Last summer I noticed two unrelated events that were so particularly strange when considered together -- it inspired me to produce my first short film iSpy.
Do you like movies and politics? Please, pull up a chair. No, not that chair, the legs are weak. That chair -- with the armrests -- perfect.
I must confess I'm old enough to remember the exact moment when cinema permanently changed for the worst -- which, as irony would have it -- folks younger than me consider the true beginning of 'epic' cinema. Two dirty words: STAR WARS.
STAR WARS obliterated story for spectacle. This devolution took time, of course --
-- but here we are these decades later with absolute dreck like DARK KNIGHT RISES, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, and MAN OF STEEL.
I'm no film snob bemoaning the lack of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA type films. I'm saying MAN OF STEEL makes you mourn for the long lost days of Chris Reeves -- who cared more about Lois Lane than the planet itself. Right?
When I was a kid, POSEIDON ADVENTURE was simply entertaining junk. Nowadays that film is an art house masterpiece with layers of social commentary compared to the 1-D likes of RISES, DARKNESS, and STEEL.
Oh my. I've digressed. Where was I? Oh yes, last summer.
Last summer I finally got around to seeing DARK KNIGHT RISES. A week or so later I saw TREK INTO DARKNESS and two weeks later MAN OF STEEL. When you see all three of these films so close together, you discover they have the same basic plot: an Osama Bin Laden type comes along, destroys tall buildings in a major city, and our heroes come to the rescue.
Ah! We've reached the political portion of our program. Is that seat still comfy? Would you like me to pop some corn? No microwave, mind you, but the real stuff in a wok. You're good? Okay, let's proceed --
As a screenwriter and humanitarian, I simply can't abide this same asinine plot in movie after movie. It's sick. Not the awesome sick of teen lingo but the flying upside with Denzel Washington after a long weekend with a stewardess sick.
Am I the only one weary of Hollywood ripping open 9/11 wounds to sell tickets? Haven't we already had enough of exploiterrorism films? I know I wasn't the only critic to notice how much real estate got trashed in TREK and STEEL. In such mountains of rubble, what did these heroes actually save again?
Oh dear. I've digressed again. Politics! Yes!
There's something else these three movies had in common that was even more disturbing: the villains. Khan, Bane, and Zod. All of them claimed to be champions of the people. Did you notice that? Khan was trying to save his popsicle peeps, Bane was railing against the %1ers, and Zod wanted to rebirth the entire Krypton civilization.
Yet each of these villains were portrayed as evil psychotic terrorist dudes. Right? Each film whispered the message that when someone fights back against the establishment on behalf of their people -- they're lying madmen.
Don't you find something suspect in that message? I sure did. Especially when during this same period of time the Edward Snowden NSA story broke wide open.
For just after the military industrial cineplex brainwashed me three times in a row to believe any champion of the people is an evil psychotic terrorist dude, the media and President Obama attempted to brainwash all of us into thinking Edward Snowden was an evil psychotic terrorist dude.
I frankly didn't know what to make of Snowden based upon the first solar vortex of propaganda that the mass media blasted worldwide. Yet my gut told me this intense vitriol tsunami aimed at Snowden doth protested waaaaaaay too much.
My concern here is the avalanche of military propaganda aimed at our iDevice distracted teenagers. You know, American teenagers, who may have just graduated from high school, they can't find a decent job anywhere, they can't afford college, and so they go see a movies... that all harmonize in glamorizing the service.
You think that may be tinfoil fedora territory? Back when I was a kid, we saw previews before the movie. No ads at all, except maybe a slide or two about a local restaurant you'd never heard of. Now you're not only treated to BE ALL YOU CAN BE ads right in the cinema, but the features themselves glamorizing military service.
Still don't believe me?
Do you remember the big hero of RISES? It wasn't Batman. It was a policeman. You know, someone who serves? We know he's the hero because after he saves a busload of kids (eyeroll) an insanely rich man gives him the keys to the coolest cave in Gotham.
Who had to be rescued in RISES? Not just the people... not just the busload of kids... but... wait for it... the blessed policemen. The ones that fought alongside Batman against a common enemy. Oh yeah -- those policemen.
Police (state) therefore good, man against the 1%ers therefore bad.
Do you remember who Superman had to please in STEEL? Not Lois. She was a pushover. After all, when he was young, he... wait for it... saved a busload of kids (eyeroll).
Superman had to really please the military. Poor Clark had to spend half that feature convincing the military he was one of 'them'. One of the good guys... too. Also, there were these odd forced moments where the military was engaging Zod and his pals as if they stood a frickin' chance to go hand to hand with beings as strong as Superman. Absurd turns of story, unless you want younger members of the audience to be inspired at people sacrificing their very lives for the greater good. Ahem.
Military (state) therefore good, illegal alien freelancing therefore bad.
Do you remember the discussion deep in DARKNESS? Where Starflleet members were debating if they were well intended explorers or merely a well-armed armada in space? At least this film could smell the fowl stench of the military industrial cineplex on itself. Maybe what helped were the particles of Gene Roddenberry angrily spinning nearby in the final frontier. So DARKNESS compromised with a message along these lines --
Military maneuvers good if it helps change armada back to scientific exploration-ish.
All three of those films cost fortunes to produce. I can't help but adjust my tinfoil fedora and wonder where some of the financing may have come from. Michael Moore?
The reason why any of this matters to me is that the Snowden revelations should have resulted in people out in the streets -- especially the youngest peoples who have so much of their future privacy to lose. Instead -- the greatly tweeted debate of the summer of 2013 was over a far more important matter: Ben Affleck as Batman.
I rest my case.
If you enjoyed this, please Google 'iSpy' + 'Screenplayhouse' and you can watch the resulting short film on this very subject at YouTube, Vimeo, and Funny Or Die. Or, for hip kids who do care about the future of your privacy, QR Scan my Kos avatar. Thank you for your time.