Yes, and there are black swans, too. The issue, however, is whether we orient discourse towards the median or employ ZFC configuration. I opt for the former because happy endings generally refer to why movies are made in the first place: as an entertainment commodity.
Exceptions are also explainable. Grapes for example, was a film based upon an extremely well-known book by an "important" author. These extrinsics carried it over the bar while, for example, Salt of the Earth remained censored.
All film is based upon loose what-if assumptions of an audience; hence, a tangental reality of sorts in all cases. Yet the claim of classical Hollywood is that it alone cares about reality, and modernism is all about presentation. This, I believe, was the gist of our discussion--not that we all might find GWTW somewhat delusional and factual at the same time.
Indeed, there is much to be learned from any cinematic genre that proves itself a financial success. Among these are that because cinema is expensive to do, production technique is critical. Next we might understand the art of holding an audience's attention. In this respect, the lessons absorbed from Griffin and Riefenstahl were well-absorbed.
BH
----- Original Message -----
From: Henry M. Taylor<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 10:56
Subject: Re: convention-cliche / propaganda-realism
There are lots of Hollywood films without a happy ending. Viz most of film noir, e.g. Or the kind of social realism implied by works such as The Grapes of Wrath, The Best Years of Our Lives, etc. I'm not going to the other extreme and claim a 1:1 correspondence with lived reality, but to say it has NOTHING to do with reality is far off the mark. Not less, when we consider the very reality of the imaginary, and of desire. There is much to be learned from classical Hollywood if we go beyond the depicted surface of things.
Henry
Am 13.02.2009 um 16:26 schrieb bill harris:
Oh, for sure. The nuance of which you speak is that for the extremely privileged things always come to a happy ending. We know this is true because Brecht told us so.
----- Original Message -----
From: Henry M. Taylor<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 09:55
Subject: Re: convention-cliche / propaganda-realism
Anja writes:
'The fact that the "world" that classical hollywood films represent has nothing to do with the "real world" we live in'
Excuse me, but this is way overstated! I think we should find a more nuanced approach here ...
Henry
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