Hollywood
Do you ever get the feeling that the people in Hollywood have their own set of values that aren't really in sync with those of average folks?
I do. And so does this columnist.
The outpouring of affection for two of the films he addresses in his article, "Philadelphia" and "American Beauty", have always puzzled me.
In "Philadelphia", Tom Hanks contracts the HIV virus by cheating on his partner in a porn theatre. Do you think there would have even been a movie made in the first place if a script was written about a man who cheated on his wife in a porn theatre and got the disease? I'm not suggesting (like the columnist above seems to do) Hollywood is interested in promoting some "gay agenda", but it's undeniably true that in "Philadelphia", there was a certain sympathy for the Hanks character that wouldn't exist if he was a cheating bastard husband.
Looking at "American Beauty", the family structure is the object of much derision. The whole purpose of the exercise is to sneer at the typical portrayal of the American way of life we saw in 80's sitcoms like "Family Ties" and "Growing Pains" as boring, unfufilling and phony. Instead, hedonism and impulse rules the day and is applauded.
Another film I saw a couple of years back, thankfully for free, "Kill Bill", was supposed to be amazing and groundbreaking. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. In fact, it was probably the worst movie I've ever seen because of its pointless and gratuitous violence.
It's no wonder that movie attendance is down, and those who enjoy cinema are looking more and more at foreign films as an alternative.
What do you think?
posted by Road Hammer @ 10:39 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I think American Beauty was more about watching a guy go through a typical mid life crisis and questioning what he has been working for his whole life. He just went through with a lot of things people wish they could do. In the end, when Spacey's character couldn't sleep with the cheerleader he pined after, he realized his boring middle class existence was pretty damn good. The coda of the movie is that the US is still a pretty good place to live.
The funniest thing about American Beauty getting ripped was that it's competition for the best picture Oscar that year was The Cider House Rules, which everybody said was great, wholesome, and full of strong values. Meanwhile the movie was about an ether addicted doctor home teaching an orphan to perform abortions. That student then moves out on his own and starts having an affair with a woman whose fiancee is away at war, and starts working for a man having an incestuous relationship with his daughter that results in her pregnancy. Which movie was an indictment of American values?
The reason Hollywood types have different values is because they are hypocrites. I've spent a lot of time in LA and know a lot of people in the industry. It all comes down to power and money. All the most powerful are lefties (Spielberg, Lucas, Penn, etc.) and publicly disagreeing with them is career suicide.
Finally, people don't go to movies anymore because the movies stink. People went to movies the opening weekend for Star Wars, Harry Potter, and King Kong, all which did over $100 million their first year. Why? Because they are actually entertaining. I don't know anybody whose paying to see Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford anymore.
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