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IS THIS AN UNTAMPERED FILE?
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This ASCII-file version of Imprimis, On Line was
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packaged by Applied Foresight, Inc. (AFI hereafter).
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Every AFI-packaged ASCII version of Imprimis is
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distributed in an "-AV protected" ZIP file format.
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"AV" is the authenticity verification feature provided
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to registered PKZIP users, which Applied Foresight,
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Inc., is. If you are using the MS-DOS PKUNZIP.EXE
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message after every file is unzipped AND receive the
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message "Authentic files Verified! # JAA646 ZIP
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Source: Applied Foresight Inc. (CIS 71510,1042)" when
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you unzip this file then do not trust it's integrity.
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program (for instance, you are running a non-MS-DOS
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version), then this message may not be displayed.
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Trust only genuine AFI-packaged archives ... anything
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else may be just that: ANYTHING ELSE.
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Imprimis, On Line -- November, 1992
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free
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monthly publication of Hillsdale College (circulation
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360,000 worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts
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institution known for its defense of free market
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principles and Western culture and its nearly 150-year
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refusal to accept federal funds. Imprimis publishes
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lectures by such well-known figures as Ronald Reagan,
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Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe, Charlton Heston, and many
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more. Permission to reprint is hereby granted, provided
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credit is given to Hillsdale College. Copyright 1992.
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For more information on free print subscriptions or
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back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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"Hollywood's Poison Factory:
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Making It the Dream Factory Again"
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by Michael Medved
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Co-Host, "Sneak Previews"
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------------------------------
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Volume 21, Number 11
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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November 1992
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------------------------------
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Preview: One of Hillsdale's most popular speakers ever,
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PBS film critic Michael Medved addressed an audience of
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over 400 students, faculty and outside guests on campus
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last March at the Center for Constructive Alternatives
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seminar, "Culture Wars." In this edited version of his
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remarks, he notes that in recent decades Hollywood has
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lost touch with its own audience, and that it has
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openly attacked the family, religion, traditional
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values, and genuine heroes. Medved argues persuasively
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that, goaded by disastrous box office receipts, the
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industry can be changed, but that we must all get
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actively involved.
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------------------------------
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America's long-running romance with Hollywood is over.
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For millions of people, the entertainment industry no
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longer represents a source of enchantment, of magical
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fantasy, of uplift, or even of harmless diversion.
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Popular culture is viewed now as an implacable enemy, a
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threat to their basic values and a menace to the
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raising of their children. The Hollywood dream factory
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has become the poison factory.
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This disenchantment is reflected in poll after
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poll. An Associated Press Media General poll released
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in 1990 showed that 80 percent of Americans objected to
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the amount of foul language in motion pictures; 82
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percent objected to the amount of violence, 72 percent
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objected to the amount of explicit sexuality, and by a
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ratio of 3 to 1 they felt that movies today are worse
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than ever.
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In reality, you don't need polls or surveys to
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understand what is going on. When was the last time you
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heard someone say, "You know, by golly, movies today
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are better than ever!" Only Jack Valenti, the head of
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the Motion Picture Association of America, can make
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such statements with a straight face. There is a
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general recognition even among those Americans who
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still like to go to movies that their quality has
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declined. And this has begun to register in disastrous
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box office receipts.
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Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret
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There is a dirty little secret in Hollywood. For movie
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attendance, 1991 was the worst year in fifteen years.
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The summer season was the worst in twenty-three years.
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Forty percent of Americans report that they don't see a
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single film in the course of a year--a higher
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percentage than ever before. What Hollywood publicizes,
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of course, is total box office gross receipts, which
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look respectable, but which are misleading. Why?
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Because the ticket prices have been raised so much! If
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you actually count the number of warm bodies sitting in
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theater seats, movie attendance has disastrously
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declined.
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Major studios like MGM and Orion are teetering on
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the verge of collapse. Carolco, which produced
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Terminator II, the year's biggest hit, has since scaled
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back all operations and fired one-third of its
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employees. This is clearly an industry in trouble.
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Rather than searching for solutions, Hollywood
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looks for scapegoats. The most common line is: "It's
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the recession," but this ignores, among other things,
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the fact that in the past the movie business has always
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proven to be recession proof. Economic downturns
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generally saw the movie business profit as people
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sought escape.
