Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: A Sad Commentary

This is topic A Sad Commentary in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 10-21-2001, 12:30 AM:

Since September 11th movie theatre attendence by families has been nonexistent. Not just in a slump.... but completely gone. Families have withdrawn or are "cocooning" as the psychologists say.

So what has this phenonmenon wrought at the boxoffice?...... "Don't Say A Word" "Training Day" and the vile "From Hell" rule the top of the charts. Over the years this sort of nihilistic crap has shown itself to be both reviewerproof and recession proof; now it also seems to be terrorist-proof. Certainly this lesson will not be lost on those who decide what movies will get made in the future.

Those who would destroy our way of life have long been convinced that Americans are a bunch of amoral, violence-addicted junkies just waiting for their next fix from Hollywood. Sadly, we as a country seem to be doing everything we can to reinforce that stereotype.

Posted by Joshua Voorhies (Member # 824) on 10-21-2001, 04:57 AM:

I disagree.
For the most part, fall product is pretty crappy anyways. The vast majority of decent movies come out during the summer and holiday season. I think what we're seeing now is typical.
I think once November 2nd hits us with "Monsters, Inc.," the families will be back in full force. I think we'll have a good family turnout November and December. Then two weeks into January, we'll be back in the crap season.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 10-21-2001, 09:45 AM:

Joshua is right. If anything, the timing minimized the effect on the industry. Had the events occurred just before Christmas the financial effects on exhibition could have been much worse.

The danger of such attacks is primarily to businesses that are overextended and living on the financial edge. Terrorism is only one of the problems for these businesses. Many fine businesses are lost by the unrestrained quest for rapid expansion or by paying unreasonably high wages to CEOs with questionable "vision."

Moral judgement is a slippery slope. An argument can be made that Americans, as a people, view violence as entertainment because they don't experience enough of it in real life. If we are addicted to something, I think it more likely that we are addicted to special effects, fantasy, and superhero powers. OTOH, our leaders are often goal-oriented amoral predators. Natural selection in capitalism and government supports such behavior. If you take two equal businesses, have one led by a smart weasel of a man, and the other by an honest God-fearing man, the one run by the weasel will usually do better than the other. Weasels have a wider range of strategies that they are willing to employ. The public at large is not sophisticated enough to understand the effects of supporting one above the other, and those that do understand the longterm pitfalls often don't care.

Other countries who are quick to judge us often for those shortcomings have similar problems of their own, or an entrenched upper-class that is scared of losing control over its uneducated population.