With the Academy Awards set to be given out tonight…..yawn…..the Washington Post carries this story about the increasing prevalance of “movies with a message” among the offerings coming out of Hollywood.
LOS ANGELES — The awards season in Hollywood is by its very nature a self-congratulatory affair. But this year, the filmmakers say their serious, somber movies really do matter — not just as entertainment or art, but politically, socially. Hollywood thinks the movies are important again.
Ang Lee, director of “Brokeback Mountain,” speaks of “the power of movies to change the way we’re thinking.” Steven Spielberg, director of “Munich,” has called this year’s Oscar-nominated films “courageous” for the risks they took with stories about racism, terrorism, government and corporate crime, and homosexuality. Mark R. Harris, a producer of “Crash,” said “this movie has changed people’s lives.”
I’m sorry guys, but the truth of the matter is that, for the most part, Americans go to the movies to be entertained, not to be preached at. Make a movie that’s entertaining or moving, and we’ll go see it. Make a movie that exists for the sole purpose of conveying a message, and usually that means a political message, and its likely not to be entertaining at all. With that in mind, its not surprising at all that there is usually very little correlation between the movies that the elites in Hollywood consider “the best” and the movies that the American people actually like. Take a look at the box office figures for 2005, for example, and you’ll have to go all the way down to # 16 before you’ll find a movie that’s a player at this year’s Academy Awards — Walk The Line. And you’ll have to go all the way down to # 26 to find one of the film’s being praised for carrying a message — Brokeback Mountain. Apparently, Hollywood’s idea of what makes a good film doesn’t coincide with what the American consumer wants; which is probably why total box office receipts slipped by more than 6% last year.
But that isn’t stopping Hollywood from believing that it is on the forefront of social change:
“It’s our job as filmmakers to reflect the world right now, and this year has proven that you can make these movies and make them not taste like medicine,” said Charlize Theron
Believe that if you want Charlize, but if the only people who go see your movies are people who already share your beliefs, then you’re really just preaching to the choir.
Or consider these remarks from Stephen Spielberg:
What is motivating filmmakers and voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? In a director’s roundtable published by Newsweek, Spielberg said: “I just feel that filmmakers are much more proactive since the second Bush administration. I think that everybody is trying to declare their independence and state their case for things that we believe in. No one is really representing us, so we’re representing our own feelings, and we’re trying to strike back.”
Ah yes, poor oppressed Hollywood. I’ll remind myself of that as I watch a bunch of multi-millionaires gather and spend three hours congratulating themselves tonight.
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