Bad taste.
I have a bad taste in my mouth.
Here's the story. I rent movies now and then to watch at home. Last week I picked up a few DVDs at the video store and just got around to watching one of them last night. It was called "One Night With The King", which purported to be a semi-historical tale about a Hebrew girl who married King Xerxes of Persia and hid her Jewish identity. I have a liking for "costume" films - historical fictions and recreations, fantasy epics, and the like. I'm also interested in religion and religious culture, so I guess this movie caught my interest on both of those counts.
Well, it wasn't a very good movie, as it turns out. We got suspicious right at the outset; you know those promo montages the distribution company sometimes puts on before the movie, showcasing a bunch of films? This one was promoting "Fox Faith" movies. Weird. But, whatever, on with the show.
The show rapidly unfolded into a travesty of cheeseball mediocrity, poorly scripted dialogue, and trite sentimentality. At first I thought it was just a crappy movie. But then I saw the pattern. Every Jewish character was kind, good, wholesome and strong. The Persian characters were either violent madmen, unctuous lying schemers, or at best weak and conflicted. King Xerxes got the best treatment, I guess, since he was portrayed as wanting to be honorable, but was weak, emo, and the victim of bad counsel. Enter The Bad Guy, an extremist bigot Persian with a vendetta agaisnt all Jews, who rides around trying to stir up hatred and violence, complete with black costuming and ominous music every time he's on screen.... and a big swastika insignia. With snakes twined into it. Like it's frickin' Harry Potter versus Slytherin or something. On and on it goes, all about the corrupt and autocratic Persian empire threatening to slaughter all the Jews so they can steal their money to fund a war aginst the Greeks in order to protect their empire against the threat of democracy. Persians talking about the awful Greek democratic doctrine of "all men are created equal" and how that idea is a threat to "the protocol" on which their empire is based. And how they need to kill all the Jews to prevent them joining forces with the Greek democrats to destroy Persia.
Are you getting this? I'm talking about a thinly veiled propaganda piece for the "Iran hates freedom and wants to destroy Israel" talking point.
Lordy. When it was finally over, I turned the DVD box over and looked at the fine print. There was the "Fox Faith" logo that I hadn't noticed when I rented it. But in the finer fine print, here is what it said:
Hope, Direction and Encouragement Ministries, Inc.
Creepy. Does that sound like a brainwashing outfit or what?
I have often said before, and I'm forcefully reminded now, that PROPAGANDA MAKES TERRIBLE ART. I think this is what really gets under my skin about this kind of thing. Because yeah, it's perfectly reasonable for those people to want to publish stuff to support their point of view and their politics, and it's nothing more than we all want to do. Get our voice heard and all that. But it really, really bothers me when people make art into a disguise for their politics. I hate the deceptiveness and I hate that the art is made to serve the propaganda. I realize it probably sounds like I think nobody should ever make art with a political message, and that's not quite it. It's a subtle distinction. Art made as art for an artistic purpose can have political content and still be effective. It's just that when it crosses some line and the art becomes primarily a vehicle for the political message, it just poisons it. Every time. You end up with this soulless mediocre crap pretending to be art, because it is the product of a political process, not a personal creative one. This is my reaction every time, whether or not I agree with the political message. It's like those cheesy, sentimental, kumbayah peace songs they love to play on KPFA. Or the terrible wanna-be beat poets you ALWAYS see at poetry slams canting on about "the system". I'd come away from it less sympathetic to their point than I started, because the poetry was just so bad and they just took themselves so, so seriously. It's like Christian rock. Gads, that kind of stuff makes me want to run away screaming. This movie gave me the same reaction.
Propaganda makes terrible art. If it can't stand on its own as persuasive argument, it shouldn't be disguised as art just to sway people. It's in BAD TASTE.
Now here's the extra creepy part. I picked up a couple other DVDs at the same time I rented that one. I picked them up on opposite ends of the store. The only thing I noticed they had in common was being in the new releases section. But somehow I ended up with ANOTHER "Fox Faith" movie at the same time! How many of them are there, then? What proportion of the "new releases" section has to be taken up by Fox Faith Propaganda Ministries Incorporated for me to end up with two out of three of their films, picked nearly at random? I don't think that I'm stupid, but I guess in my hurry to get through my errands and get on home I'm not looking carefully enough at the fine print below the fine print on the back of the box. I guess I didn't know I needed to do that these days in order to avoid being propagandized. Jeezus.
I do not think I'm going back to Blockbuster any more. I've heard the rumors about them editing movies, but I went there anyway because I didn't know if the rumors were true, and if I cared that much about the film I'd have seen it in the theater in the first place. I quit using Netflix because I don't like having anything auto-charging to my accounts. But I think I'm going to switch back. Because I do not respond well to manipulation.
