Concurrently, both the music industry and Hollywood have watched their stars age and decline. Most of the people we still think of as stars in both Hollywood and the recording industry date from the last days of mass media — and Hollywood in particular has been hurt badly by their decline.
Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have simply aged: Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery and arguably Harrison Ford are all getting too long in the tooth to be leading men. Younger stars such as Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise severely damaged their careers during the preceding decade by publicly unleashing their inner demons. Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and Robert Redford put politics ahead of stardom, damaging their brand in flyover country.
No wonder Hollywood basically has four options left. First, there are the franchises based on brand names developed during the mass media days. These include the superhero movies, the James Bond, Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, and porting over TV shows and even toys and games to invoke boomer nostalgia. In a similar vein, there are the Brit-lit franchises such as Harry Potter, Tolkien and Narnia. There are digitally animated movies such as the Pixar line. And then there are gimmicks such as 3D.
On the surface, this doesn’t sound like it will bode well for Hollywood’s future. Essentially the recording industry, with its own aging stars and genres, faces many of the same negative structural trends as well.
Contraction is always painful for any business model; any thoughts on where these industries go next?
Update: Somewhat related thoughts on the state of art and old media at Whiskey’s Place.
I do think audience contempt is playing a role here. The bigger issue will be adjusting to the new tech realities.
I blame the media for embracing soulless music acts. Why do journalists shrug their shoulders when yet another pop princess sings along to a pre-recorded track?
Say what you will about Bon Jovi – and I have little good to say about their style of rock – at least you know they’ll be singing their own songs when you pony up for their concerts.
Dear Ed,
I was just ruminating about this topic. Just a few days ago I heard my fourteen year old daughters rollicking laughter from the family room. I yelled out what are you watching. “Oh the scene when Donald O’connor runs up the wall does a flip then breaks through the wall”. She was watching Singing in the Rain for the umpteenth time. Her favorite films… Some Like it Hot, The Party, Meet me in St Louis, The Wizard of Oz, anything with Gene Kelly, Its a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, It’s a Mad Mad Mad World, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House just to name a few. Music wise ,her ipod is filled with classic rock, bluegrass,and some very cool alternative stuff.
I proceeded to watch a few of the scenes in Singing in the Rain and as I watched I said to myself, God what amazing creative talent came out of America before the leftists of Hollywood took over with coarsening of the culture and the let’s hate America narrative.
Such great stories , such romance, such beauty, . My parents loved the classic films especially the great gangster stories when you knew who the bad guys were.
I recently watched Cary Grant in Mr Blandings, I was blown away by a scene where he and his wife kiss after a tiff. What direction, it took my breath away , you want sexy you watch that scene and tell me it doesn’t make you crazy?
Tell me then why a kid of fourteen can be so enamored with a film made long before she was born.
I recently saw an email of Bob Hope and James Cagney doing a skit at the Friar’s Club from the ’50s. It blows you away.
Our entertainment industry has become mean, soulless and pointless dependent on derivative.
The only small glimmer of hope I see in it comes from video games, which while generally depressing are often thoughtful, original and with a realistic moral center not trapped by political correctness.
See Bioshock I & II.
They also are not hindered by time. The amount of cinematic cut scenes that occur in many of best titles equal a trilogy of movies by themselves. They have much more time to build up the characters and gain an emotional investment by the player, which is a good thing. I’m glad to hear from one of these posts that children can still watch the movies of old and be touched by them. I get so frustrated by friends and acquaintances who don’t understand my vitriol when I watch something like the Expendables, or Transformers and I’m not dutifully excited by the “special” effects (which are anything but anymore).
Thanks, maryann. Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” sequence is brilliant! I just watched it for the umpteenth time and laughed my head off. If Hollywood were still turning out such superlative entertainment, we’d still be watching–and listening. What’s wrong with these people?
Here’s Donald O’Connor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oWk4ZiuSHE
Atta go Lookout, we can watch these films over and over again and never tire. These people worked their buts off to hone their skills and talent.
