M writes:
> ...students say they don't want to think about their movies, they
> don't want moral complexity, they don't want ambiguity; what they
> do want--in a word--is sensation . . . so they may be very visually
> literate, but this literacy is of a VERY diffrent sort from the kind
> that many [though hardly all] cinema studeis folks care about
Would you mind elaborating? I'm teased by your term _sensation._
I believe films should be reviewed by their entertainment value. I don't
define _entertainment._ I think the reviewer has to realize that
entertainment is a very subjective experience, and he has to have a very
broad understanding of what people find entertaining. For example,
personally I am put off by the _Shaft_ style films, and a coming TV series,
that glorify police brutality. But during that film the audience literally
cheered, and clapped at the end of it - I rarely see audience reaction like
that, and I think that it was just the audience that it attracted. I think
that films are basically a reflection of life and peoples needs or
fantasies.
I don't believe that films are the moral guide of society (or can often be
effective at that), or that people want moral guidance from film. People
want to be _entertained._ The want to laugh, cry, vicariously experience a
great ride, be adventurous, see spectacular things, get _jolted,_ have
positive outcomes affirmed, see drama that challenges them and makes them
think about their world, be inspired, and, in short, have some experience
that temporarily displaces them from everyday life and changes their mood.
_Escapism is probably not a good description. Perhaps some writers are
effective at planting a message along the way,
but some messages are good, some bad.
I didn't see _Oceans 11,_ since I don't like movies about criminals. Had I
seen it, I probably would have noted the lack of a plot since this usually
kills movies. But this movie was a _spectacular_ that thrived on setting and
personality. If there is a plot, it is probably, "Will they pull off this
spectacular crime?" It is about as thinly veiled a plot as going to Las
Vegas to gamble - this keeps some people entertained.
Incidentally, I did see _Time Machine,_ and thought that Well's classic was
not well plotted in comparison to today's stories. I think he had a good
message in the story, but the message wasn't helped by the lack of plotting.
- Scott Cole
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