Here's the story. I rent movies now and then to watch at home. Last week I picked up a few DVDs at the video store and just got around to watching one of them last night. It was called "One Night With The King", which purported to be a semi-historical tale about a Hebrew girl who married King Xerxes of Persia and hid her Jewish identity. I have a liking for "costume" films - historical fictions and recreations, fantasy epics, and the like. I'm also interested in religion and religious culture, so I guess this movie caught my interest on both of those counts.
Well, it wasn't a very good movie, as it turns out. We got suspicious right at the outset; you know those promo montages the distribution company sometimes puts on before the movie, showcasing a bunch of films? This one was promoting "Fox Faith" movies. Weird. But, whatever, on with the show.
The show rapidly unfolded into a travesty of cheeseball mediocrity, poorly scripted dialogue, and trite sentimentality. At first I thought it was just a crappy movie. But then I saw the pattern. Every Jewish character was kind, good, wholesome and strong. The Persian characters were either violent madmen, unctuous lying schemers, or at best weak and conflicted. King Xerxes got the best treatment, I guess, since he was portrayed as wanting to be honorable, but was weak, emo, and the victim of bad counsel. Enter The Bad Guy, an extremist bigot Persian with a vendetta agaisnt all Jews, who rides around trying to stir up hatred and violence, complete with black costuming and ominous music every time he's on screen.... and a big swastika insignia. With snakes twined into it. Like it's frickin' Harry Potter versus Slytherin or something. On and on it goes, all about the corrupt and autocratic Persian empire threatening to slaughter all the Jews so they can steal their money to fund a war aginst the Greeks in order to protect their empire against the threat of democracy. Persians talking about the awful Greek democratic doctrine of "all men are created equal" and how that idea is a threat to "the protocol" on which their empire is based. And how they need to kill all the Jews to prevent them joining forces with the Greek democrats to destroy Persia.
Are you getting this? I'm talking about a thinly veiled propaganda piece for the "Iran hates freedom and wants to destroy Israel" talking point.
Lordy. When it was finally over, I turned the DVD box over and looked at the fine print. There was the "Fox Faith" logo that I hadn't noticed when I rented it. But in the finer fine print, here is what it said:
Hope, Direction and Encouragement Ministries, Inc.
Creepy. Does that sound like a brainwashing outfit or what?
I have often said before, and I'm forcefully reminded now, that PROPAGANDA MAKES TERRIBLE ART. I think this is what really gets under my skin about this kind of thing. Because yeah, it's perfectly reasonable for those people to want to publish stuff to support their point of view and their politics, and it's nothing more than we all want to do. Get our voice heard and all that. But it really, really bothers me when people make art into a disguise for their politics. I hate the deceptiveness and I hate that the art is made to serve the propaganda. I realize it probably sounds like I think nobody should ever make art with a political message, and that's not quite it. It's a subtle distinction. Art made as art for an artistic purpose can have political content and still be effective. It's just that when it crosses some line and the art becomes primarily a vehicle for the political message, it just poisons it. Every time. You end up with this soulless mediocre crap pretending to be art, because it is the product of a political process, not a personal creative one. This is my reaction every time, whether or not I agree with the political message. It's like those cheesy, sentimental, kumbayah peace songs they love to play on KPFA. Or the terrible wanna-be beat poets you ALWAYS see at poetry slams canting on about "the system". I'd come away from it less sympathetic to their point than I started, because the poetry was just so bad and they just took themselves so, so seriously. It's like Christian rock. Gads, that kind of stuff makes me want to run away screaming. This movie gave me the same reaction.
Propaganda makes terrible art. If it can't stand on its own as persuasive argument, it shouldn't be disguised as art just to sway people. It's in BAD TASTE.
Now here's the extra creepy part. I picked up a couple other DVDs at the same time I rented that one. I picked them up on opposite ends of the store. The only thing I noticed they had in common was being in the new releases section. But somehow I ended up with ANOTHER "Fox Faith" movie at the same time! How many of them are there, then? What proportion of the "new releases" section has to be taken up by Fox Faith Propaganda Ministries Incorporated for me to end up with two out of three of their films, picked nearly at random? I don't think that I'm stupid, but I guess in my hurry to get through my errands and get on home I'm not looking carefully enough at the fine print below the fine print on the back of the box. I guess I didn't know I needed to do that these days in order to avoid being propagandized. Jeezus.
I do not think I'm going back to Blockbuster any more. I've heard the rumors about them editing movies, but I went there anyway because I didn't know if the rumors were true, and if I cared that much about the film I'd have seen it in the theater in the first place. I quit using Netflix because I don't like having anything auto-charging to my accounts. But I think I'm going to switch back. Because I do not respond well to manipulation.