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In recent articles, a few critical colleagues
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believe they have discovered the culprit--blaming all
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of Hollywood's woes on one "over-the-hill" ex-Warner
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Brothers actor who hasn't worked in movies for some
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thirty years. His name is Ronald Reagan. Somehow, this
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former President was supposed to have singlehandedly
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destroyed the quality of American film.
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What Hollywood insiders refuse to recognize is
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that the crisis of popular culture is at its very core
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a crisis of values. The problem isn't that the camera
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is out of focus, or that the editing is sloppy, or that
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the acting is bad. The problem is with the kind of
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stories Hollywood is telling and the kind of messages
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that it is sending in film after film. The industry is
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bursting with professionalism and prowess. But it
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suffers from a sickness of the soul.
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Hollywood no longer reflects--or even respects--
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the values that most Americans cherish.
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Take a look, for example, at the most recent
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Oscars. Five very fine actors were nominated for best
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actor of the year. Three of them portrayed murderous
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psychos: Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear, Warren Beatty in
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Bugsy, and Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs
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(this last a delightful family film about two serial
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killers--one eats and the other skins his victims). A
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fourth actor, Robin Williams, was nominated for playing
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a delusional homeless psycho in The Fisher King. The
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most wholesome character was Nick Nolte's, a good old
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fashioned manic-depressive-suicidal neurotic in The
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Prince of Tides.
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These are all good actors, delivering splendid
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performances, compelling and technically accomplished.
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But isn't it sad when all this artistry is lavished on
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films that are so empty, so barren, so unfulfilling?
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Isn't it sad when at the Academy Awards--the annual
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event that celebrates the highest achievement of which
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the film industry is capable--the best we can come up
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with is movies that are so floridly, strangely whacked
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out?
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I repeat: The fundamental problem with Hollywood
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has nothing at all to do with the brilliance of the
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performers, or the camera work, or the editing. In many
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ways, these things are better than ever before. Modern
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films are technically brilliant, but they are morally
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and spiritually empty.
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The Messages
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What are the messages in today's films? For a number of
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years I have been writing about Hollywood's anti-
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religious bias, but I must point out that this
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hostility has never been quite as intense as in the
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last few years. The 1991 season boasted one religion-
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bashing movie after another in which Hollywood was able
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to demonstrate that it was an equal-opportunity
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offender.
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For Protestants there was At Play in the Fields of
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the Lord, a lavish $35 million rainforest spectacle
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about natives and their wholesome primitive ways and
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the sick, disgusting missionaries who try to ruin their
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lives. And then for Catholics there was The Pope Must
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Die, which was re-released as The Pope Must Diet. It
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didn't work either way. It features scenes of the Holy
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Father flirting with harlot nuns and hiding in a closet
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pigging out on communion wafers. For Jews there was
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Naked Tango, written and directed by the brother of the
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screenwriter for The Last Temptation of Christ. This
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particular epic featured religious Jews operating a
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brutal bordello right next door to a synagogue and
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forcing women into white slavery.
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And then most amazingly there was Cape Fear, which
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was nominated for a number of the most prestigious
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Academy Awards. It wasn't an original concept. Cape
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Fear was a remake of a 1962 movie in which Robert
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Mitchum plays a released convict intent on revenge who
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tracks down his old defense attorney. Gregory Peck
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portrays the defense attorney, a strong, stalwart and
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upright man who defends his family against this crazed
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killer. In the remake, by Last Temptation director
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Martin Scorsese, there is a new twist: the released
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convict is not just an ordinary maniac, but a "Killer
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Christian from Hell." To prevent anyone from missing
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the point, his muscular back has a gigantic cross
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tattooed on it, and he has Biblical verses tattooed on
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both arms.
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When he is about to rape the attorney's wife,
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played by Jessica Lange, he says, "Are you ready to be
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born again? After just one hour with me, you'll be
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talking in tongues." He carries a Bible with him in
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scenes in which he is persecuting his family, and he
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tells people that he is a member of a Pentecostal
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church.
