Thanks to Samizdata (via PJ), I know now the MacGuffin of “Death of a President,” a movie I never intended to see anyway. It’s hard enough as an Academy member keeping up with recommended films as voting season approaches. Why would I waste my waning eyes on clichéd tripe of this nature (the Bush assassin is the father of an African-American soldier killed in Iraq)?
But it does make me think of the growing trend of Cinema of Self-Congratulation. These movies are not so much about art or even entertainment as they are about the audience and filmmakers feeling good about themselves, in the sense that both are right-thinking or of the “correct” sort. Great art abhors this of course. It is all about wildness and complexity – from Medea to The Godfather, nothing is simple … or perhaps I should say “Nothing is written” (until, as Lawrence of Arabia tells us, it is).
Occasionally, this new genre of self-righteous films reaches larger audiences. Critics and we Academy members are complicit in this, placing ourselves inside that circle of self-congratulation and rewarding these right-thinking works with plaudits they don’t deserve. An example is last year’s Edward R. Murrow hagiography Good Night, and Good Luck – a thin enterprise with no discernible story line or character development. It depends entirely on the consent of the audience that Murrow was a godlike figure whose every action was to be applauded or coolly finger-snapped – like the hero and villain in vaudeville, only there aren’t any jokes. But then this genre is basically humorless anyway.
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14 Comments
1. Terrye:Roger:
Not long ago I saw a blurb about Clooney going on about Darfur and I thought to myself:
Who does this egomaniac think he is fooling? Look at me, I am George Clooney and I care about the world. The little folk. Of course if Bush sent in the Marines I would be calling him Hitler and screaming something inane like no blood for oil..but when it comes to looking all noble, I do good.
gag.
Oct 8, 2006 - 10:22 am 2. Ray Zacek:I think it safe to presume money is the primary deity in Hollywood; but doesn’t status, called prestige when she dresses up for the banquet or awards ceremony, rank second? And what is all this political posturing about, what have all the “message” movies and “statements” ever been about, except accruing prestige, or its facsimile, by emanating those well-laundered, progressive, liberal, do-the-right-thing values? Sort of a vaudeville of the conscience: driving a Prius six blocks instead of the tiny clown car. To show “there’s more to me than meets the eye” when that depth of character and commitment is really no deeper than the 3D illusion from the Fifties sci fi movies.
Oct 8, 2006 - 11:06 am 3. Tully:Clooney going to Darfur is almost as amusing as Sean Penn in New Orleans.
Oct 8, 2006 - 11:49 am 4. quickrob:speaking of self-congratulatory, have you seen that “Studio 60″ show? It’s really not that great.
I feel like a bunch of writers and producers sat around and tried to think of something to make a show about…and the best stuff they could come up with was a show about a bunch of writers and producers. Talk about blind to the world!
Throw in plenty of unrequested political, anti-Republican stuff and you have “Studio 60″, a self-obsessed, conceited look at the pathetic, tired, droning antics of a Hollywood out of touch with both reality and the entire middle class.
It’s like “west Wing”, but engineered for an even less thoughtful demographic.
Oct 8, 2006 - 11:51 am 5. Vulgorilla:I ceased to pay any attention to the Academy when they bestowed an Oscar for the best documentary on Michael Moore for “Bowling for Columbine”. Since that piece of work was totally political, and obviously not a documentary (I wonder what the best documentary of the year really was), I then correctly assumed that all awards (Oscars) from that point on were totally based upon political considerations, and that they would have nothing to do with the level of merit in their particular categories. It was also at that point in time that I turned off the Academy Awards, and have not turned them on since.
It is really too bad that the Academy spent all of their credibility on making political statements rather than actually recognizing top notch creativity, but I guess that’s what happens when the moonbats take over.
Oct 8, 2006 - 12:56 pm 6. ianfairchild:In late 90s, George Clooney was in a movie titled Three Kings. The movie was about how Bush I betrayed the Iraqi’s who were encouraged to rebel after the first Iraqi war.
Poor Clooney’s character gives up a fortune in gold so that he can save several Iraqis. So in that case, we were supposed to stay and fight. However, that was then when we had a Republican president who listened to the international community. Of course in the press junkets, Clooney blamed Bush I, not the French. Today we have a Repbulican president who has not listened to the international community and has tried to save Iraqis. Think George is happy?
Oct 8, 2006 - 1:04 pm 7. Walter Guest:There was a book written a while ago (which I didn?t read, I was waiting for the movie) about how the Jews of Hollywood, back in the thirties, shaped the psyche of America. This is something I believe absolutely. You could not leave a theatre in those days without feeling proud to be an American. They had a lot to do with the creation of “The Greatest Generation.”
Hollywood today revels in what I call the culture of betrayal. Today?s hero in the movie is the whistle-blower. It is never done thoughtfully. It is always the brave, incorruptible loner against some huge, evil organization, usually the US government. And there is never any gray area in the situation. The organization has done something so evil that of course they should be exposed.
Will they ever make a movie in which the whistle blower is the villain? I doubt it.
Oct 8, 2006 - 2:13 pm 8. heather:I like movies with glamourous beautiful people, gorgeous sets, and great murders… so, I went to Black Dahlia, starring some expensive glamourous beautiful actors, set in glamourous 1940s Los Angelas.
Someone spent a lot of $$$ and time on this movie, in other words. So, why was it so awful? I am not an art house junky, I like my movies to be non-intellectual. But this movie was incomprehensible. At one point, near the end, someone jumped out and was shot and my only thought was, “who is THAT?” The acting was not terrible. It was the STORY. What happened to the STORY???
Ellroy is a good writer; the mystery of the Black Dahlia’s death is – well – a MYSTERY.
What happens anyway, when such a FAILURE is allowed out of the stable???
Can I sue someone for fraud or something???
Oct 8, 2006 - 3:20 pm 9. Annalucia:“Will they ever make a movie in which the whistle blower is the villain? I doubt it.”
Well, there was “Ghostbusters,” where the villain is the guy from the EPA….
Oct 8, 2006 - 6:34 pm 10. syn:Fortunately Hollywood’s overpaid cosmetic salespeople (actors) will be so busy over the next three years campaigning for Hillary’s presidential run that the bejewelled bottomfeeders won’t have time to make their ART movies.
Oct 9, 2006 - 5:24 am 11. scott:Good news about “Studio 60″ is that its viewership goes down every week.That turkey should be done by Thanksgiving.
Oct 9, 2006 - 6:03 am 12. Plainslow:A big reason why the Islamist hate us, is the view they get of us through our films. The price of freedom. But if the films keep it up, they will begin to lose the freedom to do so. 2500 police officers injured in France? Movie director killed in Europe. A legislator in Europe moves to the US for safety? What are the movie people going to do when there is no more Cannes?
Oct 9, 2006 - 6:28 am 13. ahem:Politics mixed with art is rarely a digestible combination. It’s too easy to cross the line into flagrant propaganda. These films are like old soviet-style art: noble, shiny, tractors. Why our artists should insist on building them when they enjoy almost limitless freedom of expression is a real puzzler.
Oct 9, 2006 - 6:34 am 14. zefal:Vulgorilla
Barbara Trent’s “The Panama Deception” schlock was the forerunner to the Michael Moore schlock.
Oct 9, 2006 - 11:49 pm