it’s fifty years old- it’s new to my kids.
We own every single iteration of the Lion King- one, two, two and a half… we own lady and the tramp, and scamp’s adventure, which is the direct to video extension. We will own Cinderella, asap. We have checked out Princess compilations, that show Cinderella acting like a mid-manager setting up a comference, or matching up her underlings. All the Princess compilation videos? After they get the guy, they all, apparently, behave like corporate middle-management. I’m fine with that. It’s good to learn that stuff.
We own nearly every little brightly colored nylon dress, too. Their friends own them, as well.
It’s not like musicians are falling off turnip trucks every week. Or great lyricists. I love that Disney employs as many as it has, so far. There was that drought in the seventies and eighties, too, before Danny Elfman, and whoever else revived music we’d want to listen to and remember. And Danny Elfman had to prove his bona fides outside the Disney system. I’m glad there is financing for all sorts of attempts. Like, Mr Elfman- wrote Nightmare Before Christmas, which everyone is familiar with? Even Obama? Well, the one movie that I see consistently owned in video is Corpse Bride. At some point, I’m buying it, too. It’s about true love in Danny Elfman’s style, but I don’t think he could have written it first.
And, well, what’s not to love about Star Wars, and the Clone Trooper series? Right now, the clone troopers are becoming individuals. This is honestly really great for me, as a parent, b/c I can talk all I want about being honorable, but seeing it? with laser blasters? That’s ten times better. So Disney bought it- good for them!
and, okay, so toy story is for younger kids- but it’s my doctor’s favorite movie, ever. He makes jokes about it. So- I’m thinking the appeal can be pretty universal.
Disney made Treasure Planet, and I don’t think they marketed it. We’re the only family I know that saw it in the theatre. It was so beautiful. I didn’t even know about Treasure Island, before that. I’d thought Treasure Island was some lame 50′s movie in washed out colors with some fifties actor grouching out lines. After that, we bought the kids’ book of it, and rented the Muppets video, and played pirates for weeks on end.
I agree with you 100% about the lack of heroes. I remember when “The Little Mermaid” came out. I was so disapointed in the way Disney changed the story. Hans Christian Anderson’s story ends with self sacrifice and is incredibly inspiring and uplifting. The Disney version is horribly superficial in comparison.
In “Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World,” Verlyn Flieger examines Tolkien’s essay on “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” and concludes that the power in the story comes from facing opposition against which the hero cannot win but he fights anyway simply because it’s the right thing to do. The modern stories have removed any motivation other than “I want so I’ll take” and as a result have drained all the power and a lot of the interest out of the heroes. “Tangled” was a refreshing change.
Well, I didn’t even know The Little Mermaid was a classic fairy tale. All I know is my daughter and I didn’t care for Ariel at all!
What strikes me, as a parent of two boys and a girl, is how little screen time is given to male heroes. Even within Disney, the girls have Mulan, Rapunzel, Belle, etc. But Disney has never been big on the truly masculine, heroic figure- most of them seem to be props for the ladies. I think maybe Simba of the Lion King was the last one who was the lead part in that kind of role. It’s true that they’ve had some male leads- but not the heroic type that little boys want to emulate. Johnny Depp just does not make the cut, nor does Woody- (Buzz does, maybe that’s why he became Andy’s favorite?) . I think that’s why Disney had to cough up the dough to buy the rights to put Star Wars in their theme park. They can’t make a Luke Skywalker themselves so they had to buy him.
This was driven home to me on our last trip to Disney World. While they have Princess gatherings at all the restaurants, there’s only one for boys, and they were really stretching to come up with enough “heroes” to cast it. My son didn’t even bother with it.
To me, this is partly the appeal of video games. Hollywood just doesn’t cotton to the kind of role model boys yearn for, but the game companies get it. They let the kids themselves blast the bad guys and save the princess. If a kid movie came along that did that kind of thing, despite critic’s wringing of hands and psychologists tsk tsking, they’d make buckets of money.
