Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings 
Tax the Rich 

 Movie Monday

I might have skipped writing this post today because, well, movies have been god-awful lately. But also right now I've become obsessed to write out clear directions for the knitting procedure called wrap and turn (W & T). Which is what I was doing just before I started this posting and which I was reluctant to leave.

OK, I know you're not reading this for knitting tips but I would love to to able to find good, no great, directions, for W & T. If you read me on Knitting Friday this week, you can tell me if I've nailed this complicatedly simple knitting trick.

Lately, I've been reading more than movie watching. Either I'm tread milling, Librivoxing and knitting or just Librivoxing and knitting. However, movies are a first love for me and I still yearn for some great ones though I'm becoming cynical enough to think that outside of a very, very few, the entire medium is more prone to propaganda than greatness.

Reading Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen  isn't helping my acceptance of the Hollywood (and I'm using Hollywood as a metaphor here) fibs and fables it has foisted on its viewing public since the get-go.

A great example of how Loewen's contention that US school textbooks perpetuate the myth of the European white hero-savior vs. a savage, primitive world is still being used in Hollywood today is shown in the much touted new movie, Lincoln. It depicts the angst of this tall, ugly, white US president as he, without the help of any pesky people of a "darker skin persuasion", gets the Emancipation Proclamation passed and single-handedly makes life sooo easy for the "black folks." OK, that's an oversimplification but you get where I'm going: the US has a difficult time living and understanding beyond the white hero myth and Hollywood has been a major player in fostering these misconceptions.

Since I got to see teen movies during the last week and weekend, I'd like to look at three of them for a glimpse at a subsection of the above paragraphs. That is, Hollywood's take on how teens see the world. My three teen movies are: Breaking Dawn Part I, Tomorrow When The War Began and The Hunger Games.

With the first, BD, Pt. 1, I shudder to think how its hormone-raging teen fan base is going to adjust to adulthood but with the other two, I see a lot of hope.

First, I always like to turn to Box Office MoJo to see how the world accepted these films in the area of the only important coin of the realm: the box office gross:

Breaking Dawn Part I brought in 6+ times more than its $110M budget with 60% of this coming from foreign (non-US) sources.

Tomorrow When The War Began has pretty dismal figures with a $27M budget and a $16+M worldwide gross. Of course, this is an Australian production and I have no idea if the Aussies possess a Hollywood-style PR machine. (Note: Wikipedia says it was Australia's 2010 highest grossing domestic film.)

The Hunger Games grossed over 8 times its $78M budget, this time with a flip: the domestic gross (I'm assuming this means US) was 60% and the foreign only 40%.

So in my limited knowledge of  movie financial hijinks I would say that if they could add a Part 3 to Breaking Dawn (Part 2 grossed more than 6 times budget also) they would. Additionally, The Hunger Games was a success and unlike The Golden Compass flop, its two other books will be made into movies.However, there are seven books in the TWTWB series and I wonder how many of those will become films. (Again, according to Wikipedia, a second movie is planned.)

Getting back to Loewen's premise that in US history the myth, not the facts, are taught, only one movie listed above, BD, Pt. 1, is heavily moored in the molasses of myth. Not the historical myth like the presentation of Columbus as the great white explorer but not as the rapacious plunderer and murderer he was, but in the social myth that women will find their perfect mate who will care for them so much that only their needs/wishes/whatever will matter to him. (OK, I did give a pretty positive review to BD Part 1 some time ago but, believe me, on second viewing, it did not age well.)

So while Loewens says textbooks should present history as it is, not how the public wants it to be; the Hollywood myth machine very seldom takes the time to present human relations as they really are, let alone present a hero with major flaws. (I know that genre movies, western and gangster, can have multi-flawed heroes - who often are dead by the final credits.)

I'm sorry that TWTWB was not a success because I thought it captured the confusion, the horror, the hopelessness and then the resolve of a group of ordinary young people who discover their country has been invaded. Max Hastings in Inferno, The World at War 1939 - 1945 captured the same feelings as he described the slaughter of fleeing refugees by the invading Germans. It's not pretty nor comfortable to contemplate but it's so much more important to understand than the June/moon/syrup spoon feelings expressed by Edward Cullen at his wedding in BD, Pt. 1: It's an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to, and who'll accept you for what you are. I've been waiting for what seems like a very long time to get beyond what I am. And with Bella, I feel like I can finally begin. 

I'm happy that The Hunger Games matched BD, Pt. 1 in gross because they are antithetical in messages. With BD, you get the part one finale of a saga of perfect love, really perfect love because the rest of the story, after the last page is turned, will be peopled by beautiful vampires who never age and never die.

The Hunger Game is also steeped in myth. We have the brave, reluctant hero, a stalwart in western mythology but this time he's a young girl and, as such, is shown with a mufti-dimensional, and not necessarily romantic life. Also, in TWTWB, a young girl takes the lead and becomes the first with "blood on her hands." 

Are the roles of women in The Hunger Games and TWTWB all just political correctness? Possibly. But then isn't it time that girls take a role in the history they live and not just as figures to swoon over Andy Hardy and Edward Cullen? 

OK, I'll just leave you with this food for thought and get back to that traditional role so perfect for us, gals, explaining a needlework procedure. See you next week.