Open Letter to Hollywood- Reality isn’t a Movie
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Dear Hollywood,
I have been a fan of yours since I was knee high to a pig’s eye. Being an eccentric only child with enough stifled creativity to blow the roof off of Chucky Cheese, movies for me were a way to let my mind dance. I loved them. Everything from classic 70s: Saturday Night Fever, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, French Connection, Network, The Godfather, Annie Hall, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Young Frankenstein; to classic 80s: American Werewolf in London, The Shining, American Gigolo, Sophie’s Choice, Dirty Dancing, Uncle Buck, The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future; to classic (are they classic yet?) 90s: Edward Scissorhands, Before Sunrise, Good Will Hunting, The Birdcage, Dazed and Confused, The Big Lebowski, Grumpy Old Men, American Beauty, So I Married an Axe Murderer; and finally my picks from the beginning of the new century: Into the Wild, A Beautiful Mind, 300, Match Point, Superbad, Chicago, and Almost Famous.
Ok so you get it, “I love you man”, “You complete me”, “Boop, Boop, Boop”. Your movies made me laugh, think, and cry. When I needed to get inspired to create, I watched a movie. I picked up on the nuances, themes, symbols, and imagery. The stupid funny ones, I just let my mind turn off and enjoy. So I have to ask you Hollywood, why they hell can’t you separate the movies from reality? Ok allow me to explain. Movies at their very core are our mind’s most ideal projections (they can be the least ideal, but usually you do that to paint capitalism as weevil). The archetypal film usually has beautiful people, exotic locations and sets, and usually a happy (or at least a conclusive) ending. Life doesn’t always possess these things. Real life for the most part has a lot of mediocre people doing fairly mediocre every day things (I know how unglamorous). My point is Hollywood, why can’t you understand that life is not a movie? I am sure at one point you all lived in the real world. You know the world where you don’t make ungodly amounts of money from acting, directing or producing; where you can’t afford a stylist, personal trainer, and chef. Do you remember this world? When you didn’t have time to jump on the latest social or political bandwagon because you had all that icky real life stuff to deal with?
I get it Hollywood. It’s hard to imagine how anything in life could be ugly when you are surrounded by such seeming perfection. I mean I am sure you are all perfect people, who give money to every homeless person you see, pick up liter whenever you see it, never judge anyone based on anything other than the content of their character. I mean you have to right? That’s what you’re telling us all to do when you stand on your soapboxes and produce your films. I mean why should we value money and possessions, ours don’t count right? I mean after all we live in the real world where money is of no importance, we don’t have to buy the latest pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, Balenciaga bag, or Oliver Peoples sunglasses. We should just be happy to lead our mediocre existence, albeit living the way you think we should.
So I leave you with a question Hollywood, since you make your living creating utopias- How would you feel living out of the utopia? The one where things don’t come quite so easy, where you must work extremely hard to make a living, and often give most of it away and not get any free swag in return? I know some of your favorite people think the same way you do, you know guys like Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez that will never have to live in reality, but who get to determine what reality should be for an entire country. You see in your ignorance and naiveté you create great films, but just don’t get reality.
Sincerely,
One of those "ignorant" Americans
- Sharon's blog
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Comments
In the heart of Hollywood
I think the 911 mosque should be built in the heart of Hollywood!
Hi, Sharon,
I'm a film fanatic, too, and almost made it my living. Back in the day, I attended film school at the Cal Inst. of Arts in Valencia and the Sherwood Oaks Writer's and Director's workshops in Hollywood-and still wonder at times if I made a mistake in not continuing the pursuit. I absolutely despised SoCal--the place, the unrelentingly beautiful weather, the ethos and too many of the people. In fact, my experience there marked the beginning of my U-turn to the right. There's nothing to dispute in your piece, although you are awfully forgiving. (You might consider fleshing it out & expanding it to article size, maybe using vignettes from specific films to illustrate your points.)
But this comment is about one of the films you mentioned. Your list is startlingly similar to my own, if I were to list favorites--and what's striking is how far the quality has fallen from the heyday of the '70s. Then, there was quality in quantity; today, quality is rare. Ennyhoo, I'm wondering if I'm the only person in the universe who hated "American Beauty." Among the multitude of characters, I found not one of them sympathetic, including Spacey, although I had moments where I felt sorry for each of them. Was that the point? Seriously. What and who was there to admire--or was the very title supposed to drip with irony? A few of the villains--Annette Bening, Chris Cooper--were obviously--even cartoonishly--villainous and one-dimensional, but every last soul was degenerate in one way or another and ridiculously narcissistic. Again, was that the point to you? Showing the bright underbelly, as opposed to the dark underbelly, of society. It won Best Picture; I've never gotten it.
But how great was Match Point? Woody's best since Hannah and Her Sisters. A technicolor Crime and Punishment, except Raskolnikov walks.
D.