MovieBob: Intermission

Quit It

It's just such a pandering, blatant moment of empowerment fantasy. Yes, I recognize that it's in-part a reaction to the reverse of the same routine as seen in movies like Clerks which lionized witty Gen-X servicefolk verbally striking-back at their obnoxious customers. Fair enough.

Except... is it really fair? Call it a double-standard if you want, but the appeal (outside of audience-identification) of the Randall Graves-style sarcastic clerk character was in part a classic David & Goliath scenario - the powerless figure getting in his licks where he can against those holding all the cards. But when the scenario is reversed, the power-balance remains the same. The "hero" in the Hall Pass scene is a comfortably well-off, upper-middle-class white suburban breadwinner already absurdly more powerful than this kid. Every "privileged" status you can have in lopsided modern American society (economic, gender, racial, class, etc) he's already got. How much more empowered does he (and those expected to identify with him) need to feel?

The distinguished gentlemen from the Generic Party has the floor.
In the immediately-forgotten Chris Rock vehicle "Head of State" (summary of plot and every single joke: "OMG! What if a BLACK GUY ran for President!!??") a political party facing a sure-to-lose Presidential election conspires to choose an unknown man (Rock) as the first-ever African-American major party nominee (it was 2003) so that even though they lose anyway, their noble gesture will ensure that the "traditional" candidate they run next election will benefit from the residual goodwill in the Black Community. "Wacky" hijinks arise when the "decoy" candidate discovers the ruse and actively tries to win. Oh, and his opponent is a folksy braggart whose campaign slogan is "God Bless America - And No Place Else!"

On that description alone, you can probably tell me which Political Party both the hero and his nemesis were "supposed" to belong to... but you won't find mention of them, or even the WORDS "Democrat" or "Republican" in the movie - or in most American films set in the world of politics that aren't based on a true story. According to the popular cinema, U.S. elections are a quadrennial clash between nameless, interchangeable groups of basically-good and vaguely-evil candidates.

Why? Because moviemakers are afraid that identifying one side as "good" and the other "bad" will cause supporters of one party or the other to boycott the film. Sensible-enough logic, but the box office hardly bears it out.

Hollywood, here's the thing: Everyone knows you're overwhelmingly a Democrat town, or more precisely that creative industries tend to lean more to what's called "The Left" in Western politics. If you don't have enough investment in your viewpoint to be open about it, why should I want to see your message-movie in the first place? Bite the bullet, take a stand, have the courage of your own convictions (and yes, this goes for "conservative" moviemakers, too.) Fortune favors the bold, remember? Avatar had its bad guys flat-out QUOTING the Bush Administration. How many combined nations is James Cameron currently wealthier than, again? You're not making your boxoffice bigger by playing it safe; you're just making your movies worse.

Bob Chipman is a film critic and independent filmmaker. If you've heard of him before, you have officially been spending way too much time on the internet.