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The most surprising aspect of this utterly
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insulting characterization is that it drew so little
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protest. Imagine that DeNiro's character had been
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portrayed as a gay rights activist. Homosexual groups
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would have howled in protest, condemning this
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caricature as an example of bigotry. But we are so
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accustomed to Hollywood'sinsulting stereotypes of
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religious believers that no one even seems to notice
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the hatred behind them.
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The entertainment industry further demonstrates
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its hostility to organized religion by eliminating
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faith and ritual as a factor in the lives of nearly all
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the characters it creates. Forty to fifty percent of
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all Americans go to church or synagogue every week.
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When was the last time you saw anybody in a motion
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picture going to church, unless that person was some
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kind of crook, or a mental case, or a flagrant
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hypocrite?
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Hollywood even removes religious elements from
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situations in which they clearly belong. The summer of
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1991 offered a spate of medical melodramas like
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Regarding Henry, Dying Young, and The Doctor. Did you
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notice that all these characters go into the operating
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room without once invoking the name of God, or
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whispering one little prayer, or asking for clergy? I
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wrote a nonfiction book about hospital life once, and I
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guarantee that just as there are no atheists in
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foxholes, there are no atheists in operating rooms--
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only in Hollywood.
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Religion isn't Hollywood's only target; the
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traditional family has also received surprisingly harsh
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treatment from today's movie moguls. Look again at Cape
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Fear. The remake didn't only change the killer; it also
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changed the hero, and this brings me to the second
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message that Hollywood regularly broadcasts. As I
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mentioned, the original character Gregory Peck plays is
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a decent and honorable man. In the remake, Nick Nolte's
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character is, not to put too fine a point on it, a
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sleazeball. He is repeatedly unfaithful to his wife;
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when his wife dares to question that practice, he hits
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her. He tries to beat up his daughter on one occasion
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because she is smoking marijuana. He is not a likeable
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person. That a happily married, family-defending hero--
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the kind of person that people can identify with--is
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transformed into a sadistic, cheating, bitter man, says
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volumes about the direction of American movies.
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Did you ever notice how few movies there are about
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happily married people? There are very few movies about
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married people at all, but those that are made tend to
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portray marriage as a disaster, as a dangerous
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situation, as a battleground--with a long series of
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murderous marriage movies.
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There was Sleeping with the Enemy, in which
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Patrick Bergin beats up Julia Roberts so mercilessly
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that she has to run away. When he comes after her, she
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eventually kills him. There was also Mortal Thoughts in
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which Bruce Willis beats up his wife and he is killed
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by his wife's best friend. In Thelma and Louise, there
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is another horrible, brutal and insensitive husband to
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run away from. In A Kiss Before Dying, Matt Dillon
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persuades twin sisters to marry him. He kills the first
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one and then tries to kill the second, but she gets to
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him first.
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In She-Devil, Rosanne Barr torments her cheating
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husband Ed Begley, Jr., and in Total Recall, Sharon
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Stone pretends to be married to Arnold Schwarzenegger
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and tries to kill him. When he gets the upper hand, she
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objects, "But you can't hurt me! I'm your wife." Arnold
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shoots her through the forehead and says, "Consider
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that a divorce." And then there was a more recent film,
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Deceived, starring Goldie Hawn. The advertisement for
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the movie says, "She thought her life was perfect,"
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and, of course, her model husband turns out to be a
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murderous monster. Deceived is an appropriate title,
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because we all have been deceived by Hollywood's
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portrayal of marriage. It even applies to television.
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The New York Times reports that in the past TV season
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there were seven different pregnancies. What did six of
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the seven pregnancies have in common? They were out of
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wedlock. The message is that marriage is outmoded, it
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is dangerous, oppressive, unhealthy.
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But is it true? Recently, I made an interesting
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discovery. The conventional wisdom is that the divorce
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rate in America stands at 50 percent. This figure is
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used repeatedly in the media. But the 1990 U.S. Census
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Bureau has a category listing the number of people who
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have ever been married and who have ever been divorced.
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Less than twenty percent have been divorced! The
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evidence is overwhelming that the idea of a 50 percent
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divorce rate is more than a slight over-statement; it
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is a destructive and misleading myth.
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Yet for years Hollywood has been selling divorce.
