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Did the latest Hollywood flick inspire you? Think again.
Posted by civil truth on July 11th, 2008
As the old saying goes, even a stopped watch is correct twice a day. The writers at Cracked just as frequently are capable of truly insightful commentary on American’s infatuation with fatuity.
But, recently, the stopped watch told the right time, as in a fit of conservatism temporary insanity, a Cracked author actually lauded some traditional values.
With a finger on the pulse of popular culture (as he strangles it with his other hand), David Wiens reveals the 5 Terrible Life Lessons Hollywood Loves to Teach You, as follows:
#5 Technology is Dangerous and Will Eventually Destroy Us
#4 You Don’t Have to Take Any Initiative in Your Life, Because You Have a Hidden Talent
#3 Corporations Exist Only to Create Evil
#2 Love Conquers All
#1 The Underdog Will Always Win, and Automatically Deserves To
Here are several excerpts from #2 Love conquers all:
Love is sort of a big deal. Probably 7 times out of 10 in the movies, it’s the reason humanity isn’t destroyed by robots/aliens (the other three are usually free choice or some sort of clever use of a rocket launcher).
But we’re not talking about, say, the love a mother has for a child or (even worse) the boring love between two people who have been married for decades.
No, this love is the sudden, rapturous emotion between two physically attractive people who just met…Our two, hot, usually young lovebirds can be on board a fucking ocean liner where a thousand other people are in danger of dying, and as the bodies fall around them, all we’re to care about is whether these two can survive long enough to have sex just one more time.
…The moral of all these movies is that all of the adult, rational decision-making that keeps us from doing really retarded things should go out of the window if we get that one huge crush on the girl or guy of our dreams. Because, you know, love conquers all of that other stuff.
The problem is, they don’t really come back and show those relationships as they exist a couple of years down the road, after the rush of emotion has worn off and we’re left with two people who actually aren’t compatible at all, with at least one of them no longer able to remember why they gave up their job or city or previous marriage.
Take a gander at the whole article. You may never quite have that same fuzzy feeling about that memorable (or infamous) Hollywood film again, but you will be wiser.
(H/T)
July 12th, 2008 at 12:08 am
If you don’t like it then stop seeing Hollywood movies. Movie production is a type of market and governments shouldn’t try to restrict the market (no one should). if you don’t like it move to France.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
dj, did you actually read my post and the Cracked article, or did you just see “Hollywood” and “traditional values” and set your keyboard to autopilot?
I defy you find anywhere in my post or in the source article any advocacy for restricting movie content (or for government to do so) or otherwise wanting to interfere with the market.
“Like” has nothing to do with it; I have things that I like and dislike in every film I watch – “message” is only one of such factors. Same goes for million of other viewers.
The market is very good at measuring viewers’ likes and dislikes, via revenues and attendance numbers, for instance. If enough people want to watch movies with these themes, then Hollywood will continue to pile on.
But that doesn’t mean that I can’t agree with the article’s author that a bunch of recent movies have lauded crappy life messages. And the fact that I can say so is simply my exercising one of the great privileges that our country gives us – called free speech.
Dammit, dj, you just made me lose my
breakfastpetit déjeuner! :mrgreen:July 12th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
DJ,
Maybe CT will stop seeing movies made by Hollyweird. Free market and all. And I didn’t see him calling for government control of an industry. And moving to France isn’t really an option to those who truly love this country… unlike liberals who claimed the same in 2000, people like me would rather stay and fight than runaway…
July 14th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
And moving to France isn’t really an option to those who truly love this country… unlike liberals who claimed the same in 2000, people like me would rather stay and fight than runaway…
I’m still waiting for those libs who promised to leave if George W. Bush was elected in 2000 (or 2004) to make good on their word.
if you don’t like it move to France.
Like much of Europe, I found France to be a good place to visit. If I had to move, I’d rather go to Italy, Ireland or Slovakia.