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The Film Habit #48 - May 11, 2005 Hi there and welcome to Cinema Blend’s best week ever. You folks love Star Wars and more than the usual number have come here to read about it. Nice to see you. Wanna go see Crash? You should.
There are things that I’m good at and things that I’m not. For instance, I’m pretty good at typing really really fast. What I type may be meaningless, but I’ll be damned if I can’t type it faster than just about anyone. One thing I’m pretty terrible at is speaking. It’s odd actually, since I’ve had years and years of public speaking training, even spoken in front of huge crowds. With enough notes I can pull it off, but in general, I stink. Talk on the phone? Forget it. That’s the best way for me to make a bad impression. Face to face meetings? I’m the king of blowing it. I learned a few years ago to conduct my business over email whenever possible. So it’s no wonder that I’m extremely jealous of Rafe, who continues to blow me away with his Weekly Blend Audio Show. Actually sometimes it’s called the Weekly Audio Blend Show, or The Audio Blend, but that generally depends on which one of us is doing the typing. I think we’ve got that sorted… as if it matters. His weekly podcast speaks for itself. If you haven’t heard it by now, you should. It’s impressive. I’ll be honest, when he first came to me with the idea for this thing, my expectations were pretty low. I was all for it, because I assumed that even if it was bad it was a way for us to foray into a new market. But bad it isn’t, in fact it’s the best audio podcast I’ve yet heard. Don’t miss it, he does a new one each week. me for a free tour of Rafe’s techno shark. The Lions Are Hungry 
I didn’t realize this until recently in the middle of some heavy Kingdom of Heaven discussion, but apparently a lot of Christians feel like there’s some sort of Hollywood bias out there against them. They feel like Hollywood is out there pushing an anti-religion, anti-morality agenda, a big conspiracy to crush the religiously devout. A bizarre sentiment, since if the last election proved anything, it’s that right wing Christians are pretty much running the country. Oh I know that religion isn’t the only reason people voted for Bush, but the polls suggest it’s the main reason he won. Your man is running the place folks, what’s with the persecution complex?
Sometimes I think people have no concept of what Hollywood really is. It’s not some hippy commune where artists sit around thinking up new ways to demean a beloved part of our culture. It’s a business, a collection of multi-national conglomerates run by big executives answerable to stockholders. Hollywood is only interested in making money, and they make money not by trying to subvert the beliefs of the very people they cater to, but by giving them whatever the heck they want. Conspiracy against Christianity? Hardly. If you want proof, you need look no further than Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Mel made it, but Disney refused to distribute it. Why? Was Disney, as part of the shadowy figure of Hollywood, out to keep anything positive related to Christianity from showing up in theaters? Quite the opposite. It may seem rather silly now, but Disney was scared to death of pissing off the people who love Jesus best, Christian groups. Disney refused to release The Passion not as part of some anti-Christian agenda but because they were scared to death that it might piss off Christians. The rest of Hollywood wasn’t exactly quick to pick it up either, much for the same reason. It took financing from two Jewish guys known as the Weinsteins to make it happen. 
The argument that there’s some sort of anti-Christian agenda on the part of Hollywood is laughable. Most people don’t even seem to be able to name any sort of anti-religion film outside of Dogma, yet evidently this persecution theory is pretty prevalent. It’s just not realistic. Even Dogma, though it’s a scathing, all out poop monster assault on the Catholic Church, is pretty wildly pro-God. If anything, there’s not enough religious satirizing out there, because the studio system is scared to death to do it. Even the IMAX industry is running scared from Christian protest, canceling nature movies that reference the slightest hint of evolution. Hollywood goes where the money is, and that doesn’t lead to an anti-Christian conspiracy. It leads instead to censorship, in favor of whatever group is currently in power. Right now if you’re a hardcore extremist Christian, that group is you. I wouldn’t worry unless we restart ancient Rome’s lion nutrition program.
Folks blaming Hollywood for a decline in morals are just people unwilling to accept that there could be other people out there with morals or viewpoints different than their own. In the end, I suppose that’s what things like the Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, and Nazi Germany were all about… getting rid of relativism and forcing everyone to have the same point of view. Oddly enough, though the movie stinks, that’s the whole point of Kingdom of Heaven. It’s intolerance that’s the real villain in the film, as it is in the real world. me with better ways to feed lions. Stroke My Digital Wookiee 
For awhile now we’ve all been hearing about digital filming technology and digital theater projectors. The debate about which is better, digital cameras or traditional film is still raging amongst Hollywood’s elite filmmakers, even as more directors switch over. George Lucas has of course been quickest to jump on board, Attack of the Clones and the upcoming Revenge of the Sith were both filmed using digital technology. But it isn’t just the tech geek with too much CGI on his brain jumping on board, Michael Mann used it to bring a signature style to LA in his Oscar nominated masterpiece Collateral last year, and indie filmmakers used it to scare us with sharks in Open Water. Digital is becoming more mainstream and as it becomes so, you have to wonder at what point more theaters might jump on board with digital projectors.