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Remember The Last Married Couple in America, starring
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the late Natalie Wood? That may be a Hollywood
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prophecy, but it is not the reality of the American
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heartland. In this matter, as in so many others, by
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overstating the negative, the film industry leads
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viewers to feel terrified and/or insecure, and their
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behavior is adversely affected. I know many people who
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say, "I'm reluctant to get married because I know
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there's a 50 percent chance I'm going to get divorced."
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Wouldn't it make a difference if they knew there was an
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80 percent chance of staying together?
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Another negative message is America-bashing. This
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is a very patriotic country, one of the most patriotic
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countries in the world. Let me get personal for a
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minute: My mother was born in Germany. She was lucky
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enough to get out with her family in 1935. There were
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other family members who were not fortunate enough to
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get out, and most who stayed behind died in Hitler's
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holocaust. In any event, my mother had a first cousin,
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Hans, who also got out of Germany, and within a year of
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arriving in the United States, speaking only broken,
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heavily-accented English, he enlisted in the Army Air
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Corps. He became a tail gunner and flew 25 bombing
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missions. On the last, when he was 21 years old, he was
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shot down and killed over Romania. His parents, for
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whom he was the only child, had a little shrine in
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their home ever afterwards, with an American flag and a
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picture of Hans in his airman's uniform. They often
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used to say, "We're proud that he died for this
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wonderful country."
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I relate this story not because it is exceptional
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but because it is typical. Don't we all have personal
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stories that show our love, our pride, our gratitude
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for being born in this amazingly fortunate situation in
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which we find ourselves? The luckiest people on earth--
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that's how most Americans feel. But what do they see on
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their movie and television screens? What is the dream
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of America that is portrayed? It is a dream of a
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nightmarish land, where nothing is going right, where
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evil powers dominate. Consider for example that full-
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color, breathless guided tour of the fetid fever swamps
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of Oliver Stone's paranoid imagination--the movie JFK,
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a tale in which Stone suggests a conspiracy so grand,
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so enormous, so corrupt that it involves absolutely
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every conceivable American institution and organization
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except the CampFire Girls.
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Oliver Stone's nightmare has increasingly become
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Hollywood's dream of America. Once upon a time, one of
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the ways that my immigrant mother, and my immigrant
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grandparents on my father's side, learned about America
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was through movies. Movies glorified the American past,
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and some of them were very good, like Drums Along the
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Mohawk or Young Mr. Lincoln. Today, if Hollywood made a
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movie about young Mr. Lincoln he would be an abused
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child and grow up to be corrupt and power-lusting.
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The American past, according to Hollywood, is
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mainly about the rise of evil businessmen and the
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"exploitative" capitalist system, or, alternately,
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about the supposedly glorious 1960s. There are a
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plethora of phony Sixties nostalgia movies clearly made
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by people who are determined to glorify all those who
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protested against the Vietnam War and to insult all
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those who actually fought it. Is there a more insulted
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and abused group of people than Vietnam vets? You
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always see them with twitches, right? They're always
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weird guys. If a screenwriter needs to come up with an
|
||
|
explanation for why a character is a crazed killer,
|
||
|
there is always: "Oh, he was in 'Nam." But three
|
||
|
million Americans fought in Vietnam and they are not
|
||
|
all crazed killers.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The other era that the movies tend to focus on
|
||
|
obsessively is the 1930s, with those wonderful dramatic
|
||
|
elements of negativity, the Depression and gangsters.
|
||
|
The glories of our history? Forget it.
|
||
|
|
||
|
In 1985, there was an attempt to make a movie
|
||
|
about the American Revolution that cost $35 million and
|
||
|
showcased Al Pacino, his Brooklyn accent firmly intact,
|
||
|
as a soldier in the Continental Army. But this movie
|
||
|
made the Americans the bad guys! Did it take a genius
|
||
|
to tell Warner Brothers that if you make a movie about
|
||
|
the Revolution that runs two and a half hours and makes
|
||
|
the Americans the bad guys, no one will want to see it?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Recently, we went through an amazing national
|
||
|
experience when America rallied with a unanimity that
|
||
|
has not been seen in my lifetime behind Operation
|
||
|
Desert Storm. Many commentators predicted that there
|
||
|
would be a glut of movies about it. Wouldn't Hollywood
|
||
|
be eager to exploit the Gulf War? Not one is currently
|
||
|
in production or even in development.
