Part 3-5...Abridged in a Conversation with Doug Roberts

III-V in a conversation with Doug Roberts

Doug: What happens next?
Jim: Well, the old man asks me to sit down and he unties Alden. He puts a video tape in the VCR and presses play. He tells us to watch and warns us that if we ever tell anybody about what we saw, we'd be putting ourselves in great danger.
Doug: What was on the tape?
Jim: The real Oscars.
Doug: Like...from the future?
Jim: No, no. I did some research on the old man, the Christian Rosenkruez and it turns out that he's this guy who lived during the Renaissance who figured out how to prolong life and, obviously, turn into cats. So this guy appears to us and says we've been getting too close to the truth. He shows us this alternative Oscar ceremony where awards are given based on talent and not good press or media pushes.
Doug: Too close to what? And who won these awards?
Jim: Well...he said that Alden and I were uncovering the emergence of cinema-industrial complex. I think what he was trying to say is that studios are trying to put out as inferior a product as possible for the most gain possible. The time of innovation is over. It died in the late 70s and now studios decide what plays in the theaters. That means the studios dictate who wins awards, to an extent. If a studio can't dictate what gets seen, they can't make money as risk-free as they are now. They spend 10 million on a spoof film and get 100 times that in profit. Why? Because the studio is putting it on 2500 screens all over the country. So smaller, more innovative films suffer and mankind, as a result, suffers.
Doug: Huh.
Jim: I know. Pretty heavy shit. I guess last year was an anomaly and they couldn't stop us from seeing the good stuff because there was so much of it. But The Wrestler? Too small. In Bruges? Too weird. The Visitor? Too subtle. As a result, the movies being nominated are all bland, in-your-face gilded lilies. They're all fairly shallow and none of the five nominees for best picture are risky in the least. Maybe Slumdog, but even that turns into something trite and convenient toward the finale of the film.
Doug: So who won the real Oscars?
Jim: Wall-E.
Doug: But that made tons of money. That was a huge financial success.
Jim: Which is exactly why the studios are wrong. They seem to think they know what we want to see. We're only seeing what they want us to see, though. Do you think people are going to stop going to the movies is their only choices are those that are critically acclaimed?
Doug: Probably not.
Jim: Exactly. So in rural areas, where you have to drive half-an-hour to the theater, you're choices are...Beverly Hills Chihuahua, My Bloody Valentine and Twilight. And there's nothing wrong with those films, but do they need three screens each on their opening weekends? Not at the risk of better film. It's like devoting a wing of an art gallery to Ziggy cartoons. So many people go to the movies and don't really watch what they're seeing. They must realize on some primal level that they're being force-fed the same romantic comedies, the same horror movies and the same, played-out action movies. They must know.
Doug: So this guy told you all this?
Jim: Yeah, pretty much.
Doug: But...so what? People like what they like, right?
Jim: Yeah, of course. But if television and film are the most popular and accessible outlets for artistry and expressions of our culture, what do the films the make the most money say about us as a civilization? To me, it says that we're all so goddamn numb to feeling that even when presented with an opportunity to see something great and artistic, we won't. We've been and are being brainwashed into complacency, where we'd rather sit in the dark for 90 minutes watching something that doesn't engage us at all. Isn't it part of the human condition to seek out things that move us instead of merely manipulating? I want to see a film that makes me laugh, really laugh, and cry and something that makes me feel.
Doug: Yeah, maybe so. So, what happened next?
Jim: Well...the old man left. I guess he turned back into a cat, maybe? I don't know.
Doug: Huh. So where do you want to go for dinner tonight?
Jim: I don't know. Where do you want to go to dinner tonight?
Doug: I don't know.