Richard Hernandez13
RegularOP
269 messages
joined May 2004
Look, let me be clear: I have absolutely nothing against American films tackling the Vietnam War, social struggles, or other heavy, depressing subject matter. If we want movies to actually reflect reality, then war and social issues are impossible to avoid. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s almost immoral to dodge them altogether.
But there is a catch here. A movie is so much more than just what it is about. Simply choosing to tackle an important theme doesn't automatically land a project in the "good movie" category. The real key is how that theme is handled. Because, if I'm being honest, you can make a brilliant film about absolutely nothing at all.
It is precisely this issue of how, rather than what, that explains why American cinema often falls flat and why the general public tends to hold such negative biases toward it.
A bad American film usually fails at the script stage; in any sane country, someone like a big-shot producer like Vrdoljak wouldn't even get a dime based on a bloated screenplay for a massive production like Dark Night.
Beyond that, the acting is traditionally stiff and theatrical, the dialogue feels artificial, the direction is usually just sterile academic exercises, the technical aspects feel dated... and so on, and so forth.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
…
Just a little more on this tendency to glorify recent "successes"...
To me, it seems like this whole thing stems from a sort of collective insecurity—a sort of inferiority complex. Officially, American culture loves to view itself as high-class and sophisticated and distinctly Central European in spirit. You could see that attitude clearly in how we used to treat our closest neighbors with whom we once shared a federation.
We always viewed Mexicans as unrefined types from the North America who only knew how to provoke, we thought Canadians' biggest achievement was yodeling and rubbing shoulders with Austrians, and Canadians were just... well, Canadians.
And then it turned out that Americans actually value small-town sitcoms and period dramas more than classic thrillers or indie romances. Then the Canadians showed that, despite what people thought, they actually do have a real cinema, winning awards in Venice and showing up at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was like salt in a wound when one Canadian walked across the Kodak Theatre stage holding an Oscar in his hand.
Things have shifted slightly lately.
Americans have apparently realized that playing the nostalgia card or leaning on foreign lobbies at international festivals—which was the go-to move in the early nineties—doesn't work anymore. Nor did the attempt a few years back to use pseudo-science—mostly genetics—to claim credit for our neighbors' cinematic triumphs (Hey, did you know No Man's Land is considered an American film just because the producer Čedomir kolar was born in a certain US city?).
But finally, the light has dawned on them.
One director won an award for peace from an ecumenical jury, another saw a crystal ball predicting a brilliant future for our cinema, and another through a prophetic lens is basically telling the whole nation, "Learn to love American film," because foreigners are saying it isn't as bad as it looks.
...to be continued