|
||
|
|
||
|
By contrast, there are currently five major
|
||
|
studio projects in development about the Black Panther
|
||
|
Party--that tiny, briefly fashionable gang of thugs who
|
||
|
murdered many of their own members. An industry that
|
||
|
thinks that the American people are more interested in
|
||
|
the Black Panthers than in the genuine heroes of our
|
||
|
armed forces is an industry that is profoundly out of
|
||
|
touch.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Motivation
|
||
|
|
||
|
What is the motivation behind the messages Hollywood is
|
||
|
sending? Some people say, "Well, you know, the movie
|
||
|
business is perfect capitalism; it's merely giving the
|
||
|
people what they want."
|
||
|
|
||
|
But a simple analysis of the controversial content
|
||
|
of recent films and their corresponding box office
|
||
|
performance shows that this is not the case. Over 60
|
||
|
percent of all the feature films are now rated "R"--
|
||
|
despite the fact that they consistently earn less money
|
||
|
than those rated "G" or "PG." In 1991, PG-rated films
|
||
|
drew a median box office gross three times larger than
|
||
|
R-rated films--but Hollywood persists in keeping the
|
||
|
majority of its releases as gore-and-sex drenched R-
|
||
|
rated shockers. Is this an example of responding to the
|
||
|
public?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Hollywood expresses its underlying values most
|
||
|
clearly with those projects which it considers serious
|
||
|
"art" films--films that make some philosophical or
|
||
|
political statement. Consider the 1990 bomb, Guilty by
|
||
|
Suspicion, a dark, tragic tale of an idealistic,
|
||
|
blacklisted left-wing director in the 1950s. How could
|
||
|
Warner Brothers possibly assume it would make money on
|
||
|
this very expensive Robert DeNiro project--especially
|
||
|
when more than a half-dozen previous films about the
|
||
|
horrors of the McCarthy era had all failed miserably at
|
||
|
the box office?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Or take a look at the three gigantically
|
||
|
expensive film biographies that are coming out in 1992.
|
||
|
You know what they're about? They're about three
|
||
|
terrific American heroes. One of them is Jimmy Hoffa,
|
||
|
played by Jack Nicholson. The second is about Malcolm
|
||
|
X, directed by Spike Lee. The third is about Charlie
|
||
|
Chaplin, specifically about his struggles with
|
||
|
McCarthyism during the 1950s and about how he
|
||
|
eventually had to flee to a self-imposed exile because
|
||
|
of his left-wing politics.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If we can assume that the primary purpose of these
|
||
|
movies, each of which will cost tens of millions of
|
||
|
dollars, is not to make money, then what is it? Why
|
||
|
does Hollywood persist in making films that so
|
||
|
constantly revel in the dark side, in gloom and
|
||
|
despair, destruction and horror? I'll try to offer a
|
||
|
brief explanation, but it's a complicated psychological
|
||
|
problem. Someone versed in clinical psychology might be
|
||
|
better able to diagnose the situation.
|
||
|
|
||
|
People in the movie business are motivated by a
|
||
|
tremendous desire to be taken seriously. They don't
|
||
|
want to be thought of as just entertainers. They want
|
||
|
to be respected as "artists." And the view today is
|
||
|
that in order to be a serious artist--to make a
|
||
|
statement--you have to be removed from the mainstream
|
||
|
in your own country.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This view ignores all of Western history. Was
|
||
|
William Shakespeare alienated from the Tudor monarchy?
|
||
|
He wrote play after play glorifying Elizabeth's
|
||
|
antecedents and became a court favorite. He was part of
|
||
|
the establishment and proud of it. When Johann
|
||
|
Sebastian Bach wrote the imperishable glories for which
|
||
|
he is known, he wrote for Prince Leopold, for the
|
||
|
elector of Brandenburg, and for the Church of St.
|
||
|
Thomas in Leipzig. He composed more than 600 sacred
|
||
|
cantatas and chorales, devotedly serving the religious
|
||
|
hierarchy of his time.
