The World of Film, Fiction and Fiction.
It's a very contradictory feeling that I enjoy criticizing film. For those who don't know I am first and foremost a screenplay writer, and I am currently enrolled at Full Sail University film school. The fact that I review movies also is very pleasantly ironic. The other day my History of Motion Picture Arts professor showed me the timeless classic Trip to the Moon. Pretty much timeless because it was one of the first movies ever made.
In this class we occasionally get off topic by discussing what we just saw. Which included that and The Great Train Robbery at the time. I brought up the fact of how it must've been interesting in hindsight of the future what was being seen. We haven't been on the moon at this time, no one knew if we could go just yet. From there the topic split into various tangents which brings me to the point of this article. When Birth of the Nation got brought up many people wondered how people at the time separated fact from fiction. The fact that it was a very racist film, could effect the way people saw things. From our professors personal perspective, you aren't supposed to ever take a movie seriously, not even documentary's.
It was only then I realized that I had the exact same belief as this man. No movie can properly represent real life, this right here is real life, right now. Throughout my life I always thought the news was boring, I now realize that I was only partially right. I never get involved in politics because I feel the only way we can hear about what the hell is going on in Washington is through the media, which can be swayed in several ways.
Let me see if I can explain this a little better. I loved Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 where he brought up many very negative actions performed by our president of the time, George Bush. Did I hate George Bush after I saw it? Nope, still didn't care about politics. Then why did I love this movie? Primarily because I loved the ambition of Michael Moore. I saw this world as a fictional America they discussed. The film was a character study on a fictional George Bush. Now that sounds very conservative of me, but if someone made a film bashing Obama, as well-made as this one, I would believe it to be about a fictional Obama as well.
Let me branch away from politics and discuss a more recent hit, The Social Network. Fantastic film that I rated 4.5/5 had Zuckerberg completely pissed, trying to hide it of course, I didn't even see how it showed him in much of a negative light, but that's a different story. I do believe, however, people are walking in to see this film and saying to themselves, this is the whole truth about the creation of facebook. They shouldn't have that mindset, it should be more along the lines of I am about to be entertained by a great movie. Truth can be relevant passed down by word of mouth, no matter who is saying which words.
I hope you all didn't have too much trouble understanding my angle in this blog. Basically my consensus for the whole thing is, Never take a movie seriously, watch it for it's main purpose which is entertainment. Maybe learn a couple things that can help you through your life. Which as far as you know is reality....or is it?
No comments:
Post a Comment