The Suckiness of Hollywood
Another day. Another hollywood trailer.
I have to say that every once in a while they get it right. Movies like Crash, Goodwill Hunting, and Blood Diamond really make a point of sharing with the viewer a story of what is, and countering what is by painting a picture of what should be, all the while staying away from shoving their one sided ideology down one’s throat.
But while watching a college football game last Saturday, I was introduced to the latest in end of the world propoganda crud by Tinseltown. (Believe me, I was just as hard on Left Behind) Humans using great amounts of the earth’s resources, Aliens coming to earth, and of course, Keanu Reeves pronouncing that “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.”
Great! Thanks for the heads up Keanu.
It’s not that I don’t think this is an important enough message (though the whole end of the world stuff has got to stop, and maybe it will… someday…), but personally, the movies are a part of the problem. Please consider this:
I decide I want to go to a movie on Friday night with my wife. First of all we go to dinner. Let’s say…Moe’s. We have food and drink there in the form of burritos and cokes. Then we drive to the theater across town in Millbury. It’s a huge complex complete with restaurants, shops, and a Yankee Candle Store. Before we go to the movies, Carie wants to stop by and smell the candles, ultimately buying my new favorite scent, “Harvest”. Then since she bought something, I decide I want to go to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book. So I do.
Afterward we walk to the theater and purchase tickets to see “The day the earth stood still” a remake of a 1951 movie of the same name. Of course, I have to get a coke and a snack in order to watch the film. We are awed by the special effects, and Keanu’s amazing acting ability (just so you know this is a fictitious story). Then what? Are we going to be inspired to not spend money casually, Waste money on gas, and make wise decisions in our spending because of a film that costs millions and millions of dollars to make? And that’s after Keanu’s already been paid for his Oscar winning performance.
In the meantime, we can buy a couple dozen magazines with the picture of Keanu on the cover and watch Keanu and his date for the evening easily spend thousands of dollars on their wardrobe at some award ceremony where all the friendly folks of Hollywood will lash out at our current president for being rich.
As Americans, I hope that we’ve learned a lesson in the last several months that will speak louder than hollywood movies. You can see this lesson in the current gas prices. Riches and material possessions don’t produce goodwill, but a giving, loving heart whose “back is against the wall” does,
And that’s something money can’t buy.
2 things:
I like Keanu’s movies, I just don’t think he’s a great actor.
Tomorrow I’ll hit up on the “back against the wall” concept, and why that’s so important.
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Very true. While that are some materials (such as movies) that can help make us think or
consider an alternate way of life, only Jesus can truly change a person’s heart.
Sometimes we treat the symptoms and not the core issue(s).
Giving to others is one way to open up the true resources of the Kingdom of God to be able
to flow through us to others and back to us through blessings.
Hope that you and the family have a great Thanksgiving week Marty! God bless!
i refuse to watch any movie w/ him in it
(except point break – his one and only good movie)
I also love the movies he’s in, and for some reason unknown to me, that qualifies him as a great actor. I know it doesn’t make sense, but he gets AWESOME roles, and I think he does them right. He’s kind of an average Californian, or something, that somehow I associate with. Even if he’s using a really bad fake Southern accent (The Devil’s Advocate), I guess the movie changes in my mind to a Southern Californian moving to the big city.
I guess what I’m trying to describe is me having a boner for Keaneau. Don’t stop! I love you!
Mike, you’re pretty much a conversational and comment killer.
Youn know, it’s funny when you think about movies in the context of products produced by an industry.
In most other industry, if the product did not do what you think it should do, you wouldn’t buy the product. Perhaps you’d tell your friends not to buy it. But it would be a very practical discussion, “Don’t buy X brand of shoes because they aren’t good shoes.”
Somehow, there gets to be this whole moral component when it comes to the media. I don’t deny that the media commands a great deal of power, but the only moral power the media has comes from us in the first place.
It’s only because we’ve decided that Keanu Reeves has the right to tell us who to be and what to do that he actually has that power.
I think you make a powerful case, Marty, for how hypocritical it is to make a multi-million dollar film about the evils of materialism. But I also think that the bigger problem isn’t that immoral messages of film: the bigger problem is that we’re relying on film for our morality in the first place… and even this wouldn’t be a problem, if we, collectively, would do a better job of supporting the moral films which are made. But we, collectively, talk out of both sides of our mouth. We put down millions of dollars on violence, sex, and other immorality potrayed in film. Then we act surprised when film makers continue to make these movies.
Yes, I guess a movie that pats you on the back and kicks The Man’s ass is much more comfortable for the general public; god forbid some movies out there might put YOU and your ways under the microscope, instead of simply trash some vague group of people you can safely point your finger at, hinding behind your popcorns, Coke, and scapegoat needs. Yes, THE MOVIES are part of the problem, of course.
And by the way, Keanu is Canadian. Seeing how he makes so many of you believe he comes from a place he actually doesn’t, he must be doing something right.