Lions in Elah: a little film marketing analysis
Fargo Trip: Much better than expected. Details and photos to follow in subsequent post.
Today: A call back to my old blog style. We went to the movies last night and I am inspired to write something of an op-ed.
A special note for Joe Hoffdawgg: I hope you are still following me because I think I saw the first Paul Haggis film that I actually liked. Knowing our tastes, this will be the first one you didn't like, but I'd still like to compare notes and hash it out.
We went to see In the Valley of Elah. I'm not going to spoil anything big, but I need to give the general premise for anything else I say to make sense. Tommy Lee Jones (TLJ) stars as some sort of retired army detective and the father of a soldier who has recently completed a tour in Iraq. After four state-side days from Iraq, the son goes missing. TLJ gets on a plane and flies out to the base to look for his son only to discover that he has been gruesomely murdered, burned beyond recognition and left in a field on the side of the highway. In the beginning of the film TLJ foreshadows the outcome of the story by explaining what an upside down flag symbolizes. He describes as saying "Help. We´re in way over our heads. SOS."
I'm going to skip the middle of the film now, the whole whodunit part, and get to the very end with TLJ raising an American flag up a pole, upside down of course. The image of the flag in distress mode in the closing of the film leaves us all with the message that our nation is in over its head in Iraq. The film is decidedly anti-war, pro-troop, so much so that it borders on exploitation (in more ways than just the slow camera pan over the body of the barbecued dead son--go see it yourself if you are curious.)
I leave the theater and see the big poster for Lions for Lambs again. It hits me hard that we are in a full-force anti-war media climate. The colors of the poster symbolize the polarity of peace vs. armed defense. Elah uses not just the colors, but the entire flag as a symbol of defiance. Forgive me for being blunt, but it seems to have become "cool" to oppose the war now. (Someone stop me if I've got wrong here--I do live in a place everyone seems to oppose the war. My vision of mainstream could be more skewed than I realize.)
My plan here is not to make any judgment calls on this shift. I simply find it interesting to be living in this oh-so-21st century anti-war environment. I doubt that Paul Haggis and Robert Redford have suddenly turned against the war just in time to produce films that coincide with the popular opinion. Two years ago there would be no chance that films like these would have been released. Blockbuster financiers would have had no part in it. It is today that anti-war sells, and the big movie studios are cashing in.
So how do you feel about this? The media, theoretically supported by our own demands as a public, has helped alter the colors of our flag to imply a dichotomy of ideology over the older inference of the unity of our most recognizable national symbol, the flag.
And if you are questioning our position in the middle east, are you in favor of a public examination of the same issue, for profit? Is there any way for us to discuss major issues like this divorced from capitalism? I ask these questions because I do not know the answers.
We're off on a camping trip in about an hour...I will get back to the blog when email enters my world again in 2 days...
Have a great weekend!
A special note for Joe Hoffdawgg: I hope you are still following me because I think I saw the first Paul Haggis film that I actually liked. Knowing our tastes, this will be the first one you didn't like, but I'd still like to compare notes and hash it out.
Last night...Andy, Andrew and I walk down the hill to Grand Lake Theater for some free popcorn and a movie. On our way in the theater I notice a huge poster for Lions for Lambs, an upcoming Robert Redford film. The poster is set on a white background, with the text in red and black. "Lions" in black, "for Lambs" in red. At first I mistake the black for blue and immediately assume it's politically themed, probably anti-war. Then it occurs to me that I assume this because of the color scheme. I think Republican v. Democrat before I think of them as our national colors. It dawns on me that right now red, white and blue are not used together to summon images of our flag, or unity in our nation in any way. They symbolize the polarity of our political parties that we have come to know so well through phrases like "red states" and "blue states." Only now that I have looked the poster up online do I see that the blue font is actually black. That might make the symbolism less blatant, but it definitely does not disappear. Consider the plot of the movie outlined in the tag line, "If you don't stand for something...you might fall anything" (take a close look at the text's colors in that line and what they might suggest: stand and fall each in red.) If that's not enough, you can also consider the trailers. Each version ends with Tom Cruise, playing an ambitious Washington politician, looming over Meryl Streep, demanding she answer what he calls "the quintessential yes-or-no question of our time," which is of course, "do you want to win the war on terror?" Keep this film in mind, I'm going to get back to it after the Haggis film.
We went to see In the Valley of Elah. I'm not going to spoil anything big, but I need to give the general premise for anything else I say to make sense. Tommy Lee Jones (TLJ) stars as some sort of retired army detective and the father of a soldier who has recently completed a tour in Iraq. After four state-side days from Iraq, the son goes missing. TLJ gets on a plane and flies out to the base to look for his son only to discover that he has been gruesomely murdered, burned beyond recognition and left in a field on the side of the highway. In the beginning of the film TLJ foreshadows the outcome of the story by explaining what an upside down flag symbolizes. He describes as saying "Help. We´re in way over our heads. SOS."
I'm going to skip the middle of the film now, the whole whodunit part, and get to the very end with TLJ raising an American flag up a pole, upside down of course. The image of the flag in distress mode in the closing of the film leaves us all with the message that our nation is in over its head in Iraq. The film is decidedly anti-war, pro-troop, so much so that it borders on exploitation (in more ways than just the slow camera pan over the body of the barbecued dead son--go see it yourself if you are curious.)
I leave the theater and see the big poster for Lions for Lambs again. It hits me hard that we are in a full-force anti-war media climate. The colors of the poster symbolize the polarity of peace vs. armed defense. Elah uses not just the colors, but the entire flag as a symbol of defiance. Forgive me for being blunt, but it seems to have become "cool" to oppose the war now. (Someone stop me if I've got wrong here--I do live in a place everyone seems to oppose the war. My vision of mainstream could be more skewed than I realize.)
My plan here is not to make any judgment calls on this shift. I simply find it interesting to be living in this oh-so-21st century anti-war environment. I doubt that Paul Haggis and Robert Redford have suddenly turned against the war just in time to produce films that coincide with the popular opinion. Two years ago there would be no chance that films like these would have been released. Blockbuster financiers would have had no part in it. It is today that anti-war sells, and the big movie studios are cashing in.
So how do you feel about this? The media, theoretically supported by our own demands as a public, has helped alter the colors of our flag to imply a dichotomy of ideology over the older inference of the unity of our most recognizable national symbol, the flag.
And if you are questioning our position in the middle east, are you in favor of a public examination of the same issue, for profit? Is there any way for us to discuss major issues like this divorced from capitalism? I ask these questions because I do not know the answers.
We're off on a camping trip in about an hour...I will get back to the blog when email enters my world again in 2 days...
Have a great weekend!
3 comments:
Living in a capitalist country has benefits and detriments. The one you are realizing is that public opinoin is marketing for, "what the suckers are buying now."
It is interesting that only in marketing are potential customers refered to as suckers, or saps.
The problem is that for many Americans, what they see/hear on the radio/tv/or the cinema IS what they beleive. Although many years have past, Orson Wells could (I think) still convince people that a War of the Worlds is happening again, not because we are dumber, but just because we believe what our media sources tell us, without question.
You raise good questions and magerious provides a good comment that I wish I could improve on.
All of us, including our media and business people, are trained within our capitalist system and become biased to look out for number one without being aware of it.
One example is political rhetoric used to enhance one's electibility by tearing down one's opponent, regardless of damage to the rest of us.
Another example is the profit motive. Competition drives down cost at the expense of quality, safety, public good, etc.
Blogs such as yours help correct these drawbacks to capitalism by making us aware of them so that we can temper the training that influences them.
You write: "And if you are questioning our position in the middle east, are you in favor of a public examination of the same issue, for profit? Is there any way for us to discuss major issues like this divorced from capitalism?"
I am in favor of a public examination for profit because everything we do has a cost, whether we pay for in in currency, our attention or our taxes. There is no way to discuss major issues like this divorced from someone paying for it, if only through our taxes. A town hall would be an example. Private house meetings would be another.
I say, "Question everything!" including all media, other people, and take the time to form our own opinions.
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