About a dozen years ago I was talking with an old friend about a new movie that I was planning to see. He told me that he probably wouldn't see it because of it's political agenda. Naively, I asked, "What do you mean?"
"It has a sub-text." he answered. "The producers or writers or director are trying to alter your perceptions by incorporating their political views either into the story line or into one of the major characters."
"Really?" I hadn't completely honed my interviewing skills at this point.
"Politics is a good and a bad word for what they are trying to do. On the one hand everything is politics but agendas can be so specific and be presented in such a subtle way that we often times miss them." he continued to explain.
"So what's the problem if they don't hit us over the head with them?" I wondered.
"It's what is called the Big Lie." he said. "It's been around since men could communicate but was first espoused in Nazi Germany. Joseph Goebbles, Hitler's propaganda man, said that if you tell a lie often enough, no matter how outrageous it is, people will start to believe it. Especially if it comes from a seemingly official source."
"Yeah, I knew about that. But we're talking about going to the movies. It's entertainment. I'm not even thinking about politics when I'm at the movies!"
"That's when you are the most vulnerable. Let's take some hypotheticals. O.K.?" He asked.
"O.K." I said.
"Let's say, hypothetically, you were against abortions. And you go to a movie that had a very moving scenario where a major character gets one. Would it alter your opinion?"
"No. It's just one movie and one scene and I would have had a life time to have formed my opinions. So I'd say no." I answered firmly.
"Good." he said, endorsing my answer. "But what if you hadn't quite made up your mind on the issue before seeing the movie? And what if most of the entertainment industry was in favor of this particular agenda? And what if this viewpoint kept showing up in numerous movies and TV shows and newspaper opinions and talk shows. How would all of this normalization of this political issue affect the person on the bubble of deciding?"
"I guess they'd view it as the normal choice to make." I realized.
"And it can also be done using the opposite technique." he continued. "If TV and the movies decided that something was bad, they could have their stories and characters, etc. demonize the issue until people started examining or questioning it. Then the news media could explore the issue as a legitimate news story." he paused. "Don't you see, they can create a political shit-storm out of nothing. Just by telling the lie often enough, no matter how outrageous it is."
I had never realized most of this, before. My friend opened my eyes that day. I was naively going to see movies for their entertainment value, never once considering possible political agendas behind them.
My friend never went to see that movie. I did. He was right about the movie. And it ruined it for me.
Since that day I've been more politically aware. I ask myself why characters take the stands they do and question motives in story lines as well motives behind the cameras. It has clarified my thinking, refined my viewpoints, and given me a greater appreciation for how life works. All of this has helped me as a writer.
It has also ruined a lot of TV and movies for me, as well.
1 comment:
To ruin things further for your viewing pleasures, maybe you have not noticed over the past few years that events such as the news is now "interpreted" and no longer factually reported. Only a small amount of fact is included to show a relevance or similarity to the actual story so that the public is duped into believing that this is the whole truth of what ever happened. Have you ever seen or been involved in anything that made the news and then wondered how the story either got so twisted or did you miss out on most of it? Some of the problem can be blamed on insufficent time to acurately research the information portrayed and some can be laid to incompetence but a large part can be due to the political slant of the media that is issueing the report. Even the "truth" can have many views. Pick up a pencil and look at it from the point and then from the side and then from the eraser. While it in truth was the same pencil, how it appeared depended on how it was viewed. Different perspectives can cause radically different ideas of what the original object appeared to be.
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