True. But ever since Saving Private Ryan, it became a style for war films
South Korea really ran with that sort of thing with films depicting their own conflicts while cribbing Spielberg directorial tics with a bunch of films in the early 00’s worth a look.
A good starting point
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One could say that consistently giving work opportunities to an actor that doesn’t deserve them gives them a pass to continue their behavior. I personally would not call for a boycott of a public figure, frankly i’m not that invested. I just don’t watch certain things involving certain people and i’m quite happy watching other things.
In a world where Daddy comes home drunk and violent again. Mel Gibson is Daddy.
For me the ultra-violence is as much a distracting sensationalism as the comically unrealistic sound effects every time someone punches or kicks someone or something in films or TV. Violence in the real world is infinitely less glamorous, blood turns shit-brown quickly and soft squishy human bodies fail slowly and without music.
Implied violence is far more powerful than shown violence, particularly since what is shown is absurdly romanticized.
Like I said, I’m not giving up on it yet, and that’s saying a lot given that I had to subscribe to a new service just to watch it. It does show signs of improving, and it has enormous potential and doesn’t want for budget. Fingers crossed.
I’m positive Boing Boing has said nice things about several celebrities with shit like this in their backstory.
I guess I don’t appreciate selective sanctimony.
There is a quote from WWII veteran, film director Samuel Fuller about depicting war that goes something like, “Its all just approximation and phony. Unless there is someone machine gunning the audience, there is no way one can really realistically show what war is really like”
Btw the last couple of episodes of The Shield are some of the finest drama on TV period. One of the best endings of all times.
Maybe at respecting each person’s right to like or dislike whatever and whomever they choose without making it into a mountain of a problem, when we already have so many other detrimental problems to deal with?
Nah, never mind; that makes too much sense.
I’ve been watching Person of Interest, and I am distracted by the “network style” violence. It seems there’s contractually required hand to hand combat and spraying of automatic fire in a rather intellectual show.
I favor the “separate the art from the artist” idea, generally for pre-existing film work because I feel if you boycotted every film connected to a problematic person, it just leads to mowing down huge swaths of cinema due to the connectedness of Hollywood (Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon). If we held every single film to bear the guilt of its makers we’d be left with only a handful of films that could be identified as “spotless”.
Now, I do think that it is in our best interest to bring our purchasing power to bear in cases like Gibson’s latest film, and other films and media connected to problematic people who refuse to learn or change their behavior, as an attempt to steer the ship toward a more favorable direction.
The past is past, and often written to favor the ones who won the battles, but more importantly, history can be revised and scrutinized under the microscope of revisionism. Sometimes it is very important to view the history of history itself.
ETA: A little disclosure…my concentration in university was Film & Media Studies, so yeah, I tend to see film as artifact, not just entertainment.
I feel like ever since Breaking Bad, every show tries to recreate the violence and selfishness of its characters, regardless of whether it’s appropriate. It’s like networks won’t green-light something without a substantial body count. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Breaking Bad, but I don’t want every show to try to be Breaking Bad.
Well, as we know, acquittal doesn’t mean innocent. But I didn’t hear about the recanting. Source? I’d like to learn more.
MJ, holds a forever place in the Neverland part of my heart. Like probably all kids of the 80s.
I think that’s a big factor. People tend to reflect on the positive aspects of the dead.
Right? There’s only so much cognitive dissonance to spread around. In the end, I think it comes down to making choices you can live with.
Wait, you mean we’re individuals allowed to have different opinions about art and artists? This changes everything.
True but they fail miserably, anyway; having missed the message of the show completely.
Seriously at the end of the series, who “came out on top?”
By the time it was all said and done, out of the main characters, who came out of it unbroken?
NO ONE. *
Walt’s two year rollercoaster ride of death and violence damaged pretty much everyone in his path.
(*Skinny Pete, Badger and Holly White, the baby, are debateable; but neither are any of them central characters.)
Sorry I don’t have the time to do the query right now, just got a new assignment in.
>_<
Remind me later and I’ll dig around for it.
Eh - I think that’s always been around, but BB did a very good job of it. And when something “works” everyone wants to emulate it. In 90s the comic book “anti-hero” was in full swing and everyone wanted the next Punisher or Lobo or Venom, and even ruined their main heroes in some ways.
This got me thinking, though, I wonder if we would have better media if you didn’t have to do 30+shows a season. Some of the best stuff has 10-15 shows a season. Maybe start having more shows, less episodes? Do we need 30+ episodes of 3 flavors of CSI per year?
It is said that Jimmy Savile got away with it for so long because it is possible to use the law so easily to prevent people from coming forward.
“If you make allegations against my client we will sue you for libel, we can afford it but you will be bankrupt before it gets to court” is a pretty big hammer to crack a nut.
Savile’s lawyer was George Carman, and his son Dominic has subsequently said that George Carman was one reason Savile was never prosecuted.
Sometimes bad people make good art. In this case, it seems like it’s a bad person making bad art, but Gibson’s made some pretty great movies too. I’m 100% convinced that Roman Polanski should have been in prison for the last few decades. No doubt in my mind. But for a period of time during the Pianist, I forgot that I was watching a movie. It was brilliant. Same thing with Woody Allen and Blue Jasmine. James Hetfield seems like a complete dickhole, but I still rock out to Ride the Lightning from time to time. My small kids love Michael Jackson’s music, and it’s going to be a difficult day when I have to explain his ugly legacy.
I don’t think anyone is arguing that it’s not OK to enjoy a bad person’s art. At least I hope not. If the art is good enough, it can make you forget the things you know about the artist. The complicated part comes with the fact that you’re supporting the shitty person behind that art. I paid to watch the Pianist. I hate to acknowledge it, but I’m sure people will pay to watch Daddy’s Home 2. The fact that I’m supporting a person who does bad things is one of those morally ambiguous things that doesn’t sit well with me.
Too many Rick and Morty fans are on that same bus.
Cool!
Even when it comes to liking things, many seem to ignore that we like things differently. I know the trick of the show is that it’s supposed to engage our pathos for the villain, but the truth is that I only got more and more disgusted with Walt as the show progressed. Cranston is a spectacular actor, but Walt only got more manipulative and wasteful of his enviable intelligence.
At the risk of sweeping generalization, I feel like imitators who are driven by commercial avarice (“let’s do that not because we love and understand it but because it made bank”) largely fail because of their underestimation of prospective audiences. Even if they do understand the message, they seem to just assume audiences are dumb schmucks who only care about superficial things. Their disdain and condescension comes through loud and clear even as they fail to bottle lightning.
I think that’s a huge part of the problem, quantity over quality. Writers drag out story-lines with plot filler because they run out of original ideas. It’s made Gotham nearly unwatchable despite a strong first two seasons.
I definitely think something happened with MJ, regardless of how far it went it still is inexcusable and horrible. But i definitely love his music, everytime one of his jams comes on my Pandora playlist it’s like… god damn that’s such good music and he was such an amazing talent all around. His personal life definitely makes his artistic legacy a very complicated one.
