A recent trend in movies is the attempt to more probingly portray upper class people and their problems, without resenting them for being rich (i.e. "American Beauty," "Thumbsucker, "Igby Goes Down.") The problem is, a) these movies aren't very good and b) they are only focused on one subculture within the upper class, specifically the Poor Little Rich Teenager from Suburbia. What's lacking in Hollywood isn't empa/sympathetic portraits of the rich for rich audience members to identify with; it's a story that refrains from soap opera "I'm so rich and so miserable" cliches for its adult characters. Only the adolescents get special attention. There needs to be an upper-crust adult character plagued by less obvious ills, whose problems reflect the real problems of boundless wealth, beyond that it can be lonely.
"It is as if Americans are afraid that they will be contaminated by a whiff of death if they dare to take a peek at life on the far side of the entropic deadline."
Is this "far side" the corrupt upper class of society? There seems to be an implication here, and later in your "Godfather" analogy, that most "ragged underdogs" inevitably become mired in corruption, and you'd like a more penetrating look at their downfall rather than their heroic start. Am I getting this right? If so, I wholeheartedly concur, though I obviously don't think most Davids essentially become Goliaths. Some scraggy heroes are just heroes.
A recent trend in movies is the attempt to more probingly portray upper class people and their problems, without resenting them for being rich (i.e. "American Beauty," "Thumbsucker, "Igby Goes Down.") The problem is, a) these movies aren't very good and b) they are only focused on one subculture within the upper class, specifically the Poor Little Rich Teenager from Suburbia. What's lacking in Hollywood isn't empa/sympathetic portraits of the rich for rich audience members to identify with; it's a story that refrains from soap opera "I'm so rich and so miserable" cliches for its adult characters. Only the adolescents get special attention. There needs to be an upper-crust adult character plagued by less obvious ills, whose problems reflect the real problems of boundless wealth, beyond that it can be lonely.
"It is as if Americans are afraid that they will be contaminated by a whiff of death if they dare to take a peek at life on the far side of the entropic deadline."
Is this "far side" the corrupt upper class of society? There seems to be an implication here, and later in your "Godfather" analogy, that most "ragged underdogs" inevitably become mired in corruption, and you'd like a more penetrating look at their downfall rather than their heroic start. Am I getting this right? If so, I wholeheartedly concur, though I obviously don't think most Davids essentially become Goliaths. Some scraggy heroes are just heroes.
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