Read about an Andy Williams or Buddy Holly and how they rose to fame, from town to town, late nights dirty buses and the like year after year. Now the little adolescents on American Idol cry out “but I deserve it” after they get kicked out.
Ah yes, the old movies, I understand why your daughter loves them and why they remain popular. Reality TV on the other hand has me baffled, what is its appeal? Orange people in NJ with cameras everywhere, doing and saying any ol’ thing? Housewives of who each have a facial expression about once a year?
So many of the “stars” of today have as their greatest talent the ability to promote themselves. Endlessly. My biggest beef with Hollywood is that most of their crap insults my intelligence and glamorizes lifelong adolescence. With so much material available on cable and other formats, I can choose movies and TV shows from around the world and not be limited to another Hollywood remake of a foreign film/show, dumbed down for the all important 18-29 crowd. Special note to Jennifer Aniston: brush your hair. Your husband left you years ago, deal with it.
I don’t know about the US, but up here in my province in Canada, the government closed down the Carnival sideshows. Hence we get “reality” TV. Just one long parade of non stop freak shows.
The TV exec’s love it because it’s cheap to make, and it fills the void filled by the lack of the sideshows.
Maryann,I just spent the Holidays with my Brothers family and my fourteen year old niece. I was blown away by what entertains her,incredibly interesting, she has Sinatra on her ipod plus the cool alternative stuff you referred to. I don’t know were Hollywood is heading creatively in the future but if they don’t change our younger generation will be taking us in a whole new direction with entertainment and I hope they take me with them.
My niece is twenty now. When she was younger her favorite actor was Jack Lemmon. The day he died she was nearly inconsolable.
She does a wicked impersonation of Aaron Neville, too. Go figure.
Yeah, this is gonna help Gov. Moonbeam balance his state’s budget. Did I say “balance”? I musta meant “address the sheer futility of surviving another year with”.
I’ve begun to wonder if Americans aren’t suffering from entertainment overload. It’s gotten to the point where it’s questionable whether most citizens can even discern the trivia from the Wikileaks, the vaudeville from the national security secret.
For instance, we know what Sarah Palin thinks about DADT, but we have no idea what China’s military’s policy on the matter is. I’d argue that the latter’s policy position might be of more interest right now. One “fact” is pulp-fiction, designed to thrill for a moment, but not really salient in the long term. Call it trivia. And the other fact, well, this citizen’d like to know.
Some people bring their fantasy lives everywhere they go, it’s not just a “for work” habit. I used to know a guy who worked for Disney in LA. He and his friends talked about sitcom characters and movie plots as though they were real people and events. Fine in the “the bubble” of an industry town like Hollywood…but limiting, I think, outside of the fishbowl.
And, to folks living outside the “creative classes’” bubbles, folks who live their work like that might appear to be insane.
Ed, good on you to link to Whiskey. He has got a point or two that are worth thinking about, even if sometimes he states them too stridently for some. Me, I am not offended by Intertube chatter.
Dug your link to Whiskey’s post, Ed. I’ve always enjoyed the tempo of his writing and his attention to grammar.
The guy’s on fire. He deserves wider dissemination.
Thank you very much for the kind link.
I think the technological and business trends point to re-massification. The decline really of TV to me dates to the late 1980′s and early 1990′s when the Brandon Tartikoff strategy (trade mass for high-earning, younger demos) hit its peak with Seinfeld. A great show but a dead end creatively (since most writers are not Larry David and lack his inspired lunacy).
The trend is toward personal, not media-center consumption. Jeffrey Katzenberg was quoted in the WSJ yesterday that he believes the future of movies is the $20 movie ticket at upscale movie houses with fine cuisine. Ahem. Back in the real world, tablets, smart phones, laptops, netbooks and the like are going to “Ipod” movies/tv the way Apple’s Ipod did music. The same probably with publishing (ebooks) and the like.