Disney does seem to be woefully short on masculine heroes and that’s really sad given the vast number of real life examples that they could draw from. I’d never really considered the video game angle but the idea that kids will turn to video games when movies don’t offer them an acceptable role model is fascinating.
I noticed that even in the Narnia movies Disney had to fiddle with things so that the male characters are weakened (which is ridiculous, the books were excellent and there was plenty of both courage and human imperfection in the male and female characters to make everyone happy.) There was a cartoon of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe that came out in 1979 which was my first introduction to the Narnia Chronicles. It’s a sad commentary on the state of films that the cartoon exhibits far superior story telling.
I’d love to see someone make a movie from Gillian Bradshaw’s “Beyond the North Wind,” or “The Dragon and the Thief,” but I’m afraid they’d screw it up. Or what about telling the stories of Eddie Rickenbacker or the myth of Perseus and Andromeda? Why should boys have to do without the vast wealth of role models who exist but are never mentioned? They’re being hamstrung before they have a chance to even try to run.
This all happened while I was out driving a big truck and I’m sure there’s a connection. They took away my dual drive tires and gave me singles that spin on wet pavement and have a habit of peeling tread off. Pardon me while I drop a gator on the interstate. They did the same to our trailers, my 18 wheeler is now a 10 wheeler. And you’re complaining about the sorry state of Hollywood?Don’t get me started on Electronic Logs and what our Marxist overlords are doing to the trucking industry. I used to love trucking, now I hate it. But, you’re right, Andrew. I know because I’m back on Netflix. An uncooperative left hand has turned my medical leave into early retirement, I’m only 60. So great, let me check out new releases! Major disappointment. Good news, I discovered old British TV series. Their new stuff is like ours. But there seems to be some gold in the mine shafts. Something fun while the Obama Era fades into The Global Economic Collapse.
“Say what you will about george lucas and steven spielberg, they put peaches in the peach can, and slap a peach label on it. you know what you’re getting. you know it’s safe. you know it’s sweet. you know your family will enjoy it. I’d love it if more filmmakers could do what they do, in their own special way”.
Ari, I agree with you about more filmmakers getting to do what lucas and spielberg do, but in their own special way. One of my favorite movies from the past few years is a Disney film by Peter Hedges called “Dan in Real Life”. It is a comedy set in the context of a family that is not the extremely disfunctional type usually found in the movies. I understand Mr. Hedges has recently completed a new film for Disney called “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”, about a couple who longs for a child. The trailer looks amazing and I can’t wait for it to come out. It has a magical quality about it, almost like the movie ET. I hope filmmakers like him and others who want to celebrate families in a loving and positive way will get the chance to do so.
ohmigosh, I haven’t even HEARD of either of these films! This is nuts!
The poster ahead was right- Tangled was marketed as a RiotGrrrl with hair issues. Since I nearly flunked gym every last single year, (like most mothers I know, btw!!!!) I’m not sure how that was supposed to entice- same old, same old, same old… I mean, I get it. High school athlete girls are superior in every sort of way ( blah, blah, blah) entitled to fabulous corporate careers, able to afford nannies and beta-male husbands and expensive makeup and midlife crises….blah,blah, blah……what about girly-girls? or girls who work on yearbooks? or play violin? Not all musical kids wear braces for all of middle-school and high school. Or, poetry club. Somebody’s got to be susceptible to quoting keats, yeats and shelley for future english majors to show up……
and, yench- is there a reliable movie critic? In our town, not so much. There was one good critic who could explain the tone of the movies. She was on kids movies beat, but got hired away as an editor. Since then? I can’t find a decent guide. Seriously, the right-ish movie critic that I thought might give thoughtful reviews- kicked Tangled, b/c the girl disobeyed her evil stepmother. I’m kind of- isn’t that how it supposed to work? One grows up and steps away from evil, and then chooses to be heroic, self-sacrificing and good?
