Friday, April 23, 2010
Hollywood Cheats
Deep in the tropical forest a jeep loaded with a half dozen cartel desperados is careening cross-country in pursuit of a lone, beleaguered lawman. As these blood-thirsty criminals catch sight of our hero, two hand guns and three machine guns simultaneously open fire. He zigzags as dirt and woodchips are kicked up on every side, but not single bullet grazes his body. Stumbling toward cover the lawman tucks, rolls and releases two quick rounds in the direction of his pursuers. As luck would have it, one of his bullets flattens a tire while the other punctures the gas tank, causing the jeep to roll over and explode, killing or maiming every one of our hero’s enemies.
In the next scene, the lawman has retrieved one of the fallen enemy’s machine guns. After deftly disabling several compound guards, he walks boldly into the command cartel’s center and opens fire. This time, everyone he shoots is riddled with holes. How convenient!
How is it that three machine gunners and two hired gunman can’t hit our hero, but he can kill a dozen men with one machine gun? The answer: Hollywood cheats. In the movies, sometimes a fender bender results in major injuries, but, at other times, a rollover accident that sends a car off a bridge into a raging river leaves the driver with a small cut on his forehead which slightly inconveniences him as he breaks a window and exits the car under water, so he can swim down river and escape those who wished him dead. The screenwriters get to make it up. They don’t have to be honest. They can always bring the story around to their preferred endings.
That may work well in movies, but real life doesn’t work that way. St. Paul said it this way: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) In real life there are consequences.
I fear that our society has become so media-influenced that many people have begun to believe that life’s rules can be changed; that they can beat the odds just like 007. They see so many movies in which a husband or wife cheats on their spouse, negotiates a lucrative settlement, and rides off into the sunset with their new lover, that they truly expect their affair to end up that way. But Hollywood is cheating. Real affairs break hearts and leave children abandoned. Cheating in real life leaves people lonely and untrusted. Incidentally, few of us will ever have the kind of money movie characters seem to have when they are finished abusing everyone in their life.
Movie characters can sin and evade the consequences. They don’t have to deal with reality like you and I do. But, remember, movies are so unrealistic that it requires a great deal of effort to produce a single scene. For example, director Stanley Kubrick once asked Shelley Duvall to repeat a scene 127 times for The Shining. When Charlie Chaplin ate his boot in The Gold Rush, he did 63 separate takes of that scene. In fact, since his boot was actually made of licorice, he ended up being taken to the hospital for insulin shock due to the high sugar intake. One producer estimated that it takes 400 hours of raw footage to produce an average film.
I’m sure every reader is aware that Hollywood cheats, but I’m not sure we all realize just how many messages Hollywood preaches that have adversely affected the morals and values of our society. Think about the many politically or socially charged movies that have been released throughout the years. Powerful messages are conveyed, but the viewers don’t always stop to consider how much Hollywood cheated when they made their case. You and I live in the real world. We might want to think twice about letting Hollywood serve as our moral or political compass, because Hollywood cheats – big time!
In the next scene, the lawman has retrieved one of the fallen enemy’s machine guns. After deftly disabling several compound guards, he walks boldly into the command cartel’s center and opens fire. This time, everyone he shoots is riddled with holes. How convenient!
How is it that three machine gunners and two hired gunman can’t hit our hero, but he can kill a dozen men with one machine gun? The answer: Hollywood cheats. In the movies, sometimes a fender bender results in major injuries, but, at other times, a rollover accident that sends a car off a bridge into a raging river leaves the driver with a small cut on his forehead which slightly inconveniences him as he breaks a window and exits the car under water, so he can swim down river and escape those who wished him dead. The screenwriters get to make it up. They don’t have to be honest. They can always bring the story around to their preferred endings.
That may work well in movies, but real life doesn’t work that way. St. Paul said it this way: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) In real life there are consequences.
I fear that our society has become so media-influenced that many people have begun to believe that life’s rules can be changed; that they can beat the odds just like 007. They see so many movies in which a husband or wife cheats on their spouse, negotiates a lucrative settlement, and rides off into the sunset with their new lover, that they truly expect their affair to end up that way. But Hollywood is cheating. Real affairs break hearts and leave children abandoned. Cheating in real life leaves people lonely and untrusted. Incidentally, few of us will ever have the kind of money movie characters seem to have when they are finished abusing everyone in their life.
Movie characters can sin and evade the consequences. They don’t have to deal with reality like you and I do. But, remember, movies are so unrealistic that it requires a great deal of effort to produce a single scene. For example, director Stanley Kubrick once asked Shelley Duvall to repeat a scene 127 times for The Shining. When Charlie Chaplin ate his boot in The Gold Rush, he did 63 separate takes of that scene. In fact, since his boot was actually made of licorice, he ended up being taken to the hospital for insulin shock due to the high sugar intake. One producer estimated that it takes 400 hours of raw footage to produce an average film.
I’m sure every reader is aware that Hollywood cheats, but I’m not sure we all realize just how many messages Hollywood preaches that have adversely affected the morals and values of our society. Think about the many politically or socially charged movies that have been released throughout the years. Powerful messages are conveyed, but the viewers don’t always stop to consider how much Hollywood cheated when they made their case. You and I live in the real world. We might want to think twice about letting Hollywood serve as our moral or political compass, because Hollywood cheats – big time!
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