Friday, September 23, 2005

Sometimes A Shark Is Just A Shark

And not a cosmic piece of karma coming to bite arrogant Americans on the butt.

Libertas has a tribute (via Mrs. Happy Housewife) to Jaws on the 30th anniversary of its release. Just to underline how preachy Hollywood movies have become, the author notes:

Would Jaws get made today? Yeah, I think so. But would it be as good even with the same talent available? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so because the straight-forwardness of the script would be lost in today’s agenda-driven Hollywood.

I think a woman would be put on the boat. Probably in the Dreyfus role. Not because she would be better – who could possibly be better than Dreyfus? – but for politically correct reasons. And she’d of course be a liberal environmentalist feminist who would remind us ad nauseum sharks don’t normally do this. And finally we’d learn the shark attack is “our” fault. That man, specifically America - specifically corporate America - had committed some environmental crime that affected the shark’s natural habitat, and with no choice the shark came to Amity to feed. In other words, poetic justice liberal style.


You know it's true. But commenter points out that the people who produced, wrote and directed Jaws were liberals. Yet they were able to make movies without beating the viewer over the head transparent agendas. What happened?

There is nothing more annoying than having the brick wall of Message pushed over on you when you're trying to enjoy a movie. If you don't agree with The Message, you're scolded like a naughty child. But even if you agree, you feel condescended to. Reminds me of Fatherland, a terribled movie based on a good book. The director went out of his way to announce that the Nazi's were bad - really bad. Gee thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't heard. It shouldn't take an artistic genius to get across the idea that Nazi's are bad. If you have to beat your audience over the head with it, well.... Either you're not much of a director, or you don't think much of your audience. But I digress.

For more on Hollywood preachers, see Debbie Schlussel's post on Flight Plan.

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