Recently, in Hollywood a massive percentage of the films that they churn out are aimed specifically at the mass audience and have made people question whether film is truly art or not. It's fine that theymake films like that, films like Waterworld where they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on such a production only to have it turn out the way that it did. I grant the fact that a lot of people around the world love to watch films like that, but what i'm saying is that i want people to realise that these films aren't GOOD! i mean they may be spectacular but not good. Not Brilliant. Not art.
a couple of weeks ago in the paper, there was an article about the new film Con Air. It was an article talking with some of the most well known critics in America. These people said that Con Air is exactly what the Hollywood system has become, in Con Air there is little for no time given for things such as character development, that was done in the first five minutes, the next hour and 25 mins was action, pure action.
You look at the old Hollywood, when the studio system first started. The films made then were all churned out the same, they were 'standardized' but a least they were half way decent. The early hollywood had actors such as Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and of course James Dean with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock. And now we have actors such as Arnold Schwartzniger - or how ever you spell it - and the like... at least back then the actors could speak!
There was an article in one of today's papers (21/8) about Gregory Peck, a great actor, who said - and i quote - 'The technology is terrific and the effects are terrific, but there's something missing in the human element - i think it's getting rather tiresome... When you have a giant conglomerate behind a movie, the fellows at the top are not terribly concerned about the artistic element, they're concerned about the bottom line, It's commerce for them.' He is basically saying that Hollywood has gone downhill, it has sold out, 'lost the plot' and he said that the best films around today are Australian ones eg Babe, Muriels Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert etc (which is true) because they don't care about the box office.
I worked out a formula... okay... take:
Give or take a few of these things...
NOW! we add a volcano... what do we have?? Dante's Peak or Vocano...... add a twister and we have Twister... add a couple of Dinosaurs we have Jurassic Park ... and of course, add a huge mother of an alien ship and we have Independance Day! do you sense a pattern???
now... i'm not saying you have to agree with me, but i am asking that you think about it... THANK YOU
any questions or comments mail me *sm*