IF (a big if) you can get found on Itunes, or some other major portal, you can sell your ebook, music, or movies/tv serials directly. OK GO leveraged that tremendously, by offering fun videos to hook in listeners via Youtube.
Part of the problem is that new musical acts, new writers, etc. were not developed. The late and lamented Stephen J. Cannell did not spring like Athena out of Zeus’s forehead, he was carefully mentored by the Universal development program. That sort of thing is replaced by a fairly incestuous Ivy League mafia now.
Meanwhile guys like Bon Jovi cannot get started as regional acts, touring and making moderate amounts of money, seeing what works (and doesn’t) for their audiences, and being well honed before they hit it big nationally. Same for the next Van Halens, or X, or Ramones, different musical styles who all worked regionally for a living before hitting it big.
Instead you have a few impresarios who have taken over, and the progression of: pre-teen, sing in Church Choir, teen-age, play in garage band, early twenties, make money regionally, mid-late twenties national fame, is gone. Replaced by a few carefully manufactured products.
The economic structure matters a lot. I do think the ability to replicate this somewhat with new technology will allow more classic Westernism ala Tolkien or Lewis or even Siegel and Shuster, and Rowling to bubble up. Who wouldn’t want to be Superman?
The last three-to-five years have been brutal for the American Film Industry.
Ticket sales are down, a lot of production financing has disappeared, DVD income has flattened. Dream jobs and opportunities have been lost forever.
But a couple movies from last year have shown me that the Industry has learned from these tough times. The business is getting more story-conscious and more aware of their audiences’ values.
The first film was BOOK OF ELI. An extremely violent picture about a righteous man personally escorting “the last copy of the King James Bible… Slightly battered” across a Post-Apocalyptic America. It features Denzel Washington as a prayerful warrior who is willing to defend the book with his life, if necessary. It opened to about $40 million and made almost $95 million dollars in North America.
Second movie is TRUE GRIT. An extremely violent picture about a (surprisingly) righteous man who escorts a little girl as they hunt her father’s killer. It features Jeff Bridges as a drunken killer who realizes he makes a pretty good father. It opened to almost $25 mil and will likely pass $100 mil in N. America by the end of this month.
Now, two movies can’t defend or turn the entire film industry. But the very fact these pictures were made – and made successful by an audience – reveals a changing attitude.
I used to go to movies fairly often but haven’t gone very much at all in several years. The main reason is that most movies made in the past decade or two have either put special effects ahead of story or stupidity ahead of sense. In the latter case, I’m talking about the whole slew of “Dumb and Dumber” type movies where characters vie to be more and more outrageously stupid or obnoxious. Since neither type of film interests me, I had very little reason to go to the theatres.
I’m happy to say that I’m going a little more often now and saw two films this week: True Grit and The King’s Speech after many months of not seeing any. I particularly liked the latter. It is a British-made period piece about the speech impediment that bedeviled King George VI, who ruled the British Empire during WW II. It was wonderful to see a film that showcased characters striving to better themselves without resorting to special effects or other eye candy. The fact that it was historically accurate was a big bonus for me since I’m a history buff.
But the theatre experience left something to be desired. I had to sit through a solid half hour of commercials – I’m *not* including the previews for coming attractions! – which almost drove me to leave the theatre before the show started. For all the money I had to pay for the ticket, you’d think I had bought the right *not* to have to listen to loud and intrusive commercials. I was utterly unable to converse with my companion due to the ads, which certainly hurt my enjoyment of the theatre.
It would also be nice of Hollywood actually made movies for adults. I am sick and tired of all of these special-effects or animated movies geared towards 8-year-olds. I’m sick and tired of bad and predictable plots, bad acting, and for all actors to be under the age of 20. And I’m also sick and tired of all adults in these movies as being portrayed as thoughtless, evil, idiots. Enough already. If America is really “graying” and the baby boomers are ready for retirement, you sure wouldn’t know it from the movies coming out today! And you wonder why movie sales are down?
