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Globalization of Inanity
The Chinese only allow about 10 American movies a year to be shown in their theaters. They avoid anything that might be slightly controversial, so it is easy to see why they embraced the new Transformers movie.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" has broken China's box office record with receipts of 400 million yuan ($58.5 million), sinking the $52.7 million record held by "Titanic" since 1998.
I watched about 15 minutes of Transformers before seeing Public Enemies the other day. In my 55 years of going to movie theaters, I can say without qualification that Transformers is the single stupidest piece of entertainment I have ever witnessed. When Marshall McLuhan wrote about the "Global Village" years ago, I'm not sure he could have imagined that the spread of globalization would simply mean a sort of universal dumbing down of the world's people. The New Yorker's film critic, David Denby, reviewing Transformers called the director, "the stunningly, almost viciously untalented Michael Bay." That about sums it up for me.
I'm well aware that the American studio movie business is now almost exclusively aimed at 14 year old boys. Anything made for an adult will have to be made on a very small budget, so the days of The Godfather or Lawrence of Arabia--a movie with scale that was both artistic and successful--are long gone. That quite frankly is disheartening, but at least I figured that other countries (including China) might take up the mantle of artistic cinema leadership.
Now I'm not so sure.
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Maybe they will. What better way to rouse China's nascent artists than by exporting giant talking trucks and fighter planes for them to overcome?
July 21, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rec for the David Denby quote.
July 21, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Chinese are way ahead of us on this in a twisted sort of way. Their wisdom rests in their learned ability to hide their inanity from the rest of the world. We, OTOH, flaunt it and celebrate the idea that we have made it into a saleable commodity. They are learning though. Many Chinese are simultaneously amazed and delighted that Americans buy all the crap they make for us.
July 21, 2009 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Couldn't this mean merely that China is brimming with 14-year-old male moviegoers?
July 21, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, Mr Taplin, what was the name of the last Chinese movie you watched, and when was that?
July 21, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What?
You expected "Casablanca"?
July 21, 2009 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
China's official preference in Western entertainment is whatever is devoid of values that would spread dissatisfaction among its citizenry with their illiberal model of society and undermine the party-controlled state. So whether it's a violently inane film for 14-year-olds or more adult dramas that portray the cynicism and decadence of urban life as in "Chicago", their choices are stylically and aesthetically awful. But it's Hollywood's output, so we need to take some responsibility.
July 22, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
it's a movie called "the transformers"
it features giant robots from outer space.
giant robots that turn into GM vehicles.
giant robots that are based on a toy invented in Japan in the 1980's.
What did you expect?
WallE?
July 22, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink