robert@hpfcnml.UUCP (robert) (08/13/84)
I think the age of the formula film is here. It seems that the point of a movie is to get P% of the target audience to go see the movie by studying the audience first then writing up a movie for it. I guess Disney has been doing that for a long time. If I choose the people that follow that good old all american red neck philosophy as my target audience what will we want in the film? Let's look in at the film company board room meeting. "Let's have some ideas boys." "Right J.R." "I think we could play off of the distrust for foreigners." "We need some hunting sences." "What does a red neck hate most? We'll need an enemy, boys." "I got it J.R.! Commies." "Sounds good. Any more ideas?" "How 'bout this J.R., we'll go hunting commies in the woods." "Yeah, and we could have comments against gun control." "Right, and we could tell stories about how them commie dogs treat out women and children!" "And J.R. we can have them mexicans that have been coming over the border be spies!" "We can have lots of good fighting and killing." "This sounds like it will make a great movie. We can play off of xenophobia and machoism. I'm sure that flag waving will fit right in! Get some scriptwriters on it right away. Okay boys, what is the next target market on the agenda?" This movie was so thick with cliches I spent more time watching for the next one than following the empty plot. This movie came off as a shot'm up in the old western since. Our guys kill the bad guys with out loss of life until it gets dull and then we lose people with a few clean bullet holes. But no loss, our guys characters weren't very well developed anyway. Summary: red neck shoot'm up. I give this one, one bunny. Robert (animal) Heckendorn hplabs!hpfcla!robert
bin@ism780.UUCP (08/29/84)
#R:hpfcnml:-1160000300:ism780:18000018:000:3952 ism780!bin Aug 28 13:57:00 1984 ***** ism780:net.movies / hpfcnml!robert / 4:40 pm Aug 13, 1984 >I think the age of the formula film is here. It seems that the point of >a movie is to get P% of the target audience to go see the movie by >studying the audience first then writing up a movie for it. I guess >Disney has been doing that for a long time. If I choose the people that >follow that good old all american red neck philosophy as my target >audience what will we want in the film? Let's look in at the film company >board room meeting. You are correct about the importance of demographics in determining what kinds of films get made. This is unfortunate because it means that a great many good stories simply do not get told. But consider the invester's point of view. A film like "Red Dawn" costs $10 - $15 million to produce and market. If you had $10 million, how would you decide what kind of film to invest in? Would you ignore the demographics that say "Red Dawn" will sell, and instead invest $10 million in a story that people might not want to see? Keep in mind that film making is a very risky business. Most films do not make a profit. So be honest; where are you going to put your money? >"Let's have some ideas boys." >"Right J.R." >"I think we could play off of the distrust for foreigners." >"We need some hunting sences." >"What does a red neck hate most? We'll need an enemy, boys." >"I got it J.R.! Commies." >"Sounds good. Any more ideas?" >"How 'bout this J.R., we'll go hunting commies in the woods." >"Yeah, and we could have comments against gun control." >"Right, and we could tell stories about how them commie dogs >treat out women and children!" >"And J.R. we can have them mexicans that have been coming over >the border be spies!" >"We can have lots of good fighting and killing." >"This sounds like it will make a great movie. We can play off >of xenophobia and machoism. I'm sure that flag waving will >fit right in! Get some scriptwriters on it right away. >Okay boys, what is the next target market on the agenda?" This is a pretty pessimistic view of things. I agree that in today's world patriotism and nationalism are more of a hindrance than a help to world peace, but, alas, judging from the reactions of the people in the theatre when I saw the film, you and I are in the minority. But, in spite of its preying on what you and I see as being negative ideas, I enjoyed the film a great deal. I am not a redneck, nor am I a commie. I am against war, as is everyone with any sense, and yet there are conditions under which I would fight in one. Whether this movie presented such a situation is problematic. As I watched it I was aware of a conscious attempt to balance both right and left wing views. I was aware of the attempt. And that was enough. Whether or not the attempt failed is irrelevant. If you are going to experience this film from a political point of view, then the responsibility of seeing the other side is yours. Obviously you have chosen to ignore it. This is understandable. I, too, prefer to immerse myself in the story when I go to the movies, and not have to worry about the importance of it. But I am not so naive to think that I can see a movie about World War III, an event which might actually happen, without being forced to examine my beliefs and the reality of the world around me. >This movie was so thick with cliches I spent more time watching for >the next one than following the empty plot. This movie came off >as a shot'm up in the old western since. Our guys kill the bad guys >with out loss of life until it gets dull and then we lose people with >a few clean bullet holes. But no loss, our guys characters weren't >very well developed anyway. There is a lot more to this story than that. I suggest for you a course in screenwriting. "Red Dawn" certainly isn't the best movie ever made, but it's far from the worst. martin smith, INTERACTIVE Systems
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (09/01/84)
I can see why, if you're going to spend $10 million or $30 million on a film, you want something that is likely to attract a large audience. But why aren't there more $1 million films made? You can still do a lot on a low budget (if you don't need lots of expensive special effects, or expensive stars).