"What's Making Money and What's Not"


A surprising? look at holiday films from a one of the very few conservative film sites. Not the usual perspective.
Dirty Harry at LIBERTAS takes a look at the where the money goes this season.

The $35 million The Nativity Story — with no stars — has made more money than the $100 million Blood Diamond starring that supposed hot property Leo. The sentimental $24 million Rocky Balboa — starring a 60 year old who hasn’t had a hit in over a decade — handily beat the cynical Good Shepherd which stars the supposedly hot Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie.

Could the theme of these pictures have something to do with their success? Both Rocky and Nativity are made to uplift; to boost the human spirit. Diamond and Shepherd are designed to tell us our way of life and what we believe in are wrong. They’re designed to make us ashamed of our good selves.

Could the persona of those anchoring the picture have something to do with it? DiCaprio preaches from his mansion about the energy we use. Matt Damon tells us how to vote and criticizes America every chance he gets. Angelina Jolie… Well, where do I begin? However, I have no idea how Stallone votes but his pictures have never been shy about their patriotism. And no one associated with The Nativity has done anything other than simply try to make the best film they could.

I am not a conservative or a Christian, but I think Dirty Harry has a point here. There is a way to entertain and a way not to entertain. You can have a "message film" but still keep people's attention. The usual liberal rhetoric doesn't connect to people unless there is a story to tell and characters to care about. Nor does the usual conservative rhetoric for that matter. And libertarians tend to get WAY too wrapped up in the message.

I'm a movie buff. Movie freak would be closer to the mark. I am passionate when it comes to film. More important to me than anything else is what I call rewatchability. If I watch a film, will I want to see it again in a year?

We shape ourselves by the myths that we choose to embrace.

I don't mean "myths" as in untruths, I mean myths as defined in the works of Joseph Campbell.

At it's most simplistic, if the stories we follow say that the United States is a failure and liberty is a farce, then that is what we expect and that is what we work towards. But if we choose the stories that say that ordinary people become incredibly amazing when pushed to the limit and the good guys usually win, then we try to find ways to make that happen.

Yes I know it is corny. But it is also true.

There is another point though, and it is one that many of the Hollywood elites will never understand. People pay attention to contrasts. If a "stars" message is always one of doom and gloom both on and off screen, how will people know when to pay attention? George Burns used to say that people knew to laugh when he puffed on his cigar.

I'm not a real fan of "pretty boy" films. Many of the classic actors never would make it through the gates of a major studio today. Humphrey Bogart was not handsome by any stretch of imagination, but he was a character. His face looked lived in, not a mask maintained for the camera.

Stallone of the 1980s didn't have that. Stallone of the 2000s just might.

It's not the causes you embrace or the titles you collect that bring you respect. It's the life you live.

Getting back to one of my heros even if he wasn't a film star, Edward R. Murrow brought credibility to the news stories he covered, not the other way around.

The causes are nothing. The individual people who choose to be more, those are what is important. Those are the ones who make a difference. Those are the ones who dare to dream. Those are the ones who get up when they keep getting knocked down. Those are the ones who fail before they succeed.

Those are the ones who live life passionately.

Don't tell me the stories of a corrupt society, tell me the stories of the people who rose above that. Or at least tried very hard time and time again to rise above that. I can even take failure if it's a glorious failure.

Don't preach to me.

Inspire me.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - December 25, 2006 at 02:32 PM  Tag


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