Hollywood Has Made Everything Go Rubbish
Edward Norton is, as Hollywood actors go, pretty good at what he does. Well, I liked Fight Club. However, were I to meet him now, I would grab him by the shoulders and shake him bodily, and tell him to get a grip on himself.
Next would come the beating up by the bodyguards, and the suing, and the assault charges (on both sides). So I must be content with a) never meeting Edward Norton and b) never having the chance to grab him and tell him to buck up his ideas.
OK. So the point is this: Edward Norton, star of The Incredible Hulk, is refusing to publicise his film, because the extra bits he added to the film that added character depth and stuff like that were not in the final cut of the film. Because his artistic vision is compromised or something.
The message to Edward Norton, then, that Edward Norton will never read: YOU ARE IN A SHITTY HOLLYWOOD ACTION MOVIE, BASED AROUND A KIDS’ COMIC THAT CONCERNS A MAN WHO TURNS INTO A BIG GREEN MONSTER WHEN HE GETS A BIT ANGRY.
Where the hell are you going to get a “vision” for that? There is no vision there. It’s a product, a slice of mass-market toss that might entertain you a bit. And encourage you to buy action figures, breakfast cereal and kids’ clothing. And four-disc DVD special edition box sets with making of featurettes and unironic directors’ commentaries.
I think that what irked me about Norton was that he, complicit in production of this stuff, was falling into the fanboy error of taking what’s basically a stupid piece of fluff seriously as a valid expression of the film-maker’s art.
The Fanboy Error is this: not just liking the stuff, because there’s nothing wrong with deriving simple enjoyment from stupid things, but taking it seriously enough to define oneself around the liking of it. To fill your house with the spin-off crap. To take personal offence at people who don’t like this stuff. To consider, for example - as I read on a forum a while back - that changing something as inconsequential as the type of car one of the Transformers turns into is tantamount to a “rape” of your childhood.
To consider it worth fighting about1.
No. It’s not worth fighting for, or about. It’s a disposable medium that fans and the mostly American media corporations that exploit them have made permanent, a kind of artistic landfill which, like the real ones, we’re never really getting rid of.
Footnotes:
1 So almost exactly a year ago, I reposted my classic rant about Star Wars. I received a lot of criticism in the comments. After an initial flood of outrage from fanboys, I get, on average, about one or two personally abusive comments on that year-old post a month. I have no idea why, because hardly anyone ever linked it. Needless to say, none of them ever get past moderation, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it that I do.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
You poor sad deluded fool.
The green monster symbolizes the coming THREAT of global warming and an enraged Mother Nature. Or maybe it’s symbolic of the RAPACIOUS capitalism engulfing us all. See? It can MEAN lots of things, but you have to LOOK for them.
But I don’t expect a Star Wars hater could EVER understand this.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Wood, I think you’re right and yet wrong…
You’re right that making a fuss about The Incredible Hulk is probably a bit silly and OTT. It’s a cartoon, it’s fun, it has something to say about all of us and our emotional reactions to things, but it isn’t the last outpost of some battle of intellect and culture against the forces of dumbness.
But I think you’re wrong to criticise Norton. I once bowed out of a student project because a design I had been asked to work on was thrown out at the last minute in preference for something I felt was getting the sympathy vote. It was not an important, world-changing project. The design changes didn’t matter a bit in the grand scheme of things. But I a) felt that my hard work had been treated unfairly and b) didn’t feel I could support the project in the direction it was headed.
I’ll bet we’ve all had moments like this, where we’ve just dropped out of something because our feelings were hurt, we felt badly treated, or we just didn’t want to be associated with something that had changed from what we originally thought it would be. Why should Edward Norton go around saying nice things and looking all excited about a project that’s pissed him off and made him feel bad? Your argument works both ways - if Hulk is so unimportant and ephemeral, why make a big thing out of Norton’s refusal to publicise it? It’s not like he’s walked out on a charity or some major political event that would make a real difference to anyone.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:10 am
“But I think you’re wrong to criticise Norton. I once bowed out of a student project because a design I had been asked to work on was thrown out at the last minute in preference for something I felt was getting the sympathy vote.”
Yeah, but I bet that what you were working on a) had some soul; b) wasn’t earning you millions of those American dollars they have there and c) wasn’t an intended corporate money-spinner with franchise rights.
See - it’s not just that it’s cinematic landfill. It’s that this crap is costing someone ridiculous amounts of money with the intention of earning an even more ridiculous amount. It’s a capitalist construct which people are dignifying with words like “vision” and stuff. I find that just a tiny bit obscene.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I think this could just be reverse psychology. Think of the average movie-goer.
‘Yeah! Norton’s pissed that they’ve cut all the touchy-feely stuff to make room for more violence! That means the movie’s gonna be GREAT!!’
Thus in not promoting the film for these reasons, he’s promoting it big-time.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Sorry Wood, I’ll stop sending the hate mail now… but you should know better about starwars :-)