The only decent movie out today made for adults (and which, ironically, has a young person as a central character) is True Grit. I hope this movie does well. It’s the first movie in a long time where you have some decent actors actually telling a good story, rather than having to rely on special effects or silly animation to carry the movie along.
The major reason more people do NOT go to the movies and pay those horrible prices is because there is NOTHING to see, at least not for anyone over the age of 10. And for all you folks out there reduced to seeing junk like Avatar, keep your little smurf-like blue people, your special effects, and you big explosions an noisy sound effects. Give me a John Wayne-type movie like True Grit any day. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Hollywood to grow up.
Problem is, Liberty, most twenty…and even thirty-somethings have the practical knowledge and education of an eight-year-old. Most young folks lack knowledge of American history, the Bible, civics, industry, how their parents/grandparents grew up or life outside of their own urban steel, glass and electronic culture. They seem unable to reason, make wise choices or focus on goals. All this is probably the result of being poorly educated by unionized public school teachers who themselves were indoctrinated rather than educated. I find as these generations grow older, they seem ever less interested in anything but themselves.
Our culture is still immersed in the Sixties, a decade that ended over forty years ago. Lots of us have moved on, but Hollywood hasn’t.
And the Abduls, Lohans, Spears and Hiltons want to keep it there…sex, drugs and….clubbing. Never to leave adolescence behind. Or admit to having to grow up and realize won’t tolerate their crass indulgences any longer.
And that we value acting ability over cleavage.
Let alone fork over real money to see their stupid antics.
Eerie don’t you think who came of age in the 60s, e.g. Jane Fonda, Hillary Rodham, WJ.Clinton, Hollyood creative writers and hippies who morphed into 80s – 90s yuppies to became lawyers, Wall Street machers, bankers, “elite” university Professors, and POLITICIANS keep forcing their adolscence world views onto persons who want none of them. Despite the public evidence that virtually everything they touched were disasters and abject failure for their targeted “poor and disadvantaged.”. While they of course, being “elite” ride above the storm, and because they don’t pay for their depredations on other peoples lives have no need to “move on”.
Thanks for the tip about Whiskey’s Place. The guy really rocks! I think he should be contributing to Ricochet. As to your article, I didn’t find any reference to video games as a dominant part of the entertainment culture. Last I heard young males had embraced those to the point they made more money than Hollywood.
Neal Gabler also has something to say about this this morning;
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/06/the_end_of_cultural_elitism/
Put simply, those who create our “media culture” are no longer the arbiters of what parts of it find public acceptance.
This seems to unsettle them severely. I can’t imagine why.
cheers
eon
Black Swan is a remarkable film.
People left it gasping, animated, shocked.
Not one young person in the theater, sadly.
One has to wonder if a younger generation whose interaction with the media consists more or less of a wham, bam, thank you ma’am is making rather more nuanced film making problematic; speed, lack of patience and films that reflect a video game may be things that reflect this.
Music is easier to see: there is free software that allows one to have stereo mp3s made from youtube videos. Not only do you have access to a giant conventional catalogue, but live performances heretofore unavailable in the industry. Alongside this are free sites requiring no registration that allow one access to thousands of songs from the 1930s onwards with a few clicks including the most obscure movie and TV soundtracks. The question really is: why would ANYONE pay for music?
The Third World has in particular been all over this from day one as they have no money. Impatience to see a film or hear a song is the only think that sells the media, otherwise, it’s soon available and ironically, the biggest hits are available right away.
While the music business and movies may be hurting, I think we’re seeing something of a new Golden Age on TV right now – but NOT on the broadcast networks! While ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox are largely bereft of ideas and are simply airing a large percentage of cheap reality/game/talent shows, the smaller cable networks are generating excellent and engaging scripted series like Burn Notice, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Rescue Me and the best TV drama ever made, The Wire. They have also done brilliant miniseries like From the Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers. These shows are much MUCH better than the TV we got in the 60s and prove to me that good story-telling and acting haven’t gone the way of the dodo. I’ve seen several actors say, in interviews, that TV offers them much better roles than films these days and it’s not hard to see why. Given the choice between doing a two hour film that is mostly an exercise in filling the gaps between special effects sequences and a multi-year chance to build a truly fascinating and thought-provoking character, which would you choose if you were an actor?