|
||
|
|
||
|
In the past, most great artists served and
|
||
|
respected the society they lived in. To be sure, they
|
||
|
were not content with all its aspects, but they weren't
|
||
|
off on the sidelines wearing black turtlenecks saying
|
||
|
that life is meaningless and bleak or immersing
|
||
|
crucifixes in their own urine. Today the "serious
|
||
|
artist alienated from society" syndrome has ruined the
|
||
|
visual arts, poetry, and classical music. It has even
|
||
|
begun to destroy popular culture, which heretofore has
|
||
|
been more in tune with ordinary people.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Today to win the highest critical praise, or to
|
||
|
receive leading Oscar consideration, you have to make a
|
||
|
movie that says life is short and bitter, and it
|
||
|
stinks. Mel Brooks recently made the least successful
|
||
|
movie of his career. Do you know what it was called?
|
||
|
Life Stinks. Pretend for a moment that you are the head
|
||
|
of MGM, and Mel comes to you and says, "Hey, I have an
|
||
|
idea for a fun comedy called Life Stinks. Think that's
|
||
|
gonna sell?" No, but it will help Mel get taken
|
||
|
seriously as an "artist."
|
||
|
|
||
|
These are not bad people. They are very well
|
||
|
intentioned. There isn't a single AIDS benefit that
|
||
|
they will miss. If there is any kind of dinner to save
|
||
|
the rainforests, they are there. They want to be loved.
|
||
|
But they earnestly believe that the only way they will
|
||
|
receive respect from those who "count"--the critics,
|
||
|
the industry heavyweights, the media, the intellectual
|
||
|
elites--is to make brutal, bitter, America-bashing,
|
||
|
family-bashing, religion-bashing movies.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
What Do We Do?
|
||
|
|
||
|
What do we do about it? At a recent conference on
|
||
|
popular culture and values, I was on a panel that
|
||
|
included Jack Valenti, William Bennett and Robert Bork.
|
||
|
The question of regulating the content of movies came
|
||
|
up. Interestingly enough, Judge Bork was generally in
|
||
|
favor of government intervention, i.e., censorship. He
|
||
|
pointed out that all law is based upon moral judgments.
|
||
|
Law exists to influence the moral behavior of its
|
||
|
citizens.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This is certainly a convincing argument, but I
|
||
|
don't think censorship is a good idea for one very
|
||
|
simple reason: the government makes a mess of
|
||
|
everything it does, and it would make a huge mess of
|
||
|
determining what goes into movies! It always surprises
|
||
|
me that conservatives, who understand that the
|
||
|
government is remarkably inept, even at running the
|
||
|
postal system, believe that state power can somehow
|
||
|
suddenly be counted upon to raise the moral tone of our
|
||
|
popular culture. It can't--forget it, it is only
|
||
|
wishful thinking.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This does not mean that we can't talk about values
|
||
|
in movies. I have drawn a good deal of criticism over
|
||
|
the years because as a professional critic I try to
|
||
|
consider the values and the message in movies--not just
|
||
|
their technical excellence--and I speak out about this
|
||
|
in the national press and on television. It is vital
|
||
|
that those considerations should play a more prominent
|
||
|
role in our public discussions of contemporary cinema.
|
||
|
That is alternative number one to censorship. No movie
|
||
|
is morally neutral, no movie fails to send a message,
|
||
|
no movie doesn't change you to some extent when you see
|
||
|
it. Movies have a cumulative, potent and lasting
|
||
|
impact.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Another alternative to censorship is corporate
|
||
|
responsibility. The great business conglomerates that
|
||
|
are making entertainment have to exercise a more mature
|
||
|
sense of social and corporate accountability. We are
|
||
|
living in an age when increasingly we are asking
|
||
|
corporations to be responsible for their pollution of
|
||
|
the air and the water; why shouldn't they be
|
||
|
responsible for the pollution of the cultural
|
||
|
environment around us? In the same way that other
|
||
|
activists use boycotts and stockholders meetings and
|
||
|
every sort of public pressure, popular culture
|
||
|
activists must develop a new sense of determination and
|
||
|
resourcefulness. The impact of popular culture on our
|
||
|
children and our future is too important an issue to
|
||
|
leave in the hands of a few isolated movie moguls in
|
||
|
Hollywood--or to self-important politicians in
|
||
|
Washington.
