Let’s impregnate this thread with discussion re: The Entertainment Industry
(Insert RAUCOUS APPLAUSE and ACADEMY AWARDS THEME SNIPPET here)
As a working actor (oxymoron?) I follow the predominant shifts in the Hollywood paradigm as the machine rolls on and on. The path we’ve trod from gathering about the fire, telling tales of ravenous beasts we’ve stalked or strange lights in the sky, until now, when teens masturbate on national television while their roommates have sex in the upper bunk (see MTV’s Undressed), has wound a long and multi-textured road through history and blazed new trails through the landscape of our society. Cultures simultaneously sculpt and are sculpted by the images presented through media, be they factual, fictional, or ‘fact portrayed with artistic license’ (see Titanic).
Please pick one (or more) of the following topics and attack/defend as you see fit.
The 40 to 30 to 20 to teen-something shift.
“It used to be appealing. Now it’s boring.” What is it and why?
Continually ascending budgets for ultimately mindless fare. Necessary?
Independent films versus Studio extravaganzas: Who’s really in control?
Reflective films, redemptive films, and intellectual spoor: And the winner is…?
Formulaic successes we pay to see again (Part II: The Wrath of Formulaic Successes) and again (Part III: Formulaic Successes and the Last Crusade) and still again (Part IV but really Part I, The Formulaic Success Menace). Why?
How is entertainment destroying/building our societal mores/apathy?
Please chew each bite 7 times before swallowing. All entries will be contained in a hermetically sealed envelope in Ed McMahon’s backyard until the appointed time.
Finally, offer an entertainment-related rant of your own which people can freely support/attack.
For example:
Paul Verhoeven is a lousy hack writer and should be summarily sentenced to gulag. I don’t care how much money he makes, I don’t care what niche he fills with his grotesque debauchery. If he’d shown improvement over the years, I might feel differently. However, since Total Recall (niche market sci-fi sfx romp which amused until the utterly hideous ending) his insipid offerings have failed to evoke any response other than the need to pass his vapid dreck through my psychological bowels. Furthermore, I flagellate myself mentally for contributing to his efforts by shelling out my dough at economy hour right into his swollen pockets. He and his ilk should go back to junior high locker room graffiti: at least there it would serve the purpose of keeping janitors employed for that extra twenty minutes of scrubbing with E-Z Wipe-n-Shine.
See? Nothing to it.
If we are out of our mind, it is for the Lord; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 2Cor.5:13