I don’t see the point of watching anything in a theater full of rude, loud people. The last thing I saw that was worth the money was the Phantom of the Opera. The play, not the movie. The audience was quiet and attentive, no, make that enraptured.
I bought the CD soundtrack. I bought the DVD. I’d have watched it again if it came back here. This at about $50 a ticket if I remember. I’ll pay for quality anytime. Too bad I can’t find much of it.
I won’t say Hollywood makes nothing worthwhile, but I am sick of them. These freaks are not news. It’s a combination of overexposure, and their endless self-importance. They are actors, nobodies who think that pretending to be someone makes them someone. It’s fiction. The characters aren’t real. The actors are human tools used to make movies. When is the last time you cared what a tool thought? When’s the last time a tool tried to tell you you were wrong, or stupid or evil?
One major oversight of the entertainment industry is their hypocritical, leftist attitude toward this country. They’ve made millions/billions here yet drag it down. Many like me found this hypocrisy distasteful, and have found also that we can live without they’re over priced, egotistical, hypocritical behavior.
I saw only two movies in a theater in the decade of the 00s, the last one 5 years ago. I have never bought a movie on DVD.
I do not find my life is any the poorer because of it.
Nailed it, Ed.
Entertainment critics seem to address the artistic merits of the movie, music, tv show only.
That’s just one part of ‘the experience’ that the public has to deal with.
The larger part, and the one I think is keeping people away and pushing interested people to ‘illegal’ downloads, etc., is the expensive and crappy ‘delivery systems’ that we must first negotiate amd endured to get to the product.
The movie theater experience is horrible. TV shows are sliced up to meaningless with too many and long & longer commercial breaks. Concerts are just a mob.
The industry has made their product unpleasant and difficult to access. I’d like to see some of that legendary Hollywood genius applied here.
die Hollywood die
Your contempt comes right back at you
I do not give them a penny in any form
good riddance
most entertainemnet industry people – the NY – LA axis are committed leftists or fellow travelers, the less money they have the better
“The less money they have the better”…
Ya think them getting 19 million instead of 20…is really going to hurt them?
Yes – because every year it costs them more and more to make their tripe. If they make less every year it mean eventually they will be losing money every time they try to pass their bilge on to us.
it was the left that wanted to politicize everything
rejecting them in when they produce movies with themes to whihc they do not ascribe is part of the payback
it was the left that wanted to politicize everything
rejecting them even when they produce movies with good themes(to which they clearly do not subscribe) is part of a payback
You left out the fiction industry, which suffers from the same blind dependence on old “brands” as Hollywood and the music industry. Big names are given huge book contracts and go the rounds on the networks and get huge coverage by reviewers. Middle-of-the-list authors and new authors are given a sink or swim contract. A book or two and they’re out, and the publishing houses give them little to no support.
So into this mix comes Kindle and the downloaded book, and the gates are coming down. The publishing industry is going to be fascinating to watch over the next few years.
The business is entertainment. It used to be that it took significant infrastructure to make such presentations or media. Hollywood built an empire making mass media. Those days may not be gone, but their market is saturating.
People are spending more and more time in front of their computers. They’re interacting more among people with similar interests. The mass media markets are shrinking because it is possible for an individual to address the world without being forces through easily controlled groups such as Journalists, Editors, and Publishers.
This isn’t about contempt. The contempt that Ed speaks of has ALWAYS been there. The gate keepers of these information outlets have learned from decades of experience that there is more money to be made by aiming for the lowest common denominator.
Today, there are new media outlets that short circuit these gate keepers. Their old methods are now clearly visible for everyone and we do not like what we see.
Imagine that.
“Younger stars such as Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise severely damaged their careers during the preceding decade by publicly unleashing their inner demons.”
During the holioday season of late 1997, I personally watched Tommy Lee Jones spend quality time berating the staff of the Harvard Coop in Harvard Square, Cambridge Mass. His constant angry refrain was, “Do you know who I am?”
I regret to admit, I did mutter out loud, “who the hell cares who you are? You’re an A******.”
I’m so bloody sick of the utterly predictable career path for every damned teenybopper performer. 1.) Squeaky clean Disney act; 2.) “edgy” (disturbing) photo shoot; 3.) raunchy song manipulated to the top of the charts; 4.) “stripper” act on tour.
It’s tiresome.
The record labels need to GO AWAY. Their day is done. Their routine, which was always unethical, is now completely indefensible.
Check out Neal Morse! Independent Christian prog-rocker (in the mold of Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, ELP). Absolutely stunning work, and you won’t be feeding a beast.
Naturally female pop singers have always had male admirers but there is a difference between a natural sex appeal and actually marketing oneself as a whore/prostitute/stripper.
Parents actually bring their kids to Beyonce shows like it’s the “Little Mermaid”. Rihanna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry among many others consistently sport themselves as specifically visual in a way that makes buying and listening to their music on headphones rather like banging ones head on a wall and throwing your money out the window as the musical artistic buzz is rather similar.
Not THIS parent. I’m hoping a more wholesome genre opens up before my two toddler girls reach THAT age. If not, they will be the most un-hip girls in their classes. (But they will be happier overall. That kind of oversexualization is horrible for our little girls.)
Well said. I don’t listen to the radio much, that’s what my ipod is for, or talk radio, but I’ve heard much of the pop crap due to my wife and twelve-year old son. I thought at one time Katy Perry might be the real deal, but her last two radio plays and her Maxim cover have convinced me otherwise. There may be a decent song writer under that veneer, but it’s been buried deep by the lure of pop princess money. Such a waste.
A big part of the quality problem lies with the performers themselves. Peter Sellers breathed real life into Inspector Clouseau, gave Clouseau a real sense of believability. Steve Martins shameful attempt sadly could not rise to the occasion and only had the ability to do nothing more than take one of our most beloved film heros and present him as a buffoon. Martin didn’t need another few million more but he is just a sell out when it comes to integrity of quality, it is that sort of mentality that is destroying a truly great entertainment form.
It’s not just that the remakes aren’t up to the quality of the originals, it’s that the creativity isn’t there anymore.
Can you imagine someone trying to make “North By Northwest 2,” or “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Again”?
There was a day (and I am not that old, just in my mid-40s) when just about every movie made was an original concept. Now it seems that we’re seeing more sequels and remakes than real creative concepts… and what creative ideas there are out there tend to be bashing America, capitalism, the armed forces, religion, traditional values, or some combination of the above.
Hollyweird is dead unless they rediscover creativity and quit making lefty pictures.
He (Martin) may not be a sell-out. He just may not be as talented as Sellers. It may be as simple as that as he seems to play the same character (same with several of them, Will Ferrell in particular) over and over again. It’s just…..tired and old.
Why even bother with the morally depraved idiots in Hollywood to begin with ?(Roger L. Simon and some fellow non-lefties excepted, of course)
If you want to give money to the Communist Party, just write them a check directly and cut out the Hollywood middleman you use when you buy a movie ticket or DVD.
That’s funny. Conversely, one could buy multiple copies of “Avatar” rather than send a check directly to the “Voice of America”. 19 sequels ought to bring down a fair number of dictators.
Well, may I talk about critics? I can’t tell if a movie is any good, since the critics in this town either (1) have a lobotomy or (2) measure how cool a movie is by how far it is from their lifestyle. There was one really, really good critic- you could tell the tone of the movie, it’s interests, it’s intentions. She is now back as an editor. I miss her reviews.