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are many indications that the entertainment
|
||
|
industry may be eager to reconnect with the grass
|
||
|
roots--and to entertain an expanded notion of its own
|
||
|
obligations to the public. The industry has, in some
|
||
|
areas, behaved responsibly. In the past five years it
|
||
|
changed its message about drugs. No longer is it making
|
||
|
movies in which marijuana, cocaine and other drugs are
|
||
|
glamorized. Hollywood made a decision. Was it self-
|
||
|
censorship? You bet. Was it responsible? Yes.
|
||
|
|
||
|
We can challenge the industry to adapt a more
|
||
|
wholesome outlook, to send more constructive messages.
|
||
|
We can clamor for movies that don't portray marriage as
|
||
|
a living hell, that recognize the spiritual side of
|
||
|
man's nature, that glorify the blessings in life we
|
||
|
enjoy as Americans and the people who make sacrifices
|
||
|
to ensure that others will be able to enjoy them.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The box office crisis put Hollywood in a receptive
|
||
|
mood. Already two film corporations have committed to a
|
||
|
schedule of family movies for a very simple reason:
|
||
|
they are wildly successful. Only two percent of movies
|
||
|
released in 1991 were G-rated--just 14 titles--but at
|
||
|
least 8 of these 14 proved to be unequivocably
|
||
|
profitable. (By comparison, of more than 600 other
|
||
|
titles, at most 20 percent earned back their
|
||
|
investment.) Look at Beauty and the Beast, my choice
|
||
|
for Best Movie of 1991. It was a stunning financial
|
||
|
success. We need many more pictures like this, and not
|
||
|
just animated features geared for younger audiences.
|
||
|
Shouldn't it be possible to create movies with adult
|
||
|
themes but without foul language, graphic sex or
|
||
|
cinematic brutality? During Hollywood's golden age,
|
||
|
industry leaders understood that there was nothing
|
||
|
inherently mature about these unsettling elements.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Rekindling Our Love Affair with Hollywood
|
||
|
|
||
|
People tell me sometimes, "Boy, the way you talk, it
|
||
|
sounds as though you really hate movies." The fact is
|
||
|
that I don't. I'm a film critic because I love movies.
|
||
|
And I want to tell you something: All of the people who
|
||
|
are trying to make a difference in this business love
|
||
|
movies and they love the industry, despite all its
|
||
|
faults. They love what it has done in the past, and
|
||
|
they love its potential for the future. They believe
|
||
|
that Hollywood can be the dream factory again.
|
||
|
|
||
|
When I go to a screening, sit in a theater seat,
|
||
|
and the lights go down, there's a little something
|
||
|
inside me that hopes against all rational expectation
|
||
|
that what I'm going to see on the screen is going to
|
||
|
delight me, enchant me, and entice me, like the best
|
||
|
movies do. I began by declaring that America's long-
|
||
|
running romance with Hollywood is over. It is a
|
||
|
romance, however, that can be rekindled, if this
|
||
|
appalling, amazing industry can once again create
|
||
|
movies that are worthy of love and that merit the
|
||
|
ardent affection of its audience.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Michael Medved is known to millions of Americans as the
|
||
|
co-host of the weekly PBS television program, "Sneak
|
||
|
Previews." He is the author of seven nonfiction books,
|
||
|
including the best-sellers: What Really Happened to the
|
||
|
Class of '65? (with David Wallechinsky, Random House,
|
||
|
1976), which became the basis for a weekly series on
|
||
|
NBC, The Golden Turkey Awards (with Harry Medved,
|
||
|
Putnam Perigee Books, 1980), and Hospital: The Hidden
|
||
|
Lives of a Medical Center Staff (Simon and Schuster,
|
||
|
1983). Mr. Medved has been a frequent guest on "The To-
|
||
|
night Show," "Oprah Winfrey," "David Letterman," "ABC
|
||
|
Nightline," "Today," "Good Morning America," and other
|
||
|
programs. He is active in a wide variety of Jewish
|
||
|
causes and is president of the Pacific Jewish Center in
|
||
|
Venice, California. He is also a Hillsdale College Life
|
||
|
Associate. This lecture is based on his latest book,
|
||
|
Hollywood vs. America, which was published by
|
||
|
HarperCollins and Zondervan in October 1992.
|
||
|
|
||
|
###
|
||
|
|
||
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
||
|
End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
|
||
|
about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
|
||
|
Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
|
||
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
||
|
|