There has been a long standing trend in this country that I would like to see stop. This trend is the false belief that in order to be cool or hip one must be negative or indifferent to whatever is going on at the time. I realize that I am not the most positive commentator of all time but still, you don't have to hate everything. It seems that lately in people's furvent efforts to distance themselves from the status quo they make a massive overcorrection that leads them right back int the middle of the herd.
Take for example the recent film phenomenon, The Blair Witch Project. The film was made for something like $30,000 and raked in several million. Sure I could provide the exact figures but that sounds like work. Anyhow, the film was touted as one of the scariest films ever made by scores of film students and critics. The hype was thicker than a London fog and hordes of eager movie go-ers flooded into the theaters to catch this surely epic film. The result? Abject dissapointment was widespread which I personally feel that little of it was genuine, but I am getting ahead of myself. When I caught a blurb on the movie on a website listing the summer's movies I became excited but realized that a lot of people whouldn't like it. This was for two reasons, one because people would think it was real and then be indignant when they found out it was not and two because it was being so highly lauded as being the scariest film in recent history. Now the first one isn't really what I want to talk about but I need to address it. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE NOWADAYS?????? Okay, look they hyped the shit out of it, they made the website a storyline tie-in, the hyped it on posters, but it was never really being touted as being real. The premise of the movie was that it was a 'mockumentary.' It was the spinal tap of horror. But still a procession of dipshits believed that it was real. Okay so I can understand that to a point but do you really think that anyone is going to put a snuff film into multiplexes comlete with previews? Come on, society hasn't slipped that far, or maybe it has because a lot of detractors claim to have liked until finding out it wasn't real. "They lied to us!" goes the cry over the mountains. No they fucking didn't, it was a fucking movie. I don't yell at George Lucas because as it turns out, there aren't really lightsabers. And how sick do you have to be to take pleasure in watching three people wither away lost in the woods and eventually being murdered solely because you thought it was real? Horror movies are good because they suggest a danger but don't really take you there because they aren't real. Blair Witch pushed that envelope but couldn't take you the final way because it wasn't true. I think it is a sad statement about American detatchment that people are upset that these three kids aren't dead. But anyway, that isn't really what I want to talk about...
When I sat down in the crowded theater I looked around and watched my fellow filmgoers as the tension mounted. When the movie began the theater went silent and everyone sat at rapt attention. There were no sounds but those on the screen. As the movie played through breath was held, arms were squeezed and people were into it. Then as the crowd exited at the end, I heard many a naysayer claim to have disliked the film. Before going in it was hip and cool to like the film and to anticipate it but then after the fact, it was hip and cool to dislike the film. People rushed to be the cool ones that weren't impressed. This is ridiculous.
Clearly Blair Witch isn't the only thing that get's backlash from the hype machine. You think about it for 10 minutes and you'll come up with dozens of further examples of this popularity of negativity is taking place.
You know as much as I hate this whole Pokemon thing, I have to say that these kids are into it all the way. I saw a kid at Blockbuster that was rolling with a Pokeball and a Mewtwo doll hanging from his belt. Now enough of the ridiculous storyline has seeped in to know that he was geared up to be a full on Pokemon Trainer. He has his Pokeball and his prized fighting Pokemon. And you know what? This kid was not concerned about what people thought. Sure in his little word, the other kids all think he's cool but that is the point. They are going around with these things proudly displayed on their person and they don't care about things like backlash at all. This is what they are into and they feel no need to appologize for it.
Certainly I think that adults should take a cue from these kids. Now granted it isn't healthy when you're putting a knife to a teacher's throat for taking away your Pokemon shit but then again neither is being fucking miserable all the time. Why do we worry so much about what other people think? Why are we looking to others for validation? As adults we should be beyond the bullshit like whether we are in the crowd or not and it is getting to where not being in the crowd is just looping around to the same place. Aren't we defined enough as human beings that if someone likes something, no matter how fucking stupid we think it is, they can jsut like it? I don't know when being positive and liking shit became out of style but from where I am standing, this norm needs a make-over.
If you thought that I had a good point and wanted to tell me how positive a role model I am for the youth of today, or on the other hand you want to tell me that you wished I was one of those lost student filmmakers, feel free to email and let me know.
© 2000 bodhili@hotmail.com