Like, Valkyrie? Who know it was a meditation on faith, honor and decency? I just heard ” Tom Cruise dating Katie Holmes.” Another mom lent me her disc- she said it was that good. I totally didn’t even know about American Carol until it went to DVD. It has a single copy at Blockbuster- you know, the chain with 75 copies of Saw for instant rental. Or, say, Dinner for Schmucks- which is surprisingly sweet, at the end. We had seen the French version- this was so much more humane and silly- and finally, sweet, at the end. It’s not greatest movie ever, but for funny- yes, totally. All we heard was ” It’s not Despicable Me.” DH ended up buying it. Or, say, Christmas movies. They might not be your black and white classic- but Deck the Halls speaks to my kids. they think the british christmas carol is frightening. groundhog day——-
movies with good plots and dialoge stand up to repeated dvd viewing. let us celebrate that comic geniuses do flower and remain. i’d rather watch astaire and rogers, than hear people gripe that movies now don’t live up to r&a.
And bands do still do the local tour. they also still flame out.they build regional followings, which may or may not go national. creed went national that way. hootie and the blowfish did that. even lyle lovett. I can’t quite remember the name of the band- blue something- is on the radio here, and in bars, building its base. come on. just b/c you don’t know the address to the club doesn’t mean it’s not rocking.
I think it is ironic that people like Whoopie Goldberg insult the American people and then try to go on Fox News and pretend to have a legitimate opinion. Who are these people? What does their opinion mean to anyone other than their zombie followers. They are gravitating over to Fox to try and capture an audience they lost a long time ago. Keep them off conservative programs PLEASE.
As for Hollywood, they get what they well deserve. Our backs.
Well Hollywood, I am tired of your anti-american actors and actresses. That goes for Sean Penn, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hanks etal. If you don’t like the U. S. as constituted either emigrate somewhere else or work to change the constitution.
I don’t want to watch your over-sexed movies with everyone falling into bed at the first smile or kiss. I don’t want to watch anti-American movies. I don’t want to watch the remakes; the originals are always better and are available. I don’t want to watch the overly violent movies.
Most of all I stopped going to movies to keep you from enriching yourselves further.
One of the problems of Hollywood is that it doesn’t pay attention to history.
In the 19th century melodrama was the most popular form of live entertainment. Across the nation, even in the gold rush towns production companies toured with famous actors and actresses performing the latest melodrama hit.
Then what became the rage was effects. Melodrama became less about the story and characters and more about the visual spectacle. Producers cared more about the carpenters and engineers that created the live special effects than the quality of the script or the abilities of the performers.
The quality of the scripts became so bad that melodrama turned into a joke. It is synonymous to this day with bad writing and bad acting. This was due to the trend to wow the audience with special effects and forgetting that what really matters is a good well written story first, and good actors to tell it.
Hollywood hit a slump in the late 60′s and early 70′s too. What saved it were the directors of independent films. A new breed of directors who focused on well written, powerful scripts and wouldn’t settle for “well, he’s not a great actor but he has charisma” attitude. Directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese.
Don’t know much about the music industry, except for if acts like Lady Gaga is the best big music labels have to offer then what did they expect?
The last CD I bought was a smaller label of an artist most people have never heard of. Beautiful voice, well crafted tunes, the lyrics aren’t all about sex and she never gets half naked and squirm around the stage at a live performance.
The entertainment industry is about to learn another hard lesson. And if it dies, there will always be someone there to fill the vacuum.
Talent will out.
Well, tell us all who she is so she ceases to be “an artist most people have never heard of.”
What the entertainment industry needs, obviously, is more central control from little lenin and his band of harvard geniuses.
Just as a starter, regulating salaries, implementing price controls, deciding up-front what entertainment forms are permissable, and defining them in great detail should fix everything, real quick. And, of course, that will lower the cost of entertainment for everyone. Let the CBO figure out what the savings will be.
It’s really hard to fathom why it hasn’t happened already. What could be the reason? What could it be?
We all have the answer to the problem,right???
Thereb are a lot of problems like ‘too much computer animation’, or special effects. Too few actors playing every movie. etc etc.
