I saw Stardust Wednesday night. I don't make it into movie theatres very often, but I wanted to really try to see this film. I'm glad I did, I thought it was excellent.
Beyond that, the friend I saw it with and I sat there through the previews commenting on the sheer mass of previews for fantasy films. I remarked to her that fantasy is the new golden age of Hollywood. The original golden age of Hollywood, by my definition is that of the forties and fifties when things were vividly in technicolor, and Hollywood made an effort to be happy and innocent. Movies were our escape. (This is not to say that all films were this way, but that it was the overall mainstream feel of the era.)
I would be shocked to think that I was the first to have these thoughts, and would automatically assume that someone else has written about it more eloquently and intellecutally than I, but I progress: Fantasy is the new golden age of Hollywood because our cultural levels of despair, fear, and worldliness have reached a level at which we cannot suspend our disbelief to accept innocence as presented in our world because its so fleeting in our own lives. So, in order to reclaim the sense of innocence that functions as an emotional safety blanket, we create worlds of fantasy where danger and adventure may exist, but they exist in an overarching feeling of innocence.
Thoughts? Rebuttals?
5 comments:
Fantasy is whack, man.
Visitation to never-neverland is a good idea once in a while. I probably spend too much time there.
I partially agree. I often find myself saying "That would never happen" in movie theaters, as do many others. However, I'm still able to get totally wrapped up in a good movie and believe some things that are probably false. Ocean's Thirteen is the most recent example that comes to mind. It is easier with fantasy because like you said, it's a different world with different rules, but it's still not a given. I think the problem is that for some reason, the fantasy movies are simply better movies at the time. It's hard to get a fantasy movie made because the nerd factor drives off most people, so it either has to have a huge niche or be really well thought out. The train of thought derailed here, so I'm just going to stop.
Go see Eastern Promises.
It's very very good.
And very very Russian.
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