Which brings me to Hollywood and what is being released as 'entertainment' in recent movies. I simply will take the top 4 box office sellers to illustrate my concern.
Number 1. Kung Fu Panda---this is, no joke, a story about Po the Panda who is a lazy waiter in a noodle shop. I do not know about you but, I have never imagined being saved by a overweight, self delusional Chinese bear with marial arts skills. Is this a cultural statement that is meant to inspire lazy, physically disabled noodle shop waiters to believe in themselves and go out and save the world?
Number 2. Get Smart-- Speaking of cultural creativity, this is a movie that is essentially a remake of a television series from 1965! Seriously, 1965 over 42 years ago. At that time the television series was described as "the most enduring 30 minutes of stupidity in history". They could not have even guessed at how enduring! This is a story about an incompetent government agent who is fighting world terror with gadgets and his girlfriend. Are we to interpret the cultural message as "terrorist are so stupid, you can vanquish them with a shoe phone, so live it up and have fun with your girl?"
Number 3. Incredible Hulk-- This creative attempt is a copy of a 1978 (only 30 years ago) TV show about a scientist who randomly turns into a giant green superhero with a bad temper. In this offering he is forced to fight "The Abomination" in order to save New York City. Then he has to decide whether to retire as a superhero. The only good thing about the Incredible Hulk in the first place was that it made a good Halloween costume, so kids could quit dressing like clowns when they go beg for candy. The best review of this movie said "Should please comic book fans"?
The cultural message here seems to be it is okay to go postal, as long as you turn green and kill some bad superhero along with all the innocent bystanders.
Number 4. Sex and the City--this may be the only one that makes any sense in understanding America. This is a movie, again copied from a TV series, about 4 women and their sexual issues and getting along with men. Who wouldn't enjoy 2 and 1/2 hours of women stressing out over dating, marrying, cohabiting, fighting, using foul language, and showing body parts to their friends and partners. The strong cultural message here is that men and women should be separated. There is just not much chance they are going to get along with each other. And yes, women are hard to please.
My net cultural message from this set of movies is ... don't try to be creative and think of something new or you will end up turning green, or stupid and clumsy and have to kill some bad guy and even then you are probably not going to make your girlfriend happy. Trying to create something of value and lasting impact will just end up with you making up some story about a Chinese animal in a noodle shop.
Now, I hope you understand why it is so important to listen to people from Hollywood when it comes to making political choices and voting. Maybe next time, I can take a look at some of the individuals from Hollywood who are making a difference in the world.
