"Why does it matter? Actors are merely vehicles for the message."
And that's why these movies fail. Because it's not about telling a story, compelling performances, or skillful direction, it's about transcribing a message, which seems to show contempt for the medium of film. I'd say that makes it a propaganda film, but even propaganda films can be good if they're made be people who give a *beep*. Casablanca is regarded as one of the greatest films in history, and it was made as a propaganda film. These movies are just thrown together with whatever D-list actors, no name directors, and hack writers they can get to perform the task of ramming this message down their ever diminishing audience's throat.
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dab6
10 years ago
even propaganda films can be good if they're made be people who give a *beep*
Apparently the Randians have their heads so far up their asses that they don't even care if their propaganda changes anyone's mind. If you don't "get" the message then goddamn you.
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gabby_bm
10 years ago
Isn't that pretty much the attitude of Ayn Rand's philosophy- that those who don't get the message aren't going to be hand-held through the wasteland of ignorance with the hope they will someday "get it"? You're either a hero or a zero and the zeroes are the looters who look to destroy the heroes.
The philosophy celebrates those who get it- and the movie obviously panders to those who already 'got it'. The films themselves aren't made from the perspective of trying to change people's minds (which, to me, belies the idea that it is propaganda) but only to serve those whose minds are already embracing the ideas in the novel and simply want to see them transposed onto the screen.
**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
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AlfredMordeir
10 years ago
"The films themselves aren't made from the perspective of trying to change people's minds (which, to me, belies the idea that it is propaganda) but only to serve those whose minds are already embracing the ideas in the novel and simply want to see them transposed onto the screen."
And that's not propaganda how?
Secular Nation Podcast http://tinyurl.com/SecNat
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gabby_bm
10 years ago
And that's not propaganda how?
Because propaganda is usually something to be spread with the intent to establish or change a status quo. But with this film, i never got the idea that its intent was to change anyone's mind or set another set of ideals into motion. To me, this film speaks solely to those who have already "drank the Kool-Aid" so to speak and doesn;t really try to do anything but appeal to its already established audience.
I actually find this to be one of the film's strengths- that it doesn;t try to convince anyone or do anything but tell the story contained within the pages of the book.
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AlfredMordeir
10 years ago
"Because propaganda is usually something to be spread with the intent to establish or change a status quo. But with this film, i never got the idea that its intent was to change anyone's mind or set another set of ideals into motion. To me, this film speaks solely to those who have already "drank the Kool-Aid" so to speak and doesn;t really try to do anything but appeal to its already established audience.
I actually find this to be one of the film's strengths- that it doesn;t try to convince anyone or do anything but tell the story contained within the pages of the book."
That's pretty much the opposite of what I understand propaganda to be in the classical sense. I think of propaganda, I think of state run media of totalitarian states, and those are almost exclusively about maintaining the status quo. The North Koreans aren't trying to convince new people that Kim Il Sung is the eternal leader who ascended to heaven on a thousand golden butterfly wings and Kim Jong Un's farts cure syphilis or whatever it is they assert, but to reinforce what their people have already been indoctrinated to believe since birth. Not that what you describe isn't propaganda, but your definition precludes the most obvious images of propaganda on the public consciousness.
Secular Nation Podcast http://tinyurl.com/SecNat
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gabby_bm
10 years ago
That's why i included "..to establish or change a status quo" because I agree with you, an integral part of propaganda is to maintain what already exists and to build on that to where it becomes the pervasive line of thinking
**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
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Joshieboyucla
10 years ago
Oh, poo! All films are propaganda! The message in this one is more blatant, that's all. These movies should have never been made.
.;*We Live Inside A Dream*;.
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