10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment

townhall.com ^ | 2/7/06 | Erik Lokkesmoe

[Aquinasfan]

Best picture nominees: (1) Brokeback Mountain, (2) Capote, (3) Crash, (4) Good Night and Good Luck, and (5)Munich.

Yeesh. I don't see "Narnia," which was the only film our family ventured out to see this year.

The author's list is good. I only disagree with #1, because he seems to be ignoring the success of "LOTR" and "Narnia."

[Aquinasfan]

My problem with this writer is that he seems to be advocating that conservatives need to do their own version of "edgy" arts and entertainment.

I'm hoping that he means "edgy" in the sense of Gibson's "The Passion." "The Passion" certainly wasn't a "nice" or safe version of the Passion.

[7thson]

I cannot think of the guy who originally drew Daredevil. I never liked his style. After about a dozen issues, Gene Colen took over the artwork. Is that the guy you are thinking of? He did it for several years. Than Barry Smith did a few issues. I was never a big DD fan though as a kid I bought all of the Marvel stuff. As a kid, the Marvel stuff I never warmed up to were Sub Mariner, Iron Man, Daredevil, and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D. Though the other day I was thinking about Nick Fury - because flipping through the channels that lame Fury movie was being shown - and I thought about the old comic. S.H.E.I.L.D. always fought against Hydra and terrorism, so for a comic from the sixties, it was way ahead of its time. The artis I remember from those old S.H.E.I.L.D. comics was a guy named Jim Steranko. At the time, I did not like the artwork but now I think its great.

Yes, you are right about people reading these posts from us. What I see wrong with comics today is taking the characters and changing their whole persona. You have Captain America doubting himself and thinking the terrorists have a point. BS! I remember Cap kicking the Red Skulls arse while pontificating that anyone who believe the generosity of the United States is weakness is deluding themselves! I even use old lines from comics I read back in the sixties. If someone grabs me roughly by the hand, I tell them - hey, that's my pizza eating hand! A no-prize if you can tell me who said that and to whom, what comic and issue number.

[Aquinasfan]

We are at the point where critics are claiming to see great art in urine and feces daubed on canvases or put in bottles. The artistic world today is absurd. Nobody in this century or the last one has equalled the work of the great artists, writers, and composers of the previous centuries.

It's a case of the emperor having no clothes. This is obvious to the average person. But I doubt you'd find a college art professor who would go on the record with such a statement.

I'm an illustrator by trade. I deliberately avoided art school. It was a good decision. I have colleagues who went to art school, and you can't even imagine.

[Guenevere]

well said....very well said!

And I might add, yet again....Don't compromise!

[Tribune7]

Good points. I can think of one very, very influential book that delievers plenty of sex and violence but still leaves a profound moral message.

[Aquinasfan]

The problem with working from the bottom up is the incestuousness of the arts. The liberals have taken them over at all levels, and they will not relinquish their hold easily.

I gave up and started my own company. Do some web surfing and check out the prices for printing postcards and greeting cards. They're minimal. And it's possible to do very limited runs. Create your own website, go to a local trade show, and voila! You're in business.

You can trust the people's natural sense of beauty.

[vimto]

Yes it was Gene Colen I meant - not the original artist but he gave Daredevil and edge.

Talking 'bout Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D do you remember the few issues drawn by Steranko which included the first non-worded pages. Is it true steranko did time. His work bust the comic world open.

Sheesh, I haven't had a no-prize for years - and I can't get this one. You got me.

but my favorite line goes to an edition of Flash (always a soft spot for him). Thinking balloon from a speeding Flash blur:

"Since I left home 2.5 seconds ago I have run 15,762 miles"

'Nuff Said!

[ican'tbelieveit]

I enjoyed "Crash," as well as "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." Both were extremely emotional to watch, though.

[MortMan]

I was thinking of Gibson's "Passion", myself. Now, THERE was a waste of box office time. /sarc

[MortMan]

So the author says "do what the libs do - just conservatively"? Balderdash.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Wasn't there some film about a violent Crucifixion recently that was privately funded?

It must have lost money too: Because Hollywood NEVER promoted it, or ran it in its' Oscar promotions and reviews and discussions.

And private films about decent subjects (Hollywod knows!) always lose money.

[7thson]

Ben Grimm - the Thing - said it to the Hulk in issue 25 of the Fantastic Four, when the Hulk kicked the Thing's arse up and down the streets of NYC - in the comics, of course. The Hulk grabbed him and Ben said, hey leggo, that's my pizza eatin' hand. Later, when the Hulk was stuffing him down a manhole in the street, he asked the Thing where his witty comments were. The Thing replied, I left them home in my other suit. I use that line a lot also.

I do not know about Steranko doing time but you are correct about him breaking the comic world open. I think the art and storyline was too adult for a kid like me back in the 60's. My favorite artists from that time period were Jack "The King" Kirby (especially if Vince Colleta inked for him), Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Steranko, Barry Smith, and Steve Ditko.