And, I get it that some movie critics want their life celebrated onscreen. But when I’m trying to figure out if I’m going to spend money on a movie- I want to know what’s in the unlabelled, mislabelled can. I don’t care where the critic lives, or how fabulous the movie is not in comparison to the critic’s life. And, the critic has seen eight billion movies. I want to know if this movie, today, here, now, is good. Not- how is it in comparison to some black and white movie in a single samizdat copy circulating through film departments, available only to people with the right tattoo. How is the movie on its own terms?
I wish the marketing departments could see America, and trust us movie-goers. I mean, I found my favorite television show b/c of an editorial in a Wall Street Journal article picked up to read at the bank. The manager for content as USA was quoted as saying she wanted shows that looked up to America, and were clean- no foul language or nudity. Her shows are being sold nearly hand to hand- I’ve told people, they tell people. It’s like a weird secret hand-shake club. Kids tell other kids- they get to see grownups doing funny things, not gross or disorienting things. My kids, seriously, think they are going to grow up and be just like these characters- funny, witty, snappy dressers, with good friends, flirting with beautiful competent girls……their friends watch these shows, too. It’s odd picking up kids from each others houses, and they’ve got this on, rather than the slasher flicks my friends watched. We all want to know what happens in our future twenties, I guess. Slasher films had normal houses, and regular-looking people, rather than high-rises and new york city.
I just tried watching a series, and I’m going to have to erase it. Therapeutic Adultery was the whole theme. It was sickening watching beautiful actors advertise something that would ruin any and all viewers lives, if they tried it. It was like they were recommending suicide by battery acid- it was fresh fruit on a rotten altar. I felt so bad for the actors. From the gossip pages- they don’t live like that- they are pretending for the sake of whom? the writers? the producers? It’s not how they live, at all, but it’s how they pretend.
I mean- The Eagle. So what if the main actor was wooden, or something. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. I’m not sure I want the greatest performance, evah, if it’s in service to a really bad idea. Wooden could also be stoic. Stoic works on sword and sandal pics. It worked for my boys. They were so happy to invite their dad to a movie about a son who honors his dad. The movie said everything they wanted to say, and didn’t know how to say. And- it didn’t preach. It was some rat-infested fight flick, I think. I don’t know- I was cuddled up watching Tangled with my girl.
Movies can be sloppy and cheap, if they ideas are sound. I still like all the actors in Knocked Up, and the husband loves 40yo virgin. those are sloppy comedies.
I’d really like some movies where the married couple isn’t trying to cheat on their spouse. Why not a big adventure movie? I married a guy for a life’s adventure. Why can’t a married couple with kids go face down dinosaurs, robots and aliens? and zombies? Why can’t Indy take Marion on the next big dig? She’s tough.
Divorce doesn’t make you complicated- it makes you selfish and shallow. Subbing in divorce as a way for characters to have depth……yikes.
So what was that TV show you mentioned?
I see the extreme leftism in the likes of Sean Penn and Danny Glover who feast off capitalism, then work to undermine it. So why bother going to the movies to make them rich and richer. I’d rather read or do something else. My motto is starve them out. Don’t buy the leftist newspapers, movies, tv shows or music.
At this point, I just poke around with web series, and old Dr Who’s. About the only new video-like thing I’m highly anticipating this year is the next season of “Red vs Blue”
“This must be karma for kicking Maine out the window!”
Great story-telling…where the audience is held spellbound by the purity of purpose, to ALLOW the audience to feel the heartbeat of the story itself, is lost. Perhaps forever.
It has been replaced by the rigged narrative. Radical leftism has stolen “story-telling” and made it state issue propaganda.
What ruins movies (and much of TV, plays, the NYTimes, broadcast news from the alphabet stores, academia) in post-modern America…is the slavish devotion to inserting “the message” into the medium.
Everywhere and everything touched by the diseased hand of cultish statism, is lessened, and eventually destroyed by it. None moreso than the pure joy that once was evoked by pure story-telling. The connection of “joys” from storyteller to audience remained pure because there existed no ulterior motive than the transfer of joy to the audience.