Last week, at the local press screening of Star Wars Episode III was my first experience in a DLP theater. Till then I’d been ready to buy in to the anti-digital argument: That movies look better on film, that the way the light is projected through filmstock gives it more depth and a more organic fell. There’s a million excuses and I’m here to tell you that if what I saw is any indication they’re all bullshit. Shot in digital, DLP is the way Episode III is meant to be seen. I couldn’t have picked a better movie to make my first experience. The look was impressive. The picture on screen is simply stunning, like the first time I heard music on CD instead of tape, or the first time I saw a DVD after years of watching grainy VHS. It’s the sort of thing you can’t possibly comprehend until you see it. Remember, there was a time when we were all happy with cassette tapes. We didn’t know what were missing. Well, now I know what I’m missing with traditional cinema projection, and it’s going to be tough to go back. The quality is absolutely mind blowing, so clear and alive I felt like standing up and trying to dip my head in it. Isn’t it about time theater technology made some sort of advancement? Why aren’t more theater chains buying in? The best thing about it is that it’s only going to get better. Film technology is static, we’re staring at the future and no one’s latching on to it.  I went to DLP Cinema to find out exactly what’s going on. Their site is filled with testimonials from Hollywood heavyweights like Spielberg, Lucas, Singer, and Soderbergh. Also there is proof that things are still moving ahead. The chief roadblock remains cost. The theater industry is always quick to claim it’s struggling, and they really don’t see much incentive to spend the money necessary to switch. That’s where we come in.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was meant to be seen in a DLP theater. It’s amazing, an experience completely unequaled by your average, run of the mill cinema. If you aren’t seeing it in DLP you’re missing out. Lucas will as usual be running a slightly different version of Revenge of the Sith version in DLP theaters, but if you’re like me, that won’t be enough to make you seek it out. You’ll just have to take my word for it: It’s worth it. The key to getting other theaters to renovate to it, is for audiences support those that already have it. This is the time to do it. So you want to see Revenge of the Sith the way it was meant to be seen, thrown up on screen via a digital projector. How do you do it? Simple. Click [HERE] to find the DLP equipped theater nearest you. Make the drive, by tickets, you’re done. Don’t miss out on a fantastic Star Wars experience. I’m sold, you will be too. Hot Mail  To prove that someone actually reads this website, guided by the spirit of the hot male to your left (who really ought to do a lot to draw in the ladies), I answer reader mail. your comments to have them read on the… answered here. Let’s see what filled up my inbox this week: Skeetshooter: i'll tell you something there is no one in this world that could ever compare to jessica simpson she is really really hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Josh: You used a lot of exclamation points, so it must be true. I can’t believe that the government actually lets you have a gun. Katrina: In the middle of the night, I was walking by the sea, and baby baluga jumped out from amongst the bushes. SO one day Mr. Gregor exclaimed "Why do skater normals have no preppy either?!?!?!" So I wanted to watched. or Maybe if I wanted to watch it then I had a dream that countless historian lost their credit but i dont Remember what it was. I don't like you but can I have your autograph. No one wants your autograph so I started to cry in the pizza shop. Where did Ryan go? He must have moved to Ohio. Josh: Look, it’s fine if you want to do LSD, but please don’t taunt me with it. Share. Clifford: The Harry Potter poster here is missing a comma, and I want to gripe to you about it. This link’s first article says that is okay, but I want to gripe to you about it. So there. P.S. Check out Final Cut starring Jude Law. It is a more interesting version of The Final Cut, and it stars people more interesting than Robin Williams. Josh: No one is more interesting than Robin Williams or didn’t you watch the “Mork & Mindy” made-for-tv movie special? Perhaps not much like this response it was comma free. Samuel Ewing: "I'm not sure it's really all that snazzier looking than the old BBC TV series." I was getting ready to write a diatribe to you about how the up coming narnia film could not possibly be less snazzy than the BBC version which is in my mind the worst literary conversion ever but then I saw the trailer! This film looks awful; maybe I'm all alone out here but I don't think epics and children movies should necessarily be combined. I loved the books but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be made into films. I found myself bewildered by one scene in the trailer where two armies were running at each other across what looked like the teletubbies set. Also alsan looked ridiculously cartoonish (something I was afraid was going to happen) Josh: It’s nice to know I’m not alone in being a bit bewildered by this trailer. Maybe the reason the Harry Potter movies work is precisely because they aren’t really epic. They take place in a confined world where we’re comfortable seeing children. There’s something ridiculous about watching kids running across a massive battlefield swinging around swords, especially a battlefield colored like a set of Legos. I love the books too, so let’s hold hands and hope it gets better. Hey! Do you like writing for mildly successful movie websites with no guarantee that you’ll ever be paid? Are you over 18? You’re in luck. CinemaBlend.com is looking for writers just like you. If you think you can capture the signature Cinema Blend style as a critic and/or BNN reporter send me an with a few samples and we’ll talk. |
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