Anthony Bromberg abromberg@media.ucla.edu
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Everything’s all shook up. It isn’t just
Elvis’ pelvic area anymore, it’s the whole nation.
The United States of America is in an artistic sinkhole, which
is rife with propaganda and stupidity. Not that there isn’t
great artsy stuff going on out there, it’s just that no one
besides a few marginalized folk cares. Instead we are a culture
going en masse to exercise our participation in conformity, and the
saddest thing is that there often feels like there’s no
alternative.
I could talk about the vapidity of any medium around right now,
but a couple of examples have jumped out at me recently in film, so
let’s look at those.
The two biggest movies in the world this year are
“Spider-man” and “Star Wars Episode II: The
Attack of the Clones.” These movies are both stupid (granted
“Spider-man” much less so, and it’s more
difficult to think of the screen presence of Kirsten Dunst and
Tobey Maguire as completely lowbrow).
The dialogue writers for these films apparently came from the
illustrious school of daytime soap opera drafting. The characters
in these movies are stereotypes of archetypes and they interact
like they’re stuck in, well, bad comic books and
B-movies.
That isn’t the worst part of these movies, though. While
they both look flashy and have monster badass wicked cool stellar
radical action sequences as well as young stars whose facial
features certainly don’t look like they’re smudging the
big slinky screen we watch them on, there are more sinister things
going on. The worst part is that these movies are, in the end,
pieces of propagandistic rot.
They are lamely covered morality tales that promote nationalism.
In “Spider-man” there is that harrowing moment on the
bridge where a group of New Yorkers band together and save
Spidey’s ass. Also, note that in Spidey’s triumphant
web-slinging ride around the city as the film credits get ready to
roll, he swings right onto a waving American flag. Coincidence? In
“Star Wars” we have to sit through Natalie
Portman’s character’s silly conversation about how she
sure hopes that democracy never falls, etc.
These films are promoting ultimate sameness. Their protagonists
are middle-class white folks rising to heroics for the good of the
city or galaxy or whatever else you want to use as a metaphor for
the United States. And this is all in the name of the good guy over
the bad guy. This is all in the name of producing the
“other.” I don’t want to get dramatic here, and
these aren’t completely blatant propaganda machines, but it
is subtly germinating. Hollywood knows it can play on
peoples’ insecurities and desire to band together right now,
but its influence on peoples’ mind-sets and nationalism in
films is a dangerous thing. It is a thing used during times of war,
it is a thing used to inspired the huddled masses to go along with
violence, to accept Big Brother, and to turn away from their fellow
human beings.
And these movies are huge hits with our age group. We should be
wary. We should be critical.
These movies are stupid and we shouldn’t let them inspire
us to do anything. They are fun and good escapist fantasies, but
nothing more. We need to demand more from our art, especially if
it’s going to preach to us. Now, I may not care if we hold
our president to standards of intelligence, but our art ““
when that gets stupefied and political, you’re going to piss
me off. Art draws from the infinite to create spaces and thoughts
and visions that make life a little more clear, a little more
enjoyable. Don’t sully that.
Of course, when big business gets involved, and it always will,
it is difficult to keep from being drawn in. I saw both of those
movies because they were something to do with my friends, but I
refuse to accept them as art.
There is so much great stuff here at UCLA. There is more art in
the gardening done on our campus than in the first two episodes of
“Star Wars,” and maybe we should all try and appreciate
that a little more. I’m in college and I want to be pissed
off and idealistic. I want to matter. I want to be in a world where
art is more important than nationalism, because one can be a
unifying force where the other is inherently divisive.
We are lucky enough to live in a time where mass media allows
everyone in the world to experience the same things. It’s a
shame our biggest exports are some of the worst possible things to
represent us ““ egotistical and dumb.
So, instead of going to see the new J. Lo movie tonight,
I’m going to walk around the campus and look at the trees, or
maybe search for some intense movie, or non pop-punk rap-rock
concert, or ““ gasp ““ maybe even a book, deeper and
closer to the youthful ideals that I know you all share with
me.