Re: AVATAR--I have the sneaking suspicion....
Which is why I want those roving bands of death squads out there. I think after *decades* of films that were both entertaining and thought-provoking (about something, and made you think after leaving the cinema) we had this recent rip in cinema where one side became *all* about art and the other side became *all* about commerce (what you call the corporate films) and I believe the audience is getting the shaft. (Yes, I know there are films with a foot in each camp, and that is what I am trying to encourage with my roving death squads.)
I have to decide - do I want to see a good movie tonight or an entertaining movie? And I do not want to make that decision! I want to eat food that tastes good and is good for me. (And yes, there are many indie films that I am entertained by, but I think the vast American viewing audience is not... and they are missing the healthy part of their meals.)
My roving band of death squads would encourage intelligent writers to write entertaining films, so that the people who loved TRANSFORMERS would get a film that they think is great... and also think about after leaving the cinema (and by think I don't mean "I'd sure like to do that Megan Fox" but maybe think about how we are depandant on machines or whatever the theme they come up with is... and have the scenes be better written and not stupid and have those lines of dialogue that you quote later instead of instantly forget). I want to stop this rip in cinema before it can not be repaired.
In those old days, we had cinema that was both intelligent and entertaining... and we had no indie cinema to take away all of the smart people, who should be fighting the stupid people in suits (or not in suits when it comes to corporate nudist cinema) and make mainstream films great again. (Yes, I have in the past posted stupid mainstream films from the past - but I think that most of the current mainstream films are much dumber than the dumb movies I have to search for in the past.)
This article is all about 1939's ten Best Picture Noms... and it attempts to make excuses for today's 10 noms by saying HURT LOCKER is about real issues, as was MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Um, big difference is that MR. SMITH was a popular mainstream film and HURT LOCKER is not...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100202/.../us_oscars1939
And also tries to pass off GONE WITH THE WIND as an indie film... um, okay. But it's still a big mainstream popular blockbuster designed to sell a pile of tickets.
The Goldman article on 1939 digs past those 10 films and comes up with something like 50 plus films that are classics from that year. And if you move on to 1940? Not like they're all dogs...
•Rebecca (1940) - Selznick International Pictures
•All This, and Heaven Too (1940) - Warner Bros.
•Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Walter Wanger
•Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940) - RKO Radio
•Our Town (1940) - Sol Lesser
•The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 20th Century Fox
•The Great Dictator (1940) - Charles Chaplin Productions
•The Letter (1940) - Warner Bros.
•The Long Voyage Home (1940) - Argosy; Walter Wanger
•The Philadelphia Story (1940) - Joseph L. Mankiewicz; M-G-M
Okay - all of those were mainstream movies - pop entertainment - and the winner was a thriller - a genre film - and a film that holds up well today. (The soapy rom-drams like THE LETTER don't hold up as well, but that was a popular genre in its day.) Funny that Hitchcock had two films up for Best Picture that year. GRAPES OF WRATH is strangely like AVATAR - kind of leftie movies about people fight oppression, they're both emotional movies. ("Everywhere a Navi fights for their land, I'll be there.")
The problem is we have all the brains on one side of the room and all of the popular kids on the other side, and making brain stuff popular just ain't gonna happen unless the two sides come together. And my roving death squads hope to do that.
So help me help everyone else! Join a roving death squad and search for single grip trucks on the streets of Los Angeles!
- Bill
Originally posted by WritersBlock2010
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I have to decide - do I want to see a good movie tonight or an entertaining movie? And I do not want to make that decision! I want to eat food that tastes good and is good for me. (And yes, there are many indie films that I am entertained by, but I think the vast American viewing audience is not... and they are missing the healthy part of their meals.)
My roving band of death squads would encourage intelligent writers to write entertaining films, so that the people who loved TRANSFORMERS would get a film that they think is great... and also think about after leaving the cinema (and by think I don't mean "I'd sure like to do that Megan Fox" but maybe think about how we are depandant on machines or whatever the theme they come up with is... and have the scenes be better written and not stupid and have those lines of dialogue that you quote later instead of instantly forget). I want to stop this rip in cinema before it can not be repaired.
In those old days, we had cinema that was both intelligent and entertaining... and we had no indie cinema to take away all of the smart people, who should be fighting the stupid people in suits (or not in suits when it comes to corporate nudist cinema) and make mainstream films great again. (Yes, I have in the past posted stupid mainstream films from the past - but I think that most of the current mainstream films are much dumber than the dumb movies I have to search for in the past.)
This article is all about 1939's ten Best Picture Noms... and it attempts to make excuses for today's 10 noms by saying HURT LOCKER is about real issues, as was MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Um, big difference is that MR. SMITH was a popular mainstream film and HURT LOCKER is not...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100202/.../us_oscars1939
And also tries to pass off GONE WITH THE WIND as an indie film... um, okay. But it's still a big mainstream popular blockbuster designed to sell a pile of tickets.
The Goldman article on 1939 digs past those 10 films and comes up with something like 50 plus films that are classics from that year. And if you move on to 1940? Not like they're all dogs...
•Rebecca (1940) - Selznick International Pictures
•All This, and Heaven Too (1940) - Warner Bros.
•Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Walter Wanger
•Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940) - RKO Radio
•Our Town (1940) - Sol Lesser
•The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 20th Century Fox
•The Great Dictator (1940) - Charles Chaplin Productions
•The Letter (1940) - Warner Bros.
•The Long Voyage Home (1940) - Argosy; Walter Wanger
•The Philadelphia Story (1940) - Joseph L. Mankiewicz; M-G-M
Okay - all of those were mainstream movies - pop entertainment - and the winner was a thriller - a genre film - and a film that holds up well today. (The soapy rom-drams like THE LETTER don't hold up as well, but that was a popular genre in its day.) Funny that Hitchcock had two films up for Best Picture that year. GRAPES OF WRATH is strangely like AVATAR - kind of leftie movies about people fight oppression, they're both emotional movies. ("Everywhere a Navi fights for their land, I'll be there.")
The problem is we have all the brains on one side of the room and all of the popular kids on the other side, and making brain stuff popular just ain't gonna happen unless the two sides come together. And my roving death squads hope to do that.
So help me help everyone else! Join a roving death squad and search for single grip trucks on the streets of Los Angeles!
- Bill
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