Sunday, July 31, 2005
Movies just don't matter
Movies just don't matter: "None of this would matter for the box office were it not that celebrities' real-life sagas � what I call 'lifies' because they combine life with the narrative appeal of movies. Lifies provide many of the same satisfactions as movies do. Once upon a time, these peccadilloes might have advertised stars' films. Now they don't so much advertise the movies as replace them. In the battle of competing narratives, people are likely to prefer the real-life ones with real-life consequences to the fictional ones on screen. Most movies suffer by comparison."
Gabler makes some really good points as to why American cinema is now on a downturn, but I can add to the reason...the movies are awful. Anyone who has seen "Empire Falls" and compares it to any movie they have seen in the movie theater in the past five years, there would be no comparison. I would wager that the pilot of "Over There" would also win over any movie going experience. I loved "Chicago", but it doesn't even closely compare to my television examples. It was entertaining, but it was not a close race to the others. "Empire Falls" was like the book that you cried at the end, not because of the story, but rather because it was over. You wanted to know more about these characters that you came to care so much for. You wanted more very badly. Movies are losing money, because no one cares about the characters. They don't leave the theater thinking that they had a life experience. FX, the cable channel, has led the way in bringing great television to its viewers in shows like "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me", to a lesser extent. When we have better fare at home, why go pay $20 for a bucket of popcorn?
Gabler makes some really good points as to why American cinema is now on a downturn, but I can add to the reason...the movies are awful. Anyone who has seen "Empire Falls" and compares it to any movie they have seen in the movie theater in the past five years, there would be no comparison. I would wager that the pilot of "Over There" would also win over any movie going experience. I loved "Chicago", but it doesn't even closely compare to my television examples. It was entertaining, but it was not a close race to the others. "Empire Falls" was like the book that you cried at the end, not because of the story, but rather because it was over. You wanted to know more about these characters that you came to care so much for. You wanted more very badly. Movies are losing money, because no one cares about the characters. They don't leave the theater thinking that they had a life experience. FX, the cable channel, has led the way in bringing great television to its viewers in shows like "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me", to a lesser extent. When we have better fare at home, why go pay $20 for a bucket of popcorn?
