01-17-2011, 05:45 AM
Formula movies. Handsome, deep voiced, hot headed Hero + stern Father Figure + sexy, sassy Love Interest + snarling, shallow, incurably evil Villain + extended Action Scenes + Happy Ending = another shit, conveyer belt film churned out by a sweatshop of movie makers.
Admittedly we've been seeing these since the dawn of Hollywood, but whereas before some thought was put in to making the movies at least cohesive, with a few human traits the audience can grasp, now they've been stripped to their bare elements, so the formula above is pretty much ALL some productions consist of.
It reminds me of a scene from Mrs. McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie, where Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, a detective novelist, is discussing a stage adaptation of one of her books with a theater producer, who wants to turn her effete and ageing, superior sleuth into a virile, Errol Flynn-like adventurer with a love interest. When Mrs. Oliver tells him that she doubts her sleuth really cares for women, he says something like: "But darling, he simply can't be a pansy!"
Admittedly we've been seeing these since the dawn of Hollywood, but whereas before some thought was put in to making the movies at least cohesive, with a few human traits the audience can grasp, now they've been stripped to their bare elements, so the formula above is pretty much ALL some productions consist of.
It reminds me of a scene from Mrs. McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie, where Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, a detective novelist, is discussing a stage adaptation of one of her books with a theater producer, who wants to turn her effete and ageing, superior sleuth into a virile, Errol Flynn-like adventurer with a love interest. When Mrs. Oliver tells him that she doubts her sleuth really cares for women, he says something like: "But darling, he simply can't be a pansy!"
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe