(no subject)

[rm]

On the 28 Days Later website, is an area called testimonials, that has both critic and fan reviews. The fan reviews are unedited or filtered by the maintainers of the site, and they are a stunning example of why anyone who wants to do anything remotely creative has to be absolutely out of their fucking mind.

No, my issue isn't that some people loathed this film (some people will -- it's grotesque, long, the first third is almost entirely silent, the plot definitely has three very different acts, it's not a typical horror film, and digital video, while serving the story well isn't what we're used to on the big screen, etc). My issue is that nearly everyone who posted, regardless of whether they were in favour of the film or not, couldn't construct a sentence in the English language if their life depended on it. My issue is that, at least fifty percent of the commetary said things like (and these my friends, are actual quotes):
"it was like watching Giligan's Island, a far more messed up situation", "I don't know how, but this english artsy fartsy fucked up a zombie movie... this just goes to show that independent film and the english eat shit" "the film was very european and unscary" and finally "this is a gay resident evil rip off." Also to the dude who said Shakespear [sic] couldn't write such irony, IT'S NOT FUCKING IRONIC.

Anyway, the whole thing made me depressed. You make art for, among other things, the audience, but if the audience has the IQ of a toadstool and will hate you forever if you don't provide them with exactly what they expect, you are damned damned damned.

Our culture is astoundingly fucking lazy about everything. And hateful. That's what really amazed me, how much of the things on the site were about slagging people and things that had nothing to do with the film, or saying things like "I wish I had me a woman like the one in the movie."

*shudder*

Comments

I wish I had me a woman..?

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

Eeep. Maybe they wandered in the wrong door of the multiplex and thought they were watching James Bond?

I probably won't get a chance to see the film, but I fear that your cultural observations are spot-on. Sigh.

terrifying, isn't it.

[spiralflames.livejournal.com]

these are the things that truly terrify me as a teacher- what's happened to "average" in our society. i spent a good deal of time online, and am accosted by messages-- from adults-- that read "wazzzzup, how r u 2day" i usually reply "more than happy to respond to someone who has the time to type a three- letter word'...sigh.

[mcsquare.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Intelligent criticism is one thing, but mindless, spewing hate is quite another. Of course, those people pretty much rebut themselves by that kind of behavior.

Our culture is astoundingly fucking lazy about everything. And hateful.

Do you think it is just our culture that's this way? Or do you think every country has some version of this kind of thing?

[delchi.livejournal.com]

IMHO when you create anything, there will be people who call it crap. Either out of rote or because they have ( in their minds ) legitimate reasons. To me coming to terms with that is part of the creative process. That being said, anything film wise that is not playing in the ultramegaplex is lost on Americans as a whole. You are really fortunate to be in a city where it gets taken seriously. As for someone outside of that city, if you say 'indie film ' or ' art film ' most people respond instantly with a quip about gay cowboys eating pudding ala South Park.

As far as a resident evil rip off, the tool in question probably is not aware of the films that resident evil ' ripped off ' in the process. Recall the old movies such as ' the quiet earth ' and such where SOMETHING happens and only one person is left on the planet, who finds two more ( a man and a woman ) and the rest is history. There are at lest 3 films and one Twilight Zone episode based on this. Each version brings a new flavor to it. My personal favorite is in " The Quiet Earth " when the lead chr runs into a church wearing nothing but a white slip and carrying a shotgun. He skids to a stop in front of a hanging crucifix, places the shotgun under the chin of J.C. and screams " ALLRIGHT, SHOW YOURSELF OR THE KID GETS IT!! ". All in all , simply becaseu something is similar is not an instant reason to discredit it. Hell, sometimes it's better.

If all else fails, watch Dark City, Equilibrium , and The Matrix back to back. Am I the only one who saw THX-1138 in Equilibrium?

This is yet again another reason that I cite that you are a necessary element in the lives of the people, to remind and educate us about such things, and to weed out the people capable of appreciating film from the pudding eaters.


Aside Question : have you seen " Last Night " ? The final scene in that messed me up quite a bit.

Anti-Intellectualism

[keith418.livejournal.com]

Is pretty much the standard in America. Although it's bad everywhere, it's worse in certain areas. This is why it would be hard for me to live to far away from a big university or college - despite all the silliness in that culture.

I wonder, though, as the media becomes more and more intrusive and people get swept up like lemmings into the "society of the spectacle" if we aren't all contributing to this problem...? It seems to me that when you see average, college educated people reading nothing but poop - if they read at all - we sow the seeds for this down the line. Do people read books that challenge them and make them struggle? Or do they read fantasy and sc-fi that enable them to drift and dream like little kids going off to sleep? A culture that is fed on a diet of nothing but escapism breeds this sort of problem.