Posted on 11/17/2007 1:34:15 PM PST by goldstategop
Our society relies on individual good judgment. Individuals can observe what goes on around them, read news and history, discuss things with their friends, and individuals are free to be entertained by professionals and also listen to “experts” who swoop in with a book or TV appearance and then disappear and occasionally reappear in places Parade magazine, Inside Edition or the Oprah show to tell us what they’re really like.
We have much freedom to live our lives as we please. That is a wonderful freedom.
But when someone uses their freedom to make decisions that cause them suffering, I want them to suffer and not be bailed out by my dollars. This is not cruel if you believe that suffering is an essential way people learn. And fear is an inportant mechanism for self control and serious analysis.
The Media often portreys bad things as good things, but to most of us it is just entertainment, and we live decent lives, and who’s to tell us or the Media what to do?
To summarize, I’d rather us keep our freedoms and pay for our bad decisions and become wiser in the process than have government protect support us and bail us out of our bad decisions.
Hollywood is the 21st Century American Democrat Party. If the Democraps win the White House the Homosexual Agenda will be implemented in all areas of our culture. To oppose the Queer Agenda will be a hate crime. Where will you go if this happens? If you do get another “Mayflower” where will you sail to? You must establish a “new colony” in your community, IMHO. Eventually these “colonies” will united in a new moral authority. Pray!
I'm not quite so sure. I think Michael Medved and Brent Bozell have both analyzed the box-office evfidence and concluded that movies with decent human values DO sell --- some of them very profitably --- while the hyper-negative frequently tank. This was certainly shown with the recent anti-American movies: big-budget box-office fizzles.
Or take "Bella," which was mentioned earlier. Though the filming of “Bella” cost a modest $3 million, and it has gained audiences largely through word-of-mouth publicity, for four weekends now it earned the second and third highest per-theater sales figures inthe nation, in competition with movies that cost $100-$150 million to make, and which had the benefit of huge marketing budgets.
"Bella" was the #1 movie in the nation in audience response on Yahoo, Fandango, and the RottenTomatoes.com audience reviews.
AND YET the big distributors as yet aren't picking it up.
Which makes you wonder.
Um. Who said anything about Government?
The Andy Giffith Show. So funny, so enternaining and so very enjoyable! And so true to how we should live today.
I agree with you. If more good, decent movies were made, people would go to them.
I have also noticed that much of the dreck Hollywood produces does not do well at the box office. But I suspect that much of Hollywood doesn’t even care what sells or what doesn’t. They don’t want to impress the public. They look down their noses at the public, especially those rubes in flyover country. They want to impress their peers in Hollywood! They want to win awards and be patted on the back by other Hollywoodites and told how daring and wonderful and “courageous” they are.
“The Media often portreys bad things as good things, but to most of us it is just entertainment, and we live decent lives, and who’s to tell us or the Media what to do?”
I don’t agree with your premise. If advertising didn’t work, it wouldn’t exist. In other words, it may seem like it’s just entertainment, but you’re influenced by what you see in the movies or on TV whether you’re aware of it or not. To give an example, movies used to not portray direct sexuality. The mother and father’s room had to have two beds and the parents (or couple) would not be shown doing anything more than kissing. We’ve gradually gotten used to seeing more and more sex on the screen. That makes us less sensitive when it comes to what children are exposed to.
To take another example, I loved “Mad Magazine” when I was in the 6th grade. I recently looked through a contemporary “Mad Magazine” and was surprised by the skimpy clothes in the cartoons (something else we’ve gotten used to). It’s basically cruder than what I remember from decades ago.
“The 2005 film “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” was based on the premise that an unmarried 40-year-old man who was sexually inexperienced was a freak of nature.”
When of course it’s quite normal and unremarkable???
At some point, it becomes unclear which side started it.
Hollywood and degraded culture feed off each other. The sleazier the country gets, the sleazier Hollywood gets. Or is it the other way around?
I remember some years ago there was some controversy over the teen TV character Doogie Houser losing his virginity. There was a poll in which about half the country said it would ruin the character's wholesomeness, but the other half said "all the kids are doing it" so it would reflect reality if he spent the night with some girl he wasn't married to.
