The appreciation of the arts has been replaced with the cynicism of the viewer.
On the internet...everyone is a fucking expert. Especially about the movies, right? I don't know how many times I've bit my tongue on web boards, or blogs, or in newsprint, where people filled with cynicism, trash movies. Especially actors. Yep...everyone is an expert. On the internet people use music and movies to highlight how intelligent and CULTURED they are. I once had a discussion at an online bookclub where pretty much every participant trashed Mickey Rourke. And this web board was supposedly seasoned cultural "experts"...I hung on...even defending him in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (what can I say...I love movies and I really love B movies!)
People believe an objects worth is dependent on whether they "like" it or "hate" it. If someone hates a movie automatically, in their view, it is a shitty movie.
I've heard people say they hate a movie because the actors suit was ugly (Collateral) or the actress had a squishy face (Renee Zellweger) or a director was a coke head so the movie sucked (about the fucking wonderful American Gangster)...and most of us have come to take these kinds of petty comments as serious film insight.
People use movies and art and music to show how fantastic their own sense of worth and opinions are...without any kind of heart or sense of excitement about the process, the emotions or most of all the root of storytelling...it's all about the critic. Viewers seem to be focused on using movies as a way to make them look "cultured". Film discussion has become fetishized on hating something rather than analysing or discussing the story and it's cultural place and value. Good taste has nothing to do with cultural currency.
Good taste has nothing to do with art making. Being culturally sophisticated has nothing to do with art either.
This idea that culture is something we have by hating on movies and actors...on performers in music, arts or performance is a really sad attitude towards the history of storytelling.
Mickey Rourke might be the best example of the cynicism of moviegoers. Rurke has taken more trashing than many... and granted...he is a larger -than-life persona (his own so-called vanity projects, bad behaviour)...which may draw ridcule....but....
This same contradictory seeming persona has always been what made Rourke seem to me to be the essence of what making art is about...what experimenting risk taking is all about. Too often Hollywood loses it's edge by veering away front he experimetnal and risky...Rourke has always seemed like the edgiest of edgy artists to me. To many, he is off putting, ranchy, risky, sexual, violent, and maybe even wrong...but he is always out there. Rourke has always taken risks. Despite the cost. And isn't that what art is often about?
Someone like Mickey Rourke will probably get their due in excitment from fans in a future generation.
Right now..."old think" and cynicism is what is reflected in audiences, critics and the internet. Actually. the movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man isn't just a B-movie...it became an instant cult movie. I believe this movie is a valuable exploration of the outsider including Vietnam vets...but that's another post...
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man: Intro & Reward :) - Celebrity bloopers here
The appreciation of the arts has been replaced with the cynicism of the viewers.
I've had a picture of Mickey Rourke on my fridge or bulletin wall almost non stop since I first saw him in Heaven's Gate and Diner (yep...I'm one of those losers who actually thinks Michael Cimino is an incredible film maker...I thought the bad rap Heaven's Gate took was corporate bullshit.) Rourke was in a great movie called Rumblefish which also was a box office bomb! It's another lovely movie! Awesome cast! There's been a fair amount of talk in reviews about the movie The Wrestler as Mickey Rourke's comeback...
This completely cracks me up...comeback? Mickey Rourke has been in at least one movie, if not two, every year for the last twenty years. Maybe not starring but offering up some of the best cameos and character roles to be found. From The Pledge to Domino to Buffalo 66 to Man On Fire. Nevermind Sin City...when he came on screen the first time I saw Sin City I had tears in my eyes, I was so happy to see so much screen time of Rourke. One of his most fascinating roles was a very small part in the film noir Body Heat where he brought so much personality to the role of an arsonist...he has amazed me ever since.
There's been a lot of people for a long time talking shit about Mickey Rourke and I am so blissed out tonight he won a Golden Globe for his new role in The Wrestler. Way to go Mickey...you deserve it!!! And Springsteen's awesome music got an award too!
Mickey Rourke didn't need a fucking comback...
It's time for the viewer to drop their fetish with cynicism and make their own fucking comeback.
10 comments:
Actor-trashing is kind of a pet peeve of mine, too. Mostly because one or two people start griping about an actor, and pretty soon everybody is ganging up on him - not because he's particularly bad, but because so many people are shallow, mean, and sheepy online. There's nothing wrong with Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, or David Caruso. If I was a director, I'd cast just these kinds of overcriticized, underrated actors. And I'd work against typecasting, too, cause people like Hugh Laurie have blown me away when they're finally allowed out of their teeny Hollywood boxes.
Hi SME, the thing is...most actors by the time they get cast and we know about them...they are all usually quite good. all the actors we know of are very adept. Now...I'm not saying there aren't ever some bad roles and some bad cases of acting r directing...sure...there are. But those don't even make a movie "bad" . There are many flawed performances...sure.
Your example of Roberts, Caruso are terrific...as they get the rep of being very bad actors. What they are ...is actors who have rumours of bad behaviour. So does Val Kilmer.
Tons of people trash Keanu Reeves all the time...but his value of an actor is more than traditional delivery of lines that viewers associate with "good acting". Reeves has an accessibility for woemn that shouldn't be underestimated he is a non-threatening persona that appeals to women who expect their men to be sexy and equals.
I think that what has been going on in pop culture with the massive negativity towards actors, movies and this cynical trend of playing "haters" on storytelling is going to be all different in the future. I think younger generations will accept actors and many movies without this tabloid mentality associated with their projects. There will be a time when someone will watch a famous Hollywood bomb for example...and accept it without the media coverage it came with.
