"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is a very powerful movie but where are movies like that today?

[Javaman]

(raccoon brings up a very interesting point in this post. I felt the need to expand upon it.

(Mods, this is not a calling out or a continuation per say of a thread, just my reflection)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7591785&mesg_id=7591785

I always ask myself, were are those type of social commentary type films today?

They are out there, but they take the form of snarky documentaries cut to pieces in mtv style edits that only present information in sound bytes no longer than 30 second spans. Yes, the complete work is usually pretty damn good, but the viewer leaves the theater so shell shocked and depressed, that hope if any left in their psyche has left the building. The feeling of powerlessness pervades, which, I belive, is far from the filmmakers intent.

Movies of the type as "they shoot horses, don't they?" and "the grapes of wrath" are out there, but they play in limited release "art house" theaters. Those two movies mentioned above, played in main stream theaters to huge audiences when originally released. Why aren't there any present incarnations now?

Because, in our over the top, special effect laden, block busters only need apply, 10 dollar ticket ,300 million dollar budget, ear splitting sound, era of movie experience; the "major" studios, are all about getting butts in the seats and don't want nor believe the need to educate people with stories that show just how shitty things really are. That doesn't sell tickets! Sadly, they are misguided.

Look at movies like, "to kill a mocking bird" or "in cold blood". Brilliant novels, brought to the screen by competent compassionate people who understood the importance of telling a story for the stories sake and gravity of the material, rather than for pure spectacle.

Our current "main stream" theatrical releases would be relegated to "B" picture status 30 years ago. (I'm not talking about the current crop of animations - they are on par with some of the best story telling to have hit the theaters).

Because digital effects are all the rage, much of the current crop of films suffer from marginal acting, marginal scripts and marginal directing, which again, because they are digital, get launched to the head of the line. (I fear what 3-D will bring us)

If it doesn't explode, doesn't have massive effects and is complex in it's telling; forget about ever dreaming of a wide release.

I listen to a great podcast called "The Business". It's all about what is currently going on in Hollywood production. What seems to be a constant drum beat brought up time and time again by the hosts, is the lack of adult drama. Every film, with the exception of the art house productions, appears to be aimed at the lowest common denominator. Those are the ones that get the major release in to 4000+ theaters, but the ones that actually tell a story, ones that actually would have the effect of requiring critical thought, they get sometimes, at the most a 300+ theater release.

Don't get me wrong, I love a great action adventure movie, everyone needs a Twinkie now and then. But one can not survive on twinkies alone.

However, the films that move you or stories that make a social comment are generally out of the reach for most theater goers, so as a result, the violent digital films with generally no substantial value, are the daily affair for the masses at their local theater chain.

I, being the former film maker, ruminate daily about how, today, there needs to be a movie that deals with our current mess. I love micheal moore, don't get me wrong, but we need to have an adult discussion about our problems. To me, flashy cartoony, 30 second snips of grief followed by outrage then file footage assembled to extract emotion from the masses, is not what I'm talking about. What he does, he does well, I'm harking back to a day, when the story is what mattered.

Documentaries certainly have their place and are certainly needed, but there is some intrinsic value to a hard hitting drama in the vein of Erin Brockovich, Silkwood, the China Syndrome or Network, that deals with issues in a dramatic form. Far more people empathize with that and I don't care what your political affiliation is. (I think that is part of the problem, no one wants to feel anymore. To understand another's plight)

What if there was a story of an average family and the turmoil they experience with losing their home and being put out on the streets or a story of someone being so ill, with medical bills so high, that bankruptcy and losing their home is their only recourse. Or a story of a woman or a man who is the sole provider for their family. They get laid off in a market with no hope of rehire for the foreseeable future.

These are the stories that need to be made. Metaphors work wonderfully, but they are more powerful if it is something the average person can directly relate to, rather than wars fought on other worlds.

Is it impossible to make movies like "The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Coming Home, or Platoon" today? Sometimes a good hit upside the head via blunt stories is what is needed to shock our society. I'm not talking one block buster, but a social film-making movement.

Todays landscape is certainly ripe with more than enough real stories to pull from. Much like "The Grapes of Wrath", Which was a compilation of sorts, also could be put together that follows one families plight. And their story being the story of millions just like them, would be (as always) if done well, would do more to motivate people than flowery speech's or digital explosions on far off worlds.

I got out of film-making because I got tired shooting one crappy film after another. Stories with contrived plots, dreamed up by a vain director sporting stars in their eyes, who had no life experience to speak of other than someone else footing the bill for his or hers failures.

Yeah, I'm old, yeah, I'm cranky, but I think I might have finally hit upon something that will give me the purpose I have been searching for, for sometime now.

[cali]

1. they're being made. they just don't get distributed.

[KittyWampus]

2. Because the people who should see those movies won't. I remember watching The Crucible

in the movie theater, walking out of the movie feeling like crap and thinking "the people today who are into witchhunts will never see this movie".

If there's going to be a message in a movie it generally has to be sugar-coated and even then, the Rightwingers & Fundies tend to warp things to their viewpoint anyway.

[villager]

3. I once interviewed Sidney Pollack and asked him a similar question

He said (and this was 10 or so years ago), there was no way a film like "Horses" would ever get made/distributed by a studio today...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. The lack of distribution is a real problem

I'm old enough to remember when the films that I listed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7591785#7592768

were in every theater. Although A Man for All Seasons is older than any of them, I recall that it played in the one theater in my father's hometown (population 1200).

When I see the occasional mainstream movie, I am totally underwhelmed by the previews of coming attractions. They're all aimed at 15-year-old boys, either special effects extravaganzas with lots of explosions and sexy babes, or raunchy, in your face comedies. Oh yes, and the vampire and slasher movies. (I do not GET the fascination with vampires these days, unless they're an unconscious metaphor for the insurance companies.)

"But," the studios say,"only teenagers go to the movies anymore."

Well, you know, if you make movies for teenagers, that's who's going to come.

If you live in a large city, there's bound to be at least one theater that shows intelligent films. (We have the Landmark chain in Minneapolis.) There are some great films being shown, but none of them receive much promotion and attract mostly people who read film critics.

I highly recommend that ANY younger person who is interested in films rent the ones I listed to see that it's possible to be intelligent and entertaining at the same time.

I also recommend that if there is an international film festival in your community, you should attend it. Just pick out a country you're interested in and attend its films. There are some fantastic movies that will NEVER receive a U.S. distributor, and that's such a shame. Some of my festival favorites from over the years have been

The Kautokeino Rebellion, a Norwegian film about the Sami (Lapps) in the 19th century
Jar City a murder mystery from Iceland
Upswing a comedy about some Finnish yuppies who decide to spend an "exotic" vacation in a public housing project
Honey for Oshun A Cuban exile returns to Cuba to look for his mother and sees the good and bad points of life there
Peppermint CandyA Korean man commits suicide at this high school reunion, and his path to that decision is told in reverse-order flashbacks
Katyn The Katyn Forest massacre (Polish officers murdered by the Soviets) explained in terms of the lives of some of its victims
The Visitors A medieval knight and his servant are magically transported to present-day France, where they encounter one of the knight's descendants
With a Friend Like Harry An Alfred Hitchcock-style film about a creepy man who insinuates himself into the life of a family
Peking Opera Blues A Chinese slapstick comedy full of gags that you've never seen before
Shower The story of a Beijing neighborhood that is about to be demolished in the name of "modernization."

Most of these have never been released in the U.S., and some of them aren't even available on DVD, but all are worthwhile.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. I think there's a bit of selective memory here -

What were the BIG films of '69? Horses? Not even close. 'True Grit'. 'Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid'. 'Wild Bunch'.

Movies that were popular entertainment, and had a lot of gunfights and explosions. They were, of course, also GREAT movies, with a lot more to them than gunfights and explosions, but 'Horses' hardly registered next to them.

"...Erin Brockovich, Silkwood, the China Syndrome or Network..."

Of which only 'Erin Brockovich' got a strong public reception. Silkwood and China Syndrome were dismissed as 'message films' and were not terribly well received, while nobody knew what to make of 'Network'.

Films of that caliber ARE being made - they get a brief release and sent to video. In 15 years we will all know what they are. And we will wonder why we didn't see them when they first came out - just as we do now, about 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'.

[tom_paine]

6. Such films disturb the Plebs and Proles and are simply not permitted in our Inverted Totalitarianism

We Plebs must be pacified, infantilized, stupefied, and hypnotized.

Our Corporate Aristocratic Masters demand it, and they have been wildly successful.