4 Student Prints Opinions

Movies Dumb It Downstory bryce o’nealwriter

Film is without a doubt one of the greatest expressions of human emotion. It allows people to experience empathy, hate, love, vengeance, and satisfaction, depravity, or both, all within two hours of screen time. Film also allows the audience to delve deep into their own psyche by exploring the choices the characters make in the movie, and relating them to the choices individuals make in their own lives. “Movies allow us to escape our own re-ality,” said Vedran Caus, senior. “It helps get your mind going, and it puts life in perspective.” It is no wonder why the world has such a love affair with cinema when fac-tors like these apply. Recently, however, a much clearer dividing line between movie genres has developed. Most people tend to think of movies in the traditional categories of comedy, horror, drama, ro-mance, action, etc. There are other ways of categorizing these films. One such way is setting them as movies that make the audience think, and movies that do not. It seems like more and more Holly-wood directors find it to be their respon-sibility to cater to every last thought the viewer may have, explaining in detail the plot of the story, with overloaded, over-bearing omniscience. Films may be visually attractive, but no film can measure up to humanity’s most important tool - imagination. So, is it a bad thing to watch movies that do not make the audience think? “No, not necessarily,” said Bill Max-field, film analysis teacher, “Sometimes it’s nice to watch a low-brow comedy and let it ooze over you while you are there, sometimes it’s just nice to relax.” When a director leaves something in their film to the viewer’s imagination, the

viewer gets much more out of the experi-ence, as it will keep the viewer entertained, thinking about it in every way possible. “I prefer [movies] that make you think,” said Maxfield. “Maybe even have to watch more than once. For instance, the “make-you-think” di-rector Christopher Nolan ends his film, Inception, with something that will keep people talking and, more importantly, thinking about it. On the other side, however, “give-it-to-me-straight” director of Transformers Michael Bay approaches film entertain-ment differently, replacing thought and even plot with explosions and other visu-ally stunning works of art. Although they may be impressive, they seem to be aimed at showing off today’s technology and what we are capable of

showing in cinema oth-er than the originality of filmmak-ing. “Based on the box of-fice, society is leaning

towards mov-ies that don’t make you think,” said Caus. “It is fun to see explosions and CGI*, but nothing beats a good story.” Unfortunately, many psychological movies do not do as well as the box office hits Christopher Nolan continues to cre-ate. Films such as Director Zack Sny-der’s Sucker Punch, although rolling in a sizable $36,392,502 at the box office, pales in comparison to Transformers’ $319,246,193 domestic total gross. Sucker Punch is a movie that truly makes the audience ponder every situa-tion. The film does not baby the viewer in any way. It dives into even the most taboo, yet truthful of subjects, all while not tell-ing the audience what is really go-ing on in the main char-acter’s head. One of the most fa-mous psychological thrill-ers and in many ways the birth of the “make-you-think” style of film, Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko can easily be classified as one of the most confusing films around. Donnie Darko deals with the real life problems of family, friends, and high school, while also delving into the science fiction genre with time tangents, psychological dis-orders, prophecies of “arti-

facts,” and many other elements.*CGI - Computer Generated Image. It is a favorite among online theorists to this day, almost a full decade since its release. Even so, Donnie Darko has only earned a measly $1,270,522 in its domes-tic lifetime gross. Other than action movies, many com-edies have been recycled over and over again, yet still do as well as ever. A comedy directed by Ivan Reitman entitled No Strings Attached came out in January of this year. Only seven months later, director Will Gluck released his film Friends With Benefits. Both of these films starred A-list actors and had nearly identical plots. Neverthe-less, people flocked to movie theaters to see both of these films and both films did very well at the box office. “The more smart movies you watch, the more you will enjoy them,” said Maxfield, “and it may shape your choices for future viewing.” Society may be leaning towards the “give-it-to-me-straight” approach, and although it may not necessarily be a bad thing, one must still ask the question, why do films baby us? The simple answer? Because they are paid for it. “I believe in the imagination, what I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can.” –Duane Michals.

“Films may be visually attrac-tive, but no film can measure up to humanity’s most impor-tant tool - imagination.”

– Bryce O’Neal