Posted on 03/07/2006 5:34:01 PM PST by RWR8189
Hollywood is two-faced about this. When their taxpayer funding is threatened (read PBS and NEA grants), they cry that artists must push the envelope of society, but when people complain about their excesses, they claim that they are just being a mirror of society.
What is it this time, envelope-pushing or reflecting society?
-PJ
You can make a virtue out of it if you want. It's a lot harder making a PROFIT from it. Ask the moviegoers who didn't go to movies this year.
Based on the comments I've read on FR, I have no desire to see "Crash". However, I might order it for a free viewing from my Interlibrary loan system when it becomes available on DVD.
Interesting trivia fact: it took Selma, Alabama, less time to elect their first black mayor than it took Hollywood to elect a black Best Actress. He was elected about a year before Halle Berry won. But thank God and George Clooney (but I repeat myself) that we have Hollywood to lead the way and teach all us bigoted red-staters how to stop the hatin'.
Has Looney been in anything lately? I don't recall ever hearing of him.
Yawn! Glad I proudly boycotted another useless awards show in favor of grouting my shower.
Well-said.
I tend to agree with you. And isn't talk cheap, anyway, Mr. Looney?
Broadway and off Broadway theater dealt with AIDS long before Hollywood did; probably has something to do with the theatre mindset---there is simply no way not to admit the prevalence of gays in theater, but Hollywood has always been in denial that such macho types as Randolph Scott, and Rock Hudson and countless others were gay, that it arranged beard/dates and even sham marriages to conceal it, and not harm box office. Box office in theater would NEVER be hurt by such things. So it is appropriate that theater would be up front about it. The current mark of distinction among movie actors,who are overwhelmingly straight, is to PLAY gay characters, not BE gay. BTW, The best , and most moving play about AIDS is Larry Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART----utterly realistic and unsentimental. Anything that pretender Tony Kushner wrote about AIDS pales in comparison.
Sadly, both of Clooney's political movies, "Good Night" and "Syriana," have been profitable. They were made for less than $10 million and have been modest successes at the theatrical box office.
Very good point---the Academy then gives an award to an abysmal "song" about a pimp and his tough life...When I first heard the title I thought it was a joke.....a few minutes later, it WON! On another Oscar thread, Doug from Upland posted a very interesting list detailing ALL Oscar Winning songs and they movies they came from.....from the very beginning all good-to-great songs, many of which have become classics......then around 1970, "Shaft" won, and things have never been the same. Most of the winning songs especially in the last dozen years or so, have either been crafted as vehicles International-selling stars like Celine Dion, being the BIG theme songs from BIG movies, or were songs that appeared in high production value Disney animations, basically movies for kids. Very interesting, when you use it as a guide to illustrate how the movies have changed. In cravenly responding with its approval,
Hollywood has done a disservice by legitimizing this entirely bogus posturing of "gangsta kulcha" , but this stuff apparently has found its core audience by now, and it must be a big one. There is no sadder development in American life than this one, in the last 20 years or so.
"...We were the ones who talked about AIDS...about civil rights..."
While art is admirable and artists are rare and should be noted, the true genius of society is the person who is actually doing something other than talk.
I know a nun who has spent her life in contact with the most vicious of criminals trying to convert their lives from hate to love. She never, ever forgets what they have done, nor does she excuse it.
I know many people who are in the international arena discussing AIDS policies and the ways to help the third world.
I know a young woman whose recent drug development, after a decade of research, has gone to clinical trials. It could erradicate a drug resistant disease.
There are brilliant people attempting to develop new forms of energy and ways to obtain what already exists. One young man is so brilliant he not only excels at engineering, but is also a gifted artist and writer.
These are the people who actually make life possible.
There are those who talk, and those who do.
Those who talk need to remember that those who do make it possible for those who talk.
A lot of humility is in order.
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