On Friday all forms of social media started exploding over the last installment of season 2 of the “Star Wars” spinoff, the streaming series on Disney +, “The Mandalorian”. It was a tsunami of exuberant feedback and outbursts that I have not previously witnessed coming from a streaming platform. Curious, I went and watched the episode and I had a huge positive reaction. For a couple of days I felt guilty about liking a streaming offering so much, then a light went off and a simple truth hit me. The reason why people were so ecstatic is that it brought back the feeling they had when they first witnessed “Star Wars” in the theater, at least the first three because after that they were a tad stinky. This was a reconfirmation and a point of connection with moviegoing.
Similarly, when I recalled first seeing “Stranger Things” and remembered people were over the moon over that Netflix offering. They raved and praised the production. In the end most of the praise was a result of the similarity between the structure and storyline of that series to the amazing movies of the 80’s. The audience craved a return to a compelling and engaging storytelling. They wanted it, they craved it but did not know they wanted it and but when it showed up they ran towards it in the form of a jubilant herd.
People love the movies, they love the memories, and they love collectively experiencing stories that touch them. The problem is they have not been touched in awhile. So when director Jon Favreau brings back a character that people connect with, a character whose presence they crave, their collective movie going hearts soar and they proclaim their love on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. The audience was respected and was spoken to with a mythos they long feared was gone. It wasn’t really gone and the reappearance created a joyful eruption of fandom.
Movie going still lives; it is a sleeping giant that must be awoken. It’s not that America stopped loving the movies, it’s that the movies stopped loving America. It’s not about left or right, red or blue…it is about speaking to our collective experience. Right now there exists a deep disconnect with the collective experience. At the core of modern moviegoing, this lack of affinity is the problem. Solve that and slowly you will see a gentle rise in attendance and a re-starting of discussion in which movies are mentioned. There is a simple truth and most people forget a truth that many have never realized about the movies. Movies are a reflection, a profound reflection of us.
The movies are projected onto a big screen, true, but that screen is just an intermediary, a vessel, in which floats the vision of the filmmakers off the screen and into our brains and into our hearts. It is within us that movies are truly seen. We bring our experiences and our dreams and we project that back onto the movie. When the two images mesh that is when the magic occurs, a celebration of both what is and what can be. It is transcendental in many ways.
There is a linguistic discipline known as semiotics. Probably the leading figure in semiotics was an Italian scholar by the name of Umberto Eco. Eco for you movie fans was the novelist who wrote “The Name Of The Rose” on which the movie starring Sean Connery was based on. Semiotics is the study of the meanings, called signs, we produce throughout the day. It might concern things we say or write, or gestures, attitudes, designations and so on; in fact, any interpretation that is done of anything might be related to semiotics. What Eco sought to explain is that almost everything in our lives has some sort of symbolism…everything. So in many ways everything is a form of language. When it is on screen it becomes more intense. We read almost everything we see, but we interpret it on a subconscious level. We can feel something even if we cannot express that feeling.
Eco felt that when it came to symbols, cinema was the most profound medium. It had an intense impact on us and when coupled with a cyclical spin of images that runs at 24 frames per second it can have a hypnotic effect. The disconnect though in recent movies is that the symbols that appear on screen have been diluted so there is little emotional connectivity to the audience, so the experience falls flat. There is an expectation that the movie will have a subliminal effect on the movie goer but as of late, the movies have sadly disappointed. The symbols contained on the screen do not reflect our own Western Cultural experience. In fact they reflect no one’s experience.
You cannot make art, and the movies are art that will equally appeal to the whole world. Asia artistic balance in painting for example is a matter of a balance between left and right in Western cultures is passed on a triangular approach.
I remember watching Captain America: Civil War and coming out of the theater feeling nothing was said. No world view was expressed and it seemed to be bland and take place just on the tarmac of an airport. I can recall great imagery from the movies of the 80’s, characters that spoke to me, and settings that I found compelling. They left an imprint on me, this movie really was an empty meal. All saltine, no cheese.
We have to show movies that reflect our audience on all levels.
On another front, a sigh of relief was heard across the country last Sunday night as Congress finally passed a stimulus package. Contained within this package is $15 billion dollars to be allocated to entertainment venues and independent movie theaters. The funding formula, which by the way precludes public companies and theater chains which have more than 500 employees, allows for an outright grant of 47% of 2019’s revenue. The first two weeks of application, administered through the Small Business Administration, is for theaters who have lost 90% of their revenue since last year and the second two weeks for those who have lost 70%.
This is Christmas week, a time to reflect on all the goodness in the world and to spread good cheer. While this has been the oddest of years and has laid a lot of struggle at your feet, remember, in life there is always hope. I shall see the light adorned trees of Main Street in my town, see the defiant marquee of The Historic Artcraft Theatre and I will be reminded that movies, if they speak to their audience, are one of those good things in the world.
Have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading and thanks for loving the movies.
