[lit-ideas] Re: 300 Shocker
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:39:44 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
In other words, we lived a myth (Captain America, perhaps), the myth
disappeared for that uncomfortable thing called reality, and now the myth is
back. Kind of interesting that when there is myth there is war. Why is that
do you think? That noble and glorious thing called war, perhaps? Need an
enemy to have a war. Instead of saying noble and glorious war, what if we said
noble and glorious bleeding and flying body parts? Maybe myths and war serve a
deeper emotional, psychological purpose? Maybe if we scuttled the myth, the
war would go away too, and so would the need for an enemy? But then where
would we dump our emotional issues? Seems Cheney doesn't have that problem,
since he's doing business with the "enemy". Maybe there's an advantage in
keeping the public off balance clammoring for war? Not hard to do, obviously.
Because the dirty little secret is, we used to write these movies all the time.
Impossible odds. Quixotic causes. Death before surrender. Real all-American
stuff,
in which our heroes stood up for God and country and defending Princess Leia and
getting back home to see their wives and children, with their shields or on
them.
And the dirtier little secret is: We loved writing them. Even a blacklisted
commie
like Carl Foreman came up with High Noon, in which a lone Gary Cooper defends a
town full of ungrateful, carping yellowbellies and then throws away his badge in
disgust at their cowardice. Sure, John Wayne hated it at the time, but today the
Duke would be doing handstands to get his teeth into a part like that.
But then came psychiatrists and psychologists and Ritalin and global warming and
racism and sexism and homophobia and the enlightened among us said the hell with
John Wayne and Gary Cooper. Hollywood became one big Agatha Christie novel in
the
last chapter — you know, the one where the survivors of the homicidal maniac
gather
in the drawing room and realize: The killer must be one of us!
And then came September 11th and that was that. But now, I’m beginning to
wonder.
Beginning to wonder if a $70-million opening weekend for a picture that was
tracking
at $40 million will get somebody’s attention. Beginning to wonder if a movie
that
has no stars, the look and feel of a video game, and the moral code of the
U.S.M.C.
might have something to say, even to audiences in New York and L.A.
But most of all, I’m beginning to wonder what it feels like to be the good
guy.
— David Kahane is a nom de cyber for a writer in Hollywood. “David
Kahane” is borrowed
from a screenwriter character in The Player.
National Review Online -
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjM0NDEyZjM1M2JlNjE0ZGMwNDEwMzk5MzlkZjJmYjA=
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