I think it is a crime how Stan Lee is running around saying he thought up all these characters when it was Kirby and Ditko. In fact, Kirby is on record stating his discontent with Lee back int he 60's and that is why, with his run on Thor, Captain America, and the Fantastic Four, for like a two year period, no new characters were introduced, just rehashing old characters.

[fishbabe]

I agree with you..The nazi liberals in hollywood can say what they want because they control the output and will censor any material that even has a whiff of conservative,prolife or christian{unless its trashing said groups]Conservatives need to send in the verbal version of the marines to write material that will send the libs over the cliff,literally..Consewrvatives can write it,but can any of them get it made or put into the theaters?????NO!!!! because just like the nazis who controlled their films the libs control ours...

[Lucky Dog]

People like explosions and shit. For every Passion of the Christ's there will be 10 Pulp Fictions.

All drama is about conflict: “man against nature,” “man against man,” man against himself,” “good versus evil,” etc. The entertainment value of drama is about the suspense of who is really what (good or evil) and who will win the struggle and how the struggle is won. The moral value of drama is about whether good or evil ultimately wins the struggle.

Hollywood has become adept at creating a suspenseful “struggle” that is entertaining in that who will win the “struggle” is in doubt throughout most of the story as well as who is really “good” and who is really “evil.” Unfortunately, Hollywood has also become adept at blurring the distinction about what is “good” and what is “evil.” Ideologues in Hollywood have seized upon this skill in order push a political agenda.

Ideologues in Hollywood, being closely tied to the advertising industry, have long known that propaganda can be effective at altering, not only, buying behavior, but public perception and opinion, as well. Consequently, these ideologues push “message films” that create struggles using characters who are “flawed” (i.e., part good and part bad). Hollywood frequently casts these struggles against the “system,” usually extremely powerful and always “evil.”

The “system” originally was an unfeeling and inflexible bureaucracy that everyone in the audience could identify as “evil” in the story. This identification creates an instant audience identification with, and “empathy” for, the “flawed character.” Gradually, Hollywood has morphed the “system” into “societal values,” equally unfeeling, inflexible and “evil.” The “system” in the drama always fails to reward the overwhelming “good” in the “flawed character” and always insists on “punishing” the “tiny” or even questionable “bad.” The not-so-hidden propaganda message of these films is that audience should accept the “tiny” bad (whether it is homosexuality, adultery, etc.) and force the “system” to accept it, as well.

Sadly, until the “core values” of Hollywood are aligned with the “core values” of society in general, these “propaganda message films” will continue unabated. Fortunately, there is a powerful entity that can force the transition: money. Eventually, economic failure of “propaganda message films” will kill the majority of them. Unfortunately, their deaths will not be fast enough.

[vimto]

Great banter from Benn Grimm.

Carmine Infantino had a demure drawing style that allowed the surreal stories to tell themselves, and boy were some of them of the planet in more ways than one.

Ditko at his peak was stunningly inventive - with all sorts of mystical and psychotic images. though best known for the early Spider Mans (that sequence where he lifts the machinery off his back as he is drowning because he cannot let his Aunt May down who is critically ill in hospital (Phew!)) was what a real hero would do!

Of course Barry Smith introduces a bit of Englishness into the list. He was almost filigree in his detail - best in His early Conan's. When I was in Art College in London, Forbidden Planet in Soho (honest love I'm only going for the comix!) had signed limited edition lithographs of Barry Smith's artwork - I think about 30 pound each - I salivated but just didn't have the money....

Didn't Gene Colen do some of the illustrious Howard the Duck comics (loved the early ones)? Oh yeah my lad is going to start an online Community Comic which I have done the character penciled artwork for. It's called HUNGERWINTER! Should be a bit of fun. I'll post you when it's online

[jim_trent]

> "Mistake #8: We do not see good movies when it really matters."

I remember when "The Patriot" came out. There were people here who refused to go because Mel Gibson was not ideologically "pure" enough on the 2nd Amendment (at least in their eyes). Consequently, a picture about a bunch of greedy commercial fishermen who got caught in a storm came in first place. Now we have George Clooney everywhere.

[GSlob]

The point [per Ionescu] could well be the absence of the point. But that is hardly new.

[Hebrews 11:6]

[#10] Art hurts, slaps, and defines. Art is interested in truth: in bad words spoken by bad people, in good words spoken by good people, in sin and goodness, in life, sex, birth, color, texture, death, love, hate, nature, man, religion, music, God, fire, water, and air.

Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie. It takes a close look at four sinners' relationship with Satan: the salvation of one, the freeing of another, the death of a third, and the enduring bond of the fourth.

[uncitizen]

I enjoyed "Crash," as well as "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." Both were extremely emotional to watch, though.

I loved those movies too.