Dear listmembers
Last night I went to see _American Beauty_. It is easily the worst movie I'
ve ever sat through. The plot stank, the dialogue stank, the characters
stank and the acting stank. The screenplay slavishly followed the rule "if a
cliché is more then ten years old, then it's irony". This being an "ironic"
movie, it's wall-to-wall with old clichés.
The whole affair was a self-righteous anti-American whinge with the
"cultured" English accent of its thespian director.
What's this got to do with philosophy? Well, it seems to me that _American
Beauty_ is the supreme example of art corrupted by morality. Where it
pretends to have a sense of humour, it has a moral agenda. Where it pretends
to "go deep", it insidiously pushes its own virtues on the audience:
"American" consumerism, homophobia, etc. -- bad.
"Quirky" Tarantino-esque attitudes, alternative lifestyles, etc. -- good.
Well, the brainwashing didn't work on me: I left the cinema a raving
anglophobe, homophobe and thespiphobe. When I got home, I watched _Shane_
again to cleanse myself. I'm feeling better now. God bless America!
Jeremy
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