can u provide more information ?…

Malcolm Ringtone Malcolm Ringtone All Along The Watchtower Ringtone All Along The Watchtower Ringtone Build A Bridge Ringtone Build A Bridge Ringtone Closer Ringtone Closer Ringtone This Way Ringtone This Way Ringtone 40 Oz Ringtone 40 Oz Ringtone Love…

Given your apparent ignorance of the medium, on what do you base this assessment?

Ask someone who works in the industry and they will lay it out. Movies and TV are driven by profit. Middle-managers play a bigger role in shaping Hollywood films these days than artists.

Wasting 2 hours of your life watching colors is A ok, as long as you realize you are wasting your time. Does playing cards in Vegas have some sort of deep meaning? No. For the most part you are handing over money to a casino. Most sane people do not believe they are going to get rich. The house has the advantage. One does not have to be a Marxist, snob, or have a cork in his ass to have a good deal of skepticism about the state of “art” that Hollywood produces these days. That being said, comic books and graphic novels are for kids and teenagers.

Reg - You are so damn melodramatic. You should get into community theatre. I could see you as a character in Waiting for Guffman.

Plenty of non-fiction has been written about Middle East politics, the CIA, oil, etc… You don’t need to see an action movie.

But c’mon Josh, even socialists like to shop.

You just described your writing on this thread, homeboy.

(Hmmm, I wonder what Legere represents in this play we call the bLogosphere? I KNow, I know….he is the voice of prophetic high culture in the nihilistic blog world)

You have been kidding, right?

I mean you are writing about waisting time while you are waisting time….you get that?

This kind of debate is as foolish as postmodernists writing papers about how Madonna is subversive.
Hollywood movies just exist. Like Tide, Coke, etc… They are just products. You would not argue about the meaning of soft drinks now would you.

Slave owners would read eloquent phrases from Proverbs, while disciplining a slave…because if you ain’t got taste, you ain’t got nothin’.

I’ll be the first to praise high art, but I would imagine the first sign of wisdom is realizing there is a season for all things…a time and a place, if you will, Josh.

Thank you.

Unlike the writings of Neal Postman, which move millions.

At least you cited Walter Mosely, a pulp fiction writer who people that aren’t part of elite minorities actually read. (Of course, they don’t read him when he starts to pontificate on how they choose to amuse themselves.)

NeoDude - the world is filled with irony and contradiction, and as long as I am human, I will continue to create plenty of it.

My point is that these movies do not matter. They have 0 impact on anyone. they do not move people to do anything other than buy popcorn and tickets. After that, all is forgotten. You may as well spend your time thinking about Extreme Home Makeover or some other crappy piece of entertainment.

I’m curious, did you say the same thing about Ghost World? As Jason pointed out comix are just a storytelling medium and any and every type of story does play out in their pages. I would suggest you read something by Daniel Clowes or Adrian Tomine if you want to get a glimpse of the quality storytelling the medium is capable of.

As for Paul’s laughable lament that no true conservative viewpoint is reflected in our movie culture, I suggest he go to a movie. I’ll never forget the audience reaction to the scene in Top Gun where Maverick (snicker) played by Tom Cruise does a death-defying just-in-the-nick-of-time loop da loop stunt to get behind the evil commie Mig on his tail and blast him out of the sky. The whole theater erupted in applause and cheers. I had a good laugh at that movie.

By the way, Marc, great posts lately with the hugely important immigration issue and a breather post on V for Vendetta (did I mention I love that movie?). Some really passionate and enlightening discussion is taking place here. It’s certainly challenged me to rethink my own position on it which boils down to something like ‘it sure would be nice to throw a great big bash over here in the USA, but as big as it is, our pad just ain’t big enough. BYOB, invitation only.’ In the meantime, our country should be doing all that it can to help these very poor countries around us throw their own parties. Though it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Sensenbrener’s bill is monstrous, and the McCain-Kennedy bill is much better but the guest worker provision still doesn’t address how the working poor who were born here and legally migrated here are getting screwed . And by here, I do mean the US of A complete with solid borders. If that makes me a nativist, then I guess Pat Buchanan must be the second coming of Hitler.

V is basically a comic-book superhero. He’s endowed with superior traits (strength, speed, abnormal intelligence) and he seems to have created his Secret Underground Lair out of, well, wish-fulfillment fantasy. After all, how could one assemble all of that neat stuff, if the Evil Fascist Government is so oppressive?

One shouldn’t ask that fantasy be _too_ grounded in plausibility, of course. And part of the fantasy of the rebel superhero is that the society he’s rebelling _against_ has to be pretty awful. And the more destructive his actions, the society has to be far, far worse. As far as V is rebelling against the Evil Fascist Government in the movie, fine.

But place him in opposition to modern-day America or Britain– which, as bad as things are, ain’t nowhere near John Hurt’s regime– and suddenly, those cathartic explosions look a lot uglier. One starts to think of V as Timothy McVeigh in a funny costume… or wonder if anti-abortion maniacs are going to take V’s advice under advisement.

I might as well mention V’s treatment of Evey. Call it an awakening if you want, but the terms “Stockholm syndrome” and “Patty Hearst” should also come to mind. Not to mention the implicit endorsement of tormenting people until they Think Properly.

Moore’s _V for Vendetta_ was both a rail of anger over the way Thatcher’s Britain was going, and as with much of Moore’s work, it’s also deeply ambiguous on some very profound questions. And if the movie matches the richness of Moore’s writing, then that’s marvelous.

But damn near every commentary in favor of the movie seems to _miss_ this. People are raving about it as a call to arms against the Bush Administration, which is _amazingly_ short-sighted from both factions. Liberals and leftists are praising the movie while ignoring the fascination such fantasies have among the lunatic right-wing. Conservatives are denouncing the movie while forgetting their own self-image as outsiders taking back government.

It’s as though people are willing to let the power of the film’s imagery suspend their critical sensibilities. And _that_, friends and comrades, has a truly sinister history. I can enjoy _V for Vendetta_ as a fantasy, because I’m not planning on assassinating anyone or blowing up any buildings in the future. And I love and respect fantasy literature. But I do worry when people find political lessons in cathartic fantasies of power.

You are so funny….you write all your crap while mentally masturbating in cyber space…while praising Postman, no less, postmodern nihilist couldn’t come close to your irony.