When indoctrination became first the sub rosa intent, and finally now, the primary intent…the medium BECOMING “the message”…they all crashed in a useless and futile heap…even those inclined to agree get bored being preached at…and Air America can’t find a sustainable audience.
Indoctrination to the point of mindless cultism killed the arts, academia, mass media, …freedom of thought and throwing off the shackles of radical leftism are the only things that can bring it back.
Won’t happen in our lifetimes. In fact, I predict it will get worse…long before it ever gets better.
Was sick for a few days, took to the couch and delved into the classics:
Sabrina, Roman Holiday, and Casablanca.
What story telling, what dialogue, what romance.
Saw The Guard the other night, in the vein of Waking Ned Devine. It seems the Irish still have the flair for great charming characters and story telling not to mention outstanding actors. Brendan Gleeson a charming devil.
I’m on a mission to see all the classics. Seems netflix and apple tv have a somewhat o.k selection. Some Cagney , Bogart films and comedies like high society to name a few.
Let’s face it their are enough great classics out there to keep us entertained
It may not be quite old enough to qualify as a classic, but if you haven’t seen it, A Man and a Woman is a great love story–and what a sound track!
And they churned out those screenplays fast, often ignored the formula, and I bet a lot of the talent would never get hired today.
I will agree with others that have stated that once the medium became completely infused with the messages the leftists wanted to convey, that was the beginning of the end of most of the mediums. Some shows like say The Big Bang Theory, I can watch because there is a remnant of humor in it and of course being a nerd, I can relate to a lot of the storyline. Of course in that show, the leftist memes are there, just not completely saturated. Some other shows I watch have the leftist messages, which really annoy me, but of course I do not and will not give them a dime of my labor to support them. That is why I rarely even watch them on the TV, I watch them on the internet.
As for the movies, it has been about 3 years since I went to a theater. It has been a long time since I really enjoyed a good movie. Of course most of the movies I watch now, are only Sci Fi or Fantasy based. Of course many of them are being inundated with the leftist messages. Look at Avatar for example, geez that entire thing was a propagandist message!
I think the future of movies is the creation of CGI based on home computers. Movies will be produced without the blatant leftist messages by freedom loving nerds and the expansion of anime based movies is proving this in my opinion.
God forbid you would ever see a western again in the movies. I guess that’s why cable channels like AMC are now doing more of them. Why? because people actually like them. They have good guys and bad guys and people you can actually hope will win. But no, in the movies today you have to suffer through Avatar 5, or Spiderman 10, or X-men 12. Hollywood today won’t even think of taking any chance. Pity, because westerns are so cheap to make. I bet if they made a decent one, like Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” it would be a huge hit. It worked for Eastwood, why can’t it work for anybody else today?
3:10 to Yuma.
Awesome!
And for a hero movie that doesn’t pander to -anyone-, try ‘Drive’. Double-awesome (but for sure NOT family friendly!)
And ‘The Grey’, of course.
I wish Hollywood would look to what the Asians are doing, particularly the Koreans. Since discovering Korean dramas on sites such as Netflix and Hulu, I haven’t even bothered to try to wade through the crap that consitutes entertainment on cable TV or in the theaters. And I’m not the only one. Comments from viewers on those sites mentioned often bemoan the lack of quality entertainment in America. The movies are big-budget crapfests like Transformers X or low brow, dirty flicks like The Bridesmaids. The Korean dramas are often historical based, feature little or no bad language, and are devoid of raunchy sex scenes. Instead they have breadth and depth to their character and plot development and they are unabashedly romantic. They appeal to both men and women. The male heroes are always strong, brave, honorable and handsome, and possess some mean martial arts skills that come in handy when they have to fight for justice and protect their women; the heroines are sexually inexperienced and a bit naive but usually smart, spirited, and sweet. Watching these Korean dramas, I feel as if I’ve been transported back to a time when Hollywood was a place where heroes did their thing and won the heart of the damsel in distress. I’m tired of the inane plots in American TV or films, of promiscuous women moving from man to man (or experimenting with a woman because in Hollywood that’s perfectly rational and normal), or having to watch two men making out. I’m seriously considering dumping cable TV entirely or just going down to basic so I can get local news. Every once in a while Hollywood produces something worth watching, but it’s a rarity these days.