In the end, the liberals won as they almost always do, and the kid had a fling with a teen girl.
I'm not someone who expects every film to reflect the Moral Majority view of the world. But there is a case to be made that Hollywood is irresponsible. Millions of people still smoke, but Hollywood has made an effort to curtail smoking in films, particularly by the characters we're supposed to empathize with. But that's because smoking is no longer PC. I can't count the number of films I've seen where there was not only illicit sex, but it was totally pointless to the plot. It was just thrown in because the writer or director said, "Hey, we need a sex scene or the film will look old fashioned."
Asia has its share of films that depict depravity, but it's much smaller than in the the West. I re-watched two great Japanese films yesterday: The Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade. Both feature main characters who are highly moral and are the type of people you can respect. There's a little violence, but it's on about the level of a 1940s U.S. western. There's no cursing or glorification of deviancy. Again, there are movies from Asia that are as over-the-top as many Hollywood films, but it's just that there seems to be more of a balance.
I think Ang Lee is a good example. He was a fine director, but he came to America and before you know it he was "pushing the envelope" with a homosexual sheep herder film, and he's now creating controversy in Asia with a film called Lust, Caution which depicts shockingly explicit sex scenes, and he's going around spreading the rumor that the performers were actually having sex to try to drum up controversy and ticket sales. A few years in Hollywood and his whole attitude now is to see how much he can get away with.
Again, I'm not in total agreement with everything Don Feder said. You have to depict bad behavior sometimes to show its consequences. There are films that would deeply offend Feder that I enjoy and respect as quality cinematic material. But I don't think it's too much to ask for a little more balance.
I agree and I think that's the only thing missing in the posted article.
There is a concerted effort by the mostly homosexual screen-writers (the rest are homosexual-sympathizing screenwriters) to destroy the ideals of morality, family and traditional gender roles. These are the ideals that homosexuals loathe.
The way they portray homosexuality on the screen is 180 degrees opposite reality. When are we going to see movies showing the bathhouses, the toetapping in bathroom stalls, the perverse parades in San Francisco and child molestation? Why not show the rampant sexually transmitted diseases r, high depression rates and high suicide rates?
I guess that, if some agency were to force the entertainment industry to avoid certain subjects, that agency would be a government agency.
You can bet it's the former. Things were never as sweet and innocent as portrayed in film and television in days of yore. If it weren't for an active censor board wielding near dictatorial powers, that stuff wouldn't have been made either.
I remember some years ago there was some controversy over the teen TV character Doogie Houser losing his virginity. There was a poll in which about half the country said it would ruin the character's wholesomeness, but the other half said "all the kids are doing it" so it would reflect reality if he spent the night with some girl he wasn't married to.
I remember that as well. At the time, I was all for Doogie loosing it. I remember a similar controversy over Lance Kirwin (sp?) in some TV show along the same lines. He lost it as well.
As much as I'd like to say otherwise, that's closer to reality than not. From 14 on, all my buds and I did was plot, scheme and spend a lot of time wishing about losing our virginity.
can't count the number of films I've seen where there was not only illicit sex, but it was totally pointless to the plot.
Agreed. I could name dozens right off the top of my head. Thinking about it, I can only name one that didn't go far enough and that would be "The Human Stain." The book was much more graphic and as a result, you had a much better grasp of the hold this seductive young woman had on this aging professor.
I’m not prepared to designate every film that contains praying as “Christian”. Regardless, it’s a needless argument because the cultural impact of such a film is immeasurable. God bless Monteverde and the rest of those who made Bella a reality..
When it comes to a good, wholesome dose of coercion, I prefer private, free-market coercion (e.g. boycott) every time.
thanks for some decent movie ideas.
>That, and the Andy Griffith Show
While it certainly is less objectionable than most modern TV fare, there are episodes where Liberalism does manage to creep in. And I see Ron Howard not as he was, but as what he has become, taken in by many of Hollywood’s beliefs and politics. Sorry I see this, but the Right has opened my eyes.
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