I think the American movie industry is too confined , the need for international films is there. The people need to see other efforts from overseas, and then maybe they will be willing to ditch a few of the endless crowds of no-hopers they have in ‘hollywood’.
My wife occasionally asks me to spring for one of DirecTV’s Pay-Per-View movies. Last time she asked I responded I’d be more inclined to pay NOT to have to view the crap Hollywood calls movies these days.
Last night we watched the 1945 version of Rogers and Hammerstein’s State Fair. Today’s movies and “stars” can’t hold a candle to the old stuff.
There is still plenty of interesting and exciting music being today. Its just that most of it is not coming from the big mega company monopolies. Most of it is coming from independent record companies or being directly sold by the artists themselves. I think the era of the big mega entertainment companies is over. They are based on an outdated business model.
Hollyweird of the last thirty years is full of indoctrinated liberals who throughout their lives are taught to hate America first by their parents, and then their profs at institutions of “higher learning”, and lastly the movie industry. It used to be 300,000 people in the industry but now Californians are leaving the state like rats on a sinking ship because of the total incompetence of the liberal leadership. Remember though, the Hollyweirders sure won’t be giving up (or paying taxes) on their off-shore trusts when this country is flowing down the toilet with two more years of “The Anointed One.” Maybe he could call the rock’n’rollers to help. Oh, sorry, I forgot, most of them are probably busy with those Aliester Crowley Satanic meetings and the sacrificial evening festivities. Then there are all the hundreds of sad stories. Doctors now say that the amount of bogus prescriptions among celebrities and their children are staggering. Unfortunately, unless something is done soon, it won’t be long until we add another name to the list that already includes Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Brittany Murphy, Heath Ledger and now Corey Haim. And lastly, they love their “heroes” like Roman Polanski. Only the European atheist’s love him more. But give Roman time, there’s always a chance for another Satan worshiping film winner?
Hollywood has sensationalized horror. As one film authority has described, these “unsettling films” are “designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm,” to create nightmares and focus on “the dark side of life.” Images of demons and devils are packaged to create emotional experiences.
Millions of people flock to these films, filling their minds with monsters and mummies, vampires and zombies, gore and the occult. But few recognize the satanic origins that inspire these products.
So where are the real heroes’s for Hollyweird? I have some simple advice. You want to meet a real hero so you can figure out what kind of movie to make? Go talk to the three Navy SEALs who faced assault charges for capturing one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq. Remember, when it comes to Hollyweird: There is no space as vacant as that of an actor without a script in their hand
Indie films are seeing a true resurgence and the likes of the original ‘Paranormal Activity’ they have proven to be a commercial success too. It is amazing what can be done on a small budget when artists do not have their talents molested and constrained by industry ‘know it all’ bosses.
There’s no surprise here. Hollyweird and the music industry are populated and run by spoiled children of the 60s. Having embraced the mantra that there are no absolutes in anything, they have no way of measuring greatness; not in acting, storywriting, music, or any other venue. Having no standard by which to judge greatness, they can’t know it when they see it, and of course, they don’t know mediocre or pathetic when they see it.
Like a colorblind man trying to create an oil painting, they simply lack the ability to see that what they are doing is garbage.
I watch no television at all, certainly not the idiot “news” shows, and maybe a documentary like “Planet Earth” or a British comedy DVD like “The Vicar of Dibbly” once or twice a year. Pixar’s animated cartoons, Harry Potter, Narnia, and Tolkien are fun. Liked “Avatar,” but am disgusted by Cameron’s far-left, deranged credulity on the Global Warming fraud. I didn’t bother with “The Expendables” – predictable is not fun.
Where does Hollywood go from here? Who cares? When these stupid leftards make a film I care to see, maybe I’ll watch it, but something fundamental has to change before they recover a real mass audience. How about shows celebrating patriotism, the power of love, hard-won achievement, freedom, personal responsibility, self-reliance, and the great contribution of free enterprise capitalism to human progress?