I have often believed that we can chart the zeitgeist by our movies. After looking at the top movies over the last 20 years, I find some common themes and patterns:
• Special people who overcome barriers and prove to be wise (also reflected in stories about children who are oh-so-much wiser than the clueless/incompetent adults around them)
• Fantasy identity themes: adults re-experiencing childhood, becoming wiser in the process
• Strangers in a strange land
• Everyday heroes taking on completely unreasonable terrorists/bad guys
• Supernatural evil tamed (or not)
• Superheroes
In general, these all reflect our feelings of a lack of control, a distrust of the powers that be, and a desire to wrest that control back. Popular movies (top grossing) play out our resentment over our status as victims and our vacillation between believing we can change the world and feeling crushed by amoral forces.
Over the next couple of blogs, I hope to make the case that as our anxiety about the corruption of our country’s leadership (in every aspect of life, including political, spiritual, corporate, media) has increased, our movies have spawned antithetical plotlines: 1) increasingly violent and/or ambivalent visions of good vs. evil and 2) completely asinine escapist pap determined to take our minds off the stench of corruption that surrounds us.
Particularly on reflection of the top 10 movies this week (see below), I can’t help but feel we are more trapped in the American schizoid Protestant worldview than ever.
Top 10 Movies, on October 24, 2008
Max Payne (Ultra-violent tale, based on a video game about a cop turned vigilante with nothing to lose, whose family is killed by drug addicts. To make matters worse, he is framed by an evil corporation. Dilemma: go out with a whimper or a bang? Either way, this situation sucks.)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Escapist, guilt-ridden response to our fear/hatred of Mexican immigrants, featuring a dog stand-in for Paris Hiltonesque entitlement.)
Secret Life of Bees (Wise young white girl finds the true meaning of life from older, even wiser black women. Pure fantasy: a world where young women and women of color have the power to make the world right.)
W (This one is just too obvious, isn’t it? If we can’t beat him, we can at least laugh at him.)
Eagle Eye (Two strangers are thrown together in a fight for their lives when an unknown woman threatens them via cell phone. Think we are pissed off about the government’s use of technology to monitor and control us? Duh!)
Body of Lies (Covert CIA Operative takes on terrorists in the middle east. His boss is an ass. Who are the evil-doers again?)
Quarantine (A reporter is trapped in a building of people infected by a mysterious illness that makes them violent. The government abandons her and her crew. The only evidence of the incident is her video. This sounds like an ugly, terrifying vision of the ultimate unknown assailant [mystery disease] and the utter unwillingness/inability of authorities to come to the rescue. In so many ways, we are on our own, folks.)
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (The perennial tale of the nerd getting the right girl because he has a heart of gold--and most importantly he's not gay! Not all young women are vacuous wretches like Paris Hilton or Sarah Palin.)
Sex Drive (The perennial tale of young losers getting high, having sex and throwing all caution to the wind. There are orgies of all kinds—look at Wall Street.)
Nights in Rodanthe (The perennial middle aged female fantasy that hot sex and true love can still be found-- with the same man! Talk about the ultimate escapist fantasy, but at least it keeps our minds off our diminishing 401Ks.)
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