Movies like "The Cotton Club", "Last Action Hero" or "The Last Boy Scout" which were all bombs and critically panned...will gt new audiences with different sensibilities. "The Cotton Club" is one of my favourite movies...I don't know what else one culd want in a movie as it has a little of everything and high caliber acting, filming, soundtrack. I also love "The Last Boy Scout" and "The Last Action Hero"...both terrific movies.
I've got a funny book about "hollywood turkeys" and many of the movies that got bad reviews or failed I think are cool...including "The Only Game In Town" and "Cleopatra" (both Elizabeth Taylor vehicles)
There is a fantastic movie called "S.O.B." by Blake Edwards kind of based on a box office bomb of his ("Darling Lili")...and it's a great insight into the world of popularity and public opinion in movies...and how corporate trends have a lot to do with public response and criticism to a movie release.
People think they are reflecting their own unique sense of culture when actually...they are pawns of some other cultural motif run by record companies and marketers and corprorate rumours...
Audiences are afraid of trusting their own instincts and to suspend their disbelief freely, on their own...they have to have some "cultural correctness"...
When I first was going to see "American Gangster" I'd heard it was a bad movie...so I was nervous. Oh my god...we love that movie around here. We bought a 3 dvd set...with directors commentary that is awesome. I only saw the directors version...the extended version...nand it is wonderful Again...everything you could want in a story...love, action, betrayal, fantastic actors, costumes...beautiful film direction and cinematography...
Stagg and I have watched it three times. We're like, how could anyone hate this movie...and we had been warned off of seeing it!
I am so happy to see that Rourke won the Globe last night. His performance in the Wrestler was incredible. Perhaps now all those naysayers and Mickey-Bashers will pipe down. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of his and his past performances (the ones I've seen) have been hit or miss for me. Unlike some other actors, he doesn't get a lot of mention in the mainstream press so I mistakenly assumed that he hadn't been working very much recently (other than Sin City). I'll have to check some of these out. Great post Candy!
Captain Karen, great to see you! You know you've got something there...about the mainstream press. I think a lot of the hating is kind of relaed to the kind of coverage art, movies and literature gets in the mainstream press. Granted...I watch a lot of movies. Way morethan most people. I'll watch movies that get bad reviews, have so-called bad actors or scripts etc etc. I watch all kinds of genres...so when an actor like Rourke is so "culturally blacklisted" I have probably ignored that blacklisting. Same as Reeves.
I also think...maybe the cynicism is like the cynicism to sports players. I think the cynicism is related to jealousy. Here are these people who get pid tons of money and never get their hands dirty opposed to most peple who find it hard to shell out the money for movie ickets and have to answer to their bosses.
I think there might be an attitude that actors work for the audience (which they do!) and so the audience is going to shit on them in exact ratio to how much they feel shit on in their own lives.
I suspect that when someone is giving their glorious critique of an actor...or director etc and taking the piss out of them...that person s probably not very happy in their own job.
Well there is my analysis for the day ha ha!
Meanwhile...here Karen is a clip of Rourke's cameo in "The Pledge"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFu8Yz3YgRw
and in "Domino"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQpVx--wIh8
and in Enrique Englesias video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH9hAeXRlx0
Great post, Candy.
I wish I could say I've always been a Mickey Rourke fan and be super-cool, but the truth is I haven't. But that's not to say I ever thought he was bad. He just was mostly in films I found disappointing, perhaps because I was too young at the time.
What I always knew, though, was that he was a fascinating guy who played the game his way. When he quit acting to do boxing, everyone thought he was nuts and the papers revelled in showing us his smashed face. I thought it was sad, sure, but he was doing what the fuck he wanted to do. Good for him.
I've seen a bunch of his cameos in the past few years and never have I said, "Fuck, what a shit actor," cos y'know -- he never was a shit actor. He was never less than credible in a role.
I'm glad he's "back" (haha), but like you say, those of us into Tony Scott, Rob Rodriguez, QT and the like, knew he's never gone away. He's seems like he's got his shit together at last. I only hope he's not hounding into hibernation again.
Hi *, wow, wonderful comment...great to "see" you...I've missed you a lot!!!
I think I might have to do another post about this area...I suspect this might be a cultural thing. Like a contemporary cultural thing.
Even ethnocentric!
Um..I'm going to tie this next post into fame...Al Pacino and Reeves amd Rourke...I've got an inspiration...
but I'm supposed to be working at my desk...not screwing the pooch defending the profession of acting ha ha!
Later!
yeah, I've been looking at the fucked up micky face in the tabloids and feeling sorry for him..and not really thinking about his work.
he was great in man on fire
and great in sin city..
so who am i to fucking feel sorry for him?
I hate reading critic reviews - because of the cynicism - I think a lot of people think that they will be cool if they pick up on this cynicism and adopt it - that this will automatically make them "sophisticated" - not so.
I hate it after the awards - when even the clothing worn by actors, actresses gets "rated" by people who have somehow become "experts" -I loved it when Angelina started wearing department store clothing - set the critics on their ears!!!!
I think Rene Z is sexy and cute as heck.
I saw an astounding movie the other night - Doubt.
I guess by being hateful and cynical, we can make ourselves look better - though it really makes us look worse -
Whew...Gardenia, what truth I'm feeling from you saying how if people adopt cynicism (and negativity) they sound more sophisticated. I think we are also a culture that is cut off from the art processes and we have a fear of looking foolish if we like something...then it gets razzed. Sort of like the clothes dissing. I miss the old days of the Oscars when the actors were all creative. Now it's only music award shows where the artists dress creative...but they get razzed too...like rock and roll and hp hop can be also culturally blacklisted. So soon all the artists will dress like corporate whores.
Lets not forget corporate suits can't dance!
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