leeper@ahutb.UUCP (leeper) (03/25/85)
The following is an editorial I wrote a few months back. I
came up again recently and it occurred to me that it might
be of some interest to people who read this category:
I saw the film JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG this recently and
enjoyed it a great deal. The question that comes to mind is
why are they making so few films of this quality these days.
I love fantasy films and this is some sort of Golden Age for
fantasy films, but movie-going is getting to be like living
on a diet of ice cream and cake.
One of the problems is the audiences. If there isn't
something enthralling happening on the screen every minute,
the yobs and yahoos get restless. They start talking back
to the screen and talking to each other (that makes sense
because they usually have about the same intelligence as the
screen). This is my bid for a new rating system. We don't
need a PG-13 rating; we need an R-28. R-28 films wouldn't
have more sex or violence than regular R-rated films. They
might not have any sex or violence at all. What they would
have is some thought content that the producers don't want
ruined by the howling mobs. With the current rating system
there are enough people who measure films on the same stupid
and superficial criteria that the ratings people look at
(and really what ratings people look at is what a parent
might not want a younger child to see) that a film like
INHERIT THE WIND (where Spencer Tracy and Fredric March
dramatize the Scopes "Monkey" Trial) could not be made today
because it has neither sex nor violence. It would at worst
get a PG and more likely a G. G films die at the boxoffice.
The majority of the viewing public works on the very sound
principle that if the film has nothing in it that a parent
would not want a young child to see, then it cannot be worth
seeing by anyone but a child. So films with serious points
to make, films like WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? and FIRST
MONDAY IN OCTOBER are forced to bend over backwards to put
otherwise unnecessary nudity in or risk death at the
boxoffice. NEVER CRY WOLF, one of the best three films of
1983, didn't cave in and it had a relatively short run. If
the main character had been studying wolves mating habits
rather than their eating habits, it might have stood a
chance. Maybe R-28 isn't the answer, but it is a start.
Put R-28 films in special theaters that don't show other
films. That way attendees to R-28 films wouldn't have to
have their feet stick to the floors to see the films. If
you have these special theaters in which people could watch
serious films in relative comfort, and hear the dialog, you
might get a very different cut of the population going to
movies in theaters. Exhibitors might rebel, mostly because
people over 28 buy less food at the movie. (The impression
- 2 -
I have is that most of the money a theater makes is at the
candy counter. An exhibitor basically sets up a building
where the studios can show their films, takes a surprisingly
small cut of the studio's profit from this, and then hawks
candy to the people that the movie attracts.) Still, films
like INHERIT THE WIND cost less to make than JAWS III, so
the studio could give the exhibitors a break. And the
exhibitor would be catching people who otherwise would only
watch a film on a VCR.
With an R-28 rating fewer of us would be looking at our
cinematic diet of ice cream and cake and asking "Where's the
beef?"
Mark Leeper
...ihnp4!ahutb!leepercarlton@masscomp.UUCP (Carlton Hommel) (03/26/85)
I have found college film boards generally try to schedule the kind of films you describe. While they may run 1 or 2 six month old blockbusters, they generally concentrate on B&W classics or 'artsy' movies. Further, unless it is the yearly porno flick or Rocky Horror, the moviegoers will yell "Shut up" more readily. And, if the hall allows, the concession food is much better. Of course, colleges generally wish that you be connected in some way with their establishments before accepting your $1 or $2. But a confident air and a "undergrad," "grad," or "professor" look will generally get you by. Carl Hommel Wife: What's the LSC showing at MIT tonight? Husband: A double feature - Africa Queen, followed by Ghandi.