Page 21 - MyFaith Mag April - May web 2016

CHANGE REVOLUTION

Have the Movies
Lost Their Cultural

Impact? BY PHIL COOKE

CL myfaithmag.com I just finished watching the Oscars alone, sitting in the concierge lounge at a hotel. Not that I don’t watch lots of things
from a hotel (because I travel so much), but for some reason, this year made me realize how little I cared. But it
wasn’t always that way.

Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” was mesmerizing back in college. An atheist who honestly
portrayed his struggle with faith captivated me. Then, it was David Lean’s epic “Lawrence of Arabia”
that really made me understand what a camera was capable of capturing.

In those days, films had a remarkable impact on culture. I’ll never forget the horse’s head in the
bed from “The Godfather.” I suggested my parents see “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid”
until I remembered Katherine Ross undressing. When they came home, I thought my mom
would kill me.

Remember The Graduate, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or The Deer Hunter? And
during that period, filmmakers like John Cassavetes were literally inventing the inde-
pendent film movement.

Back then movies really mattered. They dictated cultural norms, helped give a gener-
ation a voice, and were the dictionary definition of “influence.”
But now? We live in a far more disjointed, distracted culture. Water cooler conversa-
tion is far more likely to focus on TV shows like “Breaking Bad” or the latest mobile
app. Young people follow other gamers on Twitch more than they follow talented

film directors.

In the past, a significant part of the enjoyment of a movie was in the communal
nature of the screening. All those people sitting in the dark watching the screen
was something akin to a religious experience. But today? We have a generation
who doesn’t even know how to behave in a theatre. I’ve lost count of the number
of people I’ve asked to turn off their phone or stop talking. It’s easier – and far less
stressful – to just watch on an HD screen in my bedroom. And how much cultural
impact can you really have when the mainstream movie industry admits the
target audience has become 14 year old boys?

And apparently I’m not the only one who’s lost interest. I haven’t seen the ratings
from last night yet, but last year’s drop in Oscar viewers (a new low of 37.3
million viewers in 2015) was obviously an indicator that something has changed.
And the uproar over diversity in this year’s films was telling as well. After all the
grandstanding from a handful of stars, it only generated contempt from Chris
Rock during the actual show: “Other years, black people didn’t protest the Oscars
because they were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won Best
Cinematographer. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard
to care about Best Documentary Foreign-Short.”

The bottom line is that for all the promotion, publicity, and celebrities on the Red
Carpet, the film industry simply isn’t influencing the culture as it did.
But the question becomes, “What is influencing culture today?”

APRIL / MAY 2016 | 21