...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.
...
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.
As much as anything, the release of Star Wars in 1977 helped to usher in the Reagan Era, and put the dark, doomed malaise of the Nixon/Carter years behind us. It showed us a world with clear lines between good and evil where good was triumphant, and we all said, "Hey, I'd like to see that in this world."
Since Star Wars was a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon and I'm still on the same lifetime, I doubt that we'll see the same kind of thing from 300 (and I really doubt it'll be followed by another Reagan). But if people are going to see it, I hope that at least means we're still comfortable with good guys beating bad guys.
0 comments:
Post a Comment