Should Faith Audiences Like the New “Noah” Movie?

Posted on February 19, 2014 at 3:59 pm

Russell Crowe plays Noah in a new movie from director Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler,” “Requiem for a Dream”) and co-starring “Harry Potter’s” Emma Watson and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly.

Variety reports that a group called “Faith Driven Consumers” conducted a poll finding that 98 percent of their tiny, self-selected group were not “satisfied” with the movie. However, none of those polled (or those conducting the polling) had actually seen the movie, which is still in post-production. Furthermore, the members of the Faith Driven Consumer group may not be representative of the faith community or even those who do not so identify but will be interested in the movie because it is a big, effects-driven historical epic with an exciting story and two Oscar-winning stars. Most important, the poll is severely flawed because of the way the question was posed: “As a Faith Driven Consumer, are you satisfied with a Biblically themed movie – designed to appeal to you – which replaces the Bible’s core message with one created by Hollywood?” Even assuming that they are correct about the Bible’s core message, since they have not seen the movie it is close to bearing false witness for them to frame the question this way. And it is highly disrespectful for the commenters on this bogus story to ignore the fact that it is not just Christians, much less some subset of Christians, who have an interest in the story of Noah, who is an important figure in Jewish and Muslim texts as well.

It is likely that the movie will be very respectful of the faith-based audience and present the story of the man who followed God’s direction in a way that will be meaningful to believers and inspiring for those who are open to it. But I will not judge it until I see it, and I will report back then.

Evolution of the Dolly Zoom — the “Spielberg Shot”

Posted on January 25, 2014 at 3:33 pm

Most associated with Steven Spielberg, the “dolly zoom” shot is the vertiginous technique that has the camera moving backward as the lens zooms in. Here’s a terrific compilation — hold on tight!

Tarantino’s Producer Says It’s Time to Cut Back on Movie Violence

Posted on January 23, 2014 at 8:00 am

Producer Harvey Weinstein, producer of some of Quentin Tarantino’s ultra-violent films like “Django Unchained,” told Piers Morgan he is not going to make movies like that anymore.

“You have to look in the mirror, too. I have to choose movies that aren’t violent or as violent as they used to be. I know for me personally, you know, I can’t continue to do that. The change starts here. It has already. For me, I can’t do it. I can’t make one movie and say this is what I want for my kids and then just go out and be a hypocrite.” He added that he would make a movie like Lone Survivor, “a tribute to the United States special forces,” but “I’m not going to make some crazy action movie just to blow up people and exploit people just for the sake of making it.”

In addition, he is producing an anti-NRA film called “The Senator’s Wife,” starring Meryl Streep. He is also getting ready to film a project he has wanted to do for many years, “Mila 18,” based on the Leon Uris book about the Warsaw uprising, the Jews who took up arms against the Nazis.

I do not think there will be any fewer “crazy action movies” or any less violence on screen. But it is good to hear someone in Hollywood think seriously about the value of the films they produce.

Related Tags:

Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Can A Movie Change Your Mind About Politics?

Posted on January 19, 2014 at 8:00 am

A provocative new study measured the effects of movies on the viewers’ thoughts about political/public policy issues like the environment, abortion, and health care, even the viewers’ overall faith in the political system. Mother Jones explains some of the findings about the influence of particular movies. This makes sense — after all, there is a multi-billion dollar industry devoted to the belief that an ad of thirty seconds or less can persuade us to think we need their products. And media like “Will and Grace,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and “Brokeback Mountain” did not just reflect a broader comfort level with openly gay characters in real life as well as on screen; they actually increased it. It is interesting that it does not have to be an especially good movie to have an impact. But part of any form of art, especially a narrative like a novel or a movie or a play, is enlarging our perspective by giving us a different point of view or experience. I would be more surprised by a study showing that movies did not change the audience’s mind very frequently.

Related Tags:

Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Harry Belafonte on Movies and Race

Posted on January 11, 2014 at 6:36 pm

There has been a lot of conversation about whether enfant terrible critic Armond White heckled director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) at the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony. What was far more significant were the thoughtful comments from singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte, who spoke about the portrayal of African American culture and experience on screen.

A lot’s gone on with Hollywood. A lot could be said about it. But at this moment, I think what is redeeming, what is transformative, is the fact that a genius, an artist, is of African descent, although he’s not from America, he is of America, and he is of that America which is part of his own heritage; made a film called 12 Years a Slave, which is stunning in the most emperial way. So it’s a stage that enters a charge made by The Birth of a Nation, that we were not a people, we were evil, rapists, abusers, absent of intelligence, absent of soul, heart, inside. In this film,12 Years a Slave, Steve steps in and shows us, in an overt way, that the depth and power of cinema is there for now the world to see us in another way. I was five when I saw Tarzan of the Apes, and the one thing I never wanted to be, after seeing that film, was an African. I didn’t want to be associated with anybody that could have been depicted as so useless and meaningless. And yet, life in New York led me to other horizons, other experiences. And now I can say, in my 87th year of life, that I am joyed, I am overjoyed, that I should have lived long enough to see Steve McQueen step into this space and for the first time in the history of cinema, give us a work, a film, that touches the depths of who we are as a people, touches the depths of what America is as a country, and gives us a sense of understanding more deeply what our past has been, how glorious our future will be, and could be.