Contemporary Film

[Pluto]

What does it mean when the supplier of mainstream film (USA) in this day and age churn out film after film where the end of the world is the subject? What does this mean? How does film interact with the present? Is film communicating where we are or is it manufacturing where we are?

Has mass communication become politically motivated or as it always been so?

[The Voice of Time]

What does it mean when the supplier of mainstream film (USA) in this day and age churn out film after film where the end of the world is the subject?

I think it has to do with it being a rather recent subject. To be honest there aren't that many movies with the end of the world as a theme, but it is definitely a 2000s phenomena. I think it is driven by great success in the first real big end-of-civilizations/nations/people movies, and that epic genres have gained momentum driven by big budget trends and advances in technology. So what we see now is them exploiting this more recent theme in art history as a modestly fresh concept that there still are a lot of people who haven't experienced too much of it.

Hollywood is all about self-similarity. Finding something that works and try and duplicate the success with still recognizable differences and small adjustments to the theme. It's the same with litterature and music. Soon everybody is tired of the world ending, and they'll be wanting something more cheer-up. Then suddenly a new theme will recur and echo throughout the streams of movies, books and music. Maybe with all these dystopian movies we'll soon see a resurgence of utopian movies? In the game genres there are several games, particularly sandbox and strategy games, that lets you build a better world. But few games has it as a theme to just make things perfect, usually the primary goal is like in movies to survive some great problem.

Would be very interesting however if you could somehow duplicate that game feel of progress and development and success resulting in little to no problems, into an actually interesting movie or tv-series ^^ I think the main difficulty is that people can easier recognize a problem, and get excited by a problem, than a success. Success, for instance in superhero movies and tv-series, is usually a form of relief from a problem instead of the actual theme, so even there where the superheroes are immensely powerful the focus is not on their success but on their struggles.

I guess though, if you added exploration into the movie/series, you could make it somehow interesting. But it would have to be perhaps scientific exploration and not some kind of exploration we're actually familiar with.

It would be amazing if there was made a big budget movie about some fictional scientific achievements that like made the world a perfect place. The plot could be somebody coming from a bad life and finding time after time peace with their problems in the new world... I would definitely watch that, as a counter-act to all the disasters I've been watching the last few years.

[Pluto]

Thanks, I see what you mean. There does seem to be a lot of disaster movies around, not necassarily end of the world, more like the end of humans. And this type of movie could've began proper around the 2000's. A relation between film content and current political and cultural events must exist. Movies have the power to re-write history as well as write a not yet happened future. Not forgetting that they have the power to indicate what kind of Present we inhabit. Mass communication because of its power to import thoughts and feelings, ways of being, etc, has to be politically motivated, the mass communication in the end will always, (at least today) re-enforce the ongoing paradigm.

In the 50's I believe there were a lot of movies coming out of the US about UFO's, this I believe came about for lots of reasons, especially I think, again, in relation to, the cultural and political zeitgeist of that time. They help create our reality, which in turn, forces us to make a choice, in where we stand in relation to this reality. I'm interested in the idea of how mass communication, and film in particular, can construct a fabricated reality, (the fish knows not that it is in water). I'm also thinking here of Baudrillard's position on the death of reality and its upsurption by electronic media/mass media, etc.

[The Voice of Time]

Aye. It may be that that is the case, but I have mixed feelings about thinking this for this particular case. First and foremost because a lot of the momentum had already been gathered before the financial crisis, when the world was thriving and nobody were very worried about the future of their home, their country and so forth.

It may be that the financial crisis increased people's appetite for disaster, like the depressed person who watches depressing movies just to get their inner selves reflected and solidified in self-belief. But I doubt the movie-makers really think like that. They probably just watched their sales figures and went like "Oh yeah, we want some more of that!".

One such particular movie I'm thinking of is "I, Robot", which made almost three times its budget in income, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy which made 10 times its budget, gaining the insane income of almost 3 billion dollars! It has probably peaked 3 billion by now.

Numbers like those are very tasty for movie makers, and the genre fits better for large scale projects, so easier to invest if you have money, and the good actors get attracted to those movies because of the big budgets.

[Pluto]

Yes, that is a lot of money for a film to make. I imagine those trilogies (i haven't seen them) are very popular as they are a great escape from reality, and create in themselves alternative worlds, though, saying that, I think it possible to see contemporary ideas, concerns, troubles, in these films. I remember seeing one of the latest harry potter films, the towers, i think it was called, and seeing the poster, along with the title most would think of the twin towers. But where you seem to see film as whatever makes money, I see or perhaps want to see it, as an ideological vehicle designed for people to download, if you will. Of course money is a major factor, but there has to be others, when we understand the amount of people who see these things. The potential for film could be immense if it could step out of its capitalist jacket, if you will.

[The Voice of Time]

lol, a poster of towers for harry potter ^^ While there are towers in harry potter, they play a very little role. Likely what you saw was Lord of the Rings 2, which is called "Two Towers", and was released like 10 years ago. The latest harry potter movies are called "The Deathly Hallows" part 1 and 2, and "The Half-Blood Prince", and "The Order of the Phoenix", and all those are years old by now.

You really have some movies to catch up with xD

The Lord of the Rings are about the end of middle-earth in terms of it being conquered by an evil demi-god called Sauron. Though the word "demi-god" isn't used, that's basically what Sauron is. The movies are renowned for the great breadth of culture and vast expanses of land that gives the viewer a sense of a huge world with many difference things in it, especially mystical things, for which the viewer is given a peek into. From hidden valleys, to magical artifacts, to secrets. "I, Robot" is about the world being taken over by robots who are malfunctioning.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I must say the twin towers never entered my head when The Two Towers came out. The whole world isn't necessarily obsessed with American events.

[Pluto]

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/ ... he-masses/

[Pluto]

http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/14794