Hollywood is becoming irrelevant because they’ve forgotten what they are supposed to be doing; namely entertaining people. I used to go the movies three or more times a week; sometimes two or three in one day. But in the last ten years or so most of the movies are the producers, directors, writers, or actors making some political argument. And their ideology has backed them into a corner where the only bad guys are Americans. Sometimes the enemies are American soldiers, people working to protect us in the intelligence community, oil companies, or any businessmen. Add to this in a male female situation the man will almost always be in some way inferior to the woman. Sometimes not as intelligent, some times morally corrupt, or even physically inferior.
And what’s up with casting. I’ve worked with cops a lot, in several cities and next to none of them look like the people they’re using on television or in the movies. And how unrealistic is it to see a beautiful 25 or 30 year old woman running a murder squad.
The quality sucks lately. They need to put a little more thought into it. And one of the most important things they need to do is develop a large group of really good character actors to flesh out these films; something like they did from the late thirties to late sixties.
Just tell us a good story! For God’s sake there are many movies from that period that could be remade and really shine. Even the old World War II movies, and or westerns. I’d even pay to see a well done remake of The Maltese Falcon.
It’s just like TV, the comedy’s are not funny and the dramatic shows are ridiculous to say the least. So, I do not watch main stream TV, only PBS and the BBC has excellent comedies/dramas, such as “The Last of Summer Wine”, “Doc Martin”, “Lark Rise to Candleford”, “Downton Abbey”, just to name a few. The movies, I don’t even remember the last film that I saw in a theater. “Second Hand Lions” with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall was an excellent film…My all time favorite, “Lonesome Dove” with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall was an epic film, although it was a mini-series made for TV. The quality of movies and Television has fallen and really does not appeal much anymore, sad to say…
Great suggestions , just checked out Second hand Lions trailer, looks great.
Movie legend Samuel Goldwyn once said, “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.”
I don’t want to spend money to listen to some Leftists’ sending their “messages”. I want to be entertained.
and, ohmigoodness….marketing stuff? I’m in my forties, which means, supposedly, prime spending time. I grew up in the Star Wars licensing era, Dawn Steele era. Why on earth would marketers think I’d outgrown my love of licensed movie crap?
I’m still jealous of my friend who’s mom made the Princess Leia gown, and put her daughter’s hair up in the cinnabun hair. I’ve got obligations- kids, school lunches, folding laundry, my job…..but I am so willing to be in the market for something from a tv show or a movie that makes my life better, easier and happier- b/c it’s got that logo on it. Guys? Okay, so maybe they need posters for their batcave. Me? I’m so happy there’s a Twilight hair-dryer, and youtube videos on how to use it. So- sell me sheets, sell me plates, sell me forks, sell me scrapbook papers, sell me stickers for cards, sell me christmas ornaments, sell me fitted tee-shirts…..I’m that generation. My kids live la vida Jorge Lucas—why not let me live la vida movie?
why not sell me a kitchen knife with a movie logo on it? if it’s a good knife, the factory makes a sale, and I’m in hollywood fantasy-land while making dinner. or a nice watch with a pineapple fob trinket dangling. it’s a reminder of sean and gus and juliet- what’s not to love? or a copy of kristi swanson’s necklace from the show? I would want my husband to love me enough that if I went to jail, he’d wait. and it’s cute. and the nails.
or rubber-stamps. scrapbooking?
I have my grandmother’s movie detritus from the thirties and forties: hardbound books, playing cards, buttons, dress patterns. It must have felt wonderful, in her small town, to feel as glamorous and grownup as Ginger Rogers, reading a mystery that wasn’t from a movie- or wearing a movie studio styled suit, made by her own hands.
I dropped out of Blockbuster quite a while ago when one of the clerks shook me into reality with an, “Oh, you rented this last month, you must like so-and-so.” And, lately, to tell you the truth, I’m tired of internet-connected home entertainment equipment. My Panasonic TV with its web connection and my computer’s blu-ray player, PowerDVD-11, logging every movie, CD, and photo I file. It’s just getting too creepy. I’m being more careful about what and who I connect to. I value my privacy more than filling Hollywood’s pockets.
I recently watched, for the first time, on YouTube “Love Affair” (1939) with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Shortly after that I watched “The Stranger” (1946), with Edward J. Robinson and Orson Welles. And before that, one of Hitchcock’s earliest films, “Young and Innocent” (1937). What class. What style. What storytelling. What direction, and acting. There are no sex scenes in “Love Affair,” for example, but the under-scored desire and rapport between Boyer and Dunne’s characters were sizzling. Then I look at what passes for “romance” and “intrigue” today, and I yawn. Color doesn’t help if there’s nothing there but IHOP silhouettes to fill in with crayons. And that’s all most actors and actresses are today: silhouettes. And the movies cited above weren’t even major productions, but they are a galaxy away from today’s fare. Thank you, Hollywood, but for as long as better movies can be found in the past, that’s where I’ll go for spiritual food.
More great suggestions, speaking of Love scenes. One of the most tender, sexy scenes I ever witnessed was between
Myrna Loy and Carrie grant in Mr Blandings builds his dream house.
If it hasn’t been talked about already, I can’t recommend strongly enough the TV channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). These classic films have been completely restored: visual and sound. Talk about art …. black and white film is beautiful. Light and shadow. Great scripts too. On Saturday mornings I’ve been watching a Roy Rogers movie and a fabulous “B” picture gumshoe flick. If you don’t have TV access to the channel, log on to TCM.com for information on who, what, where and why. Choose a film to stream via Netflix or your choice. The pix on TCM include silents through some films from the 60′s, 70′s, even 80′s. Also foreign films. That channel is basically the main reason I’m connected to a provider.
All the really good programs which are worth watching and at least treat their audiences like adults are coming from Britain. Likewise their actors and actresses. American movies are, for the most part, a galling insult to the intelligence of the viewing public. As many have said on this page Hollywood has been and continues to be a communist cesspool. But at least those in the past were not as despicable, for the most part, as those who pull the levers of power today. There was a time when there were so many good movies to see that I and others would see at least two a weekend. Now I am hard pressed to want to see anything and can barely stand it when its free on cable. I hope you are right and before long they will be facing the extinction which invariably happens when no one any longer wants what you are peddling. Good riddance.
It seems that international sales have alot to do with the movies that are made.
They do not want to alienate socialist europe, islamist middle east, communist china, brainwashed indo-china, or latin american narco states.
There are still magical movie moments, Mr Klavan, that offer a strong counter to your argument. I submit:
1. The final scene in Toy Story 3
2. The barb-wire cutting scene in War Horse
My wife and I cried when we saw these two scenes and even later when we talked about them. And we are not exactly what you would call sentimental types. As long as such movie making is being done, the movies will not die for us.
“Let the left have cinema then and go down with it.” If only they would.
Case in point: James Cameron’s Titanic, artistic defamation, and a measly apology
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/78839.stm.
Agree about War Horse. What a *great* movie!
Why don’t we do what Obozo, our clown in chief, does, take the rotten state of affairs in Hollywood and blame it on Bush. See problem solved.
What Hollywood needs is to get back to ‘B’ movies. If you’re only doing one *blockbuster* a year or every couple of years you’re not learning your craft. Only CB DeMille will ever be CB DeMille. Keep em simple, cheap and frequent. And take Goldwyn’s advice about messages. Stuff started heading downhill when the studios lost control of the talent and said talent started believing that they should be taken seriously offstage. Wotta buncha maroons, to steal a phrase.