I think I mentioned this article in Time awhile back, but I wanted to highlight a few excerpts that I think are relevant to our study of the Western. First, here's James Mangold, who directed the new 3:10 to Yuma:
"There's an assumption in Hollywood that the western is a homeless genre," says Mangold, "that it doesn't have a built-in audience. The adults who might want to go don't go to the movies, and the young ones are locked into the superhero world." Mangold also sees "a Hollywood bias against the America between New York and L.A. The movie industry is basically built serving 14-year-old males, and they aren't interested in rural America."
Along those same lines, here's another excerpt about how audiences today don't seem to relate to the Western:
Then there's the problem of tempo. Other modern movies move at warp speed, but the cowboy hero is a man with a slow hand. As Christopher Frayling, author of biographies of Eastwood and Leone, notes, "You can speed up spaceships and
cars, but you can't speed up horses." A director also has a tough time making
the old new--and the western is 19th century. "Americans don't like the past," says Andrew Dominik, the New Zealand-born writer-director of Jesse James. "They're O.K. with future and the present, but they can't remember anything before 1980." They see the western as a historical costume drama--Merchant Ivory in chaps.
So what do you think? Do you think people your age are "locked into the superhero world?" Do Americans really not like the past? Leave your comments below.
9 comments:
no. these guys are bad men. BAAAAAAD MEDICINE.
I don't think all people our age are "locked into the superhero world"... I mean sure, there are some, but I think these movie people are giving teens a bad wrap. I for one, really enjoy watching movies that take place in the 1800s-ish. (but maybe that's just me) I think it is ridiculous to generalize all of america and their opinions, so I need to see some hard core evidence. Sorry Mr. Dominik, but you need to cite your sources.
I could see why people arn't as interested in movies about the past, as they are in the present or future. But, I also think that it's important to recognize the past in order to fully enjoy movies that take place nowdays or in the future.
I'm undecided whether or not America is really "locked in" to the superhero world...but even if they are, who can blame them? Everybody needs to be saved.
I somewhat commented in my last blog post on this.
As a child of the 90's I don't really enjoy watching movies older then I am, which almost all westerns are. I like speed, fury, guns, and sports in a movie. I'd rather watch spider man go mo' spidey on a guy than Harmonica getting in a one shot slowly developed fight. Therefore I am locked into the superhero world. The new special effects on a HD TV, nothing beets it.
Mangold's comment on the young people stuck in a superhero world I think is completely unfair, for most of us, we're seeing our child hood superhero's come back on to the big screen, thus we go see the movie whether it looks bad or not. The first few Batman movies were good, but once the governor of California hit the scene it was all over. Since then there hadn't been very many good superhero movies so its intriguing to see what Hollywood has come up with. And i have to disagree with what Christopher Frayling says about Americans not enjoying movies about the past, the one off the top of my head is unforgiven, it takes place in the old west, Clint Eastwood directed it, and yet it was a success. I'd be considered one of the "young ones" except i enjoy that movie myself even with out superheros and spaceships.
I don't think that people my age is locked up into a hero world. I think that people are different, some people like the past and some people don't like the past. But the history teaches us so many things and we can learn from our mistakes that we did in the past so it will not be happening again. I think that it is nice to have a histoy class that is a requirement in the school.
I personally think that kids now days aren't introduced to old movies. Kids mainly see the movies at theit local theater. I think if every kid was to see Eastwood's Unforgivin or Leone's spaghetti westerns they'd broaden their horizon and see older films that are just as good or even better than films from the late 90s until now. So I'd say kids aren't locked into the superhero world, they just haven't had the chance to experience the greatness of older movies due to their scarcity.
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