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Can a movie mirror our
times? Did Casablanca give us a sense of World War II? Does Easy Rider
symbolize The Sixties? Is Dr. Strangelove the Cold War? Arguably movies were
the art form of the 20th Century. Now of course, this is the 21st
Century, and maybe movies are still a mirror of our times, but less an art
form.
Do you shop regularly at
Wal-Mart, Home Depot? Have you noticed that we are more an employee and less
the customer of these stores? The parking lot is so large, and so full of
cars, just getting in the store is a Life & Death experience. Once in
the store, find a cart that rolls freely and doesn’t need an oil job. In these
huge stores, finding what you need is next to impossible. Going up one aisle,
and down another, and back again, I feel like a pinball wishing for a tilt.
There are good reasons, One, they only stock the best sellers. Two, they have
no personal to help find the stuff. Third, they move 20% of their stock every
six months. Forth, there are never enough checkout lines to accommodate the
purchasers.
Remember, longer they keep
you in the store, the more you will buy.
WE
are NOT customers; WE are purchasers, just another cog in their
business plan. Any money you save shopping at these stores is offset by the
time and energy you waste navigating their system. WE are part of their
plan; WE are saving Wal-Mart and Home Depot money, not the other
way around. Wal-Mart and Home Depot are not the only companies with the same
business plan. We are conditioned to get less for more. Air Travel, Food, Gas,
Cars, Fashion, Entertainment, Music, Las Vegas, and yes, Movies too.
 This
brings me to the new movie “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal”. How
could three of the biggest, brightest, richest men in Hollywood, put out such a
piece of crap? I’m speaking of Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George
Lucas. This Indiana Jones movie was like the old Roger Corman & Ed Wood movies
on a big budget and in color. As a teenager I liked Roger Corman & Ed Wood
movies, but in a drive-in from the backseat.
Harrison Ford said it took
so long for an Indiana Jones sequel because they had to agree on a good script.
Shows you what a good actor he is, he said it with a straight face. I think it
was for the money; they all have sub-prime loans, and needed to make a big house
payment before foreclosure. Could this movie mirror our times? Absolutely.
WE are no longer an audience; WE are worldwide purchasers of tickets,
in a business plan to SELL this movie in fifty languages, on DVD’s
downloads, and everything else you can imagine.
To have worldwide appeal:
It starts out with 20 or so Army guards being murdered. But you don’t see the
bullets hitting the soldiers; instead, later in the movie you see gigantic ants
eating people alive. There are no people smoking killer cigarettes, instead, you
see a woman getting her eyes burnt out, in big flames. It turns out Indiana
Jones has an out of wedlock, pain in the ass son, from a woman in the first
Indiana Jones movie. For worldwide appeal, Indiana Jones can’t have a Bastard
son, so they close the movie with a wedding; and Indiana Jones finds redemption,
and his son has a father, and maybe another sequel. But there is NO
redemption for this movie, and please no more sequels.
P. S.
As of today, just
one week after it’s opening, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal” has
earned over $311 million dollars worldwide. SO WHAT THE HELL DO I KNOW, go see
the movie for yourself; Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas need
more money.
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