Hollywood Morality Tales and Other Such Nonsense
- Matt Faber
At the behest of my good friend Alex, I have decided to write something for Simple Prop.
I should say that I am a fellow Austinite, so I feel like it is my duty to rant when asked to
do so.
My bitch today goes directly at Hollywood? I know, people say, "well that's tough to
do? everyone bitches about Hollywood". That's true, but we keep going don't we?
DON'T WE?
My bitch with Hollywood is not that it turns out a bad finished product or even that it
doesn't get it right once in a while, it's just that every so often, I would like to decide
what the "moral of the story" is for myself. "Moral of the story" is a loaded expression
that gets volleyed around quite a bit, but it is often an apt expression. All I am asking for
is that I am not bludgeoned over the head with it. If it is true that everyone in the world is
so inept that mainstream filmmakers have to create black and white exposes of good and
evil, this is truly a sad state of affairs.
This all came to a head for me while I was watching A Time To Kill over the weekend.
The film starring Matthew Mcghanacantact? is an adaptation of the book by John
Grisham. The movie and novel mainly relay the message that racism is bad. Fine. I
agree? Racism is bad, but I think I could come to that conclusion without two hours of
being slapped in the face with how bad it is in the most juvenile of terms. It seems that
racism these days comes in many masked forms. However, Grisham and the good people
in Hollywood made sure that we did not miss the message, or show us any of these masks
at all.
The attempt of the film and book is to show us that white people in the south hate black
people and vice versa. It shows us that a few (maybe three beautiful people) are
enlightened and above it all in every way. But for the most part the aggressive hillbillies
spend their time attacking black people, and that this is wrong. The film shows us that it
is wrong for people to rape each other and then bring in the Ku Klux Klan to solve their
differences? WOW!!! FUCKING A!!! I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED!!!
THANKS FOR SPELLING THAT OUT FOR ME!!!!
Now, the other major moral dilemma in this movie is whether or not it is okay to kill
someone for an abhorrent action like raping and then trying to kill your daughter. I will
grant the book/movie that this is a tough question, but please state it out in a way that
provokes some thought. Don't hit me in the head with the two most evil pieces of white
trash in the world horribly raping someone, and then ask me as a movie goer "How do
you feel about this?" Of course John Q. Public doesn't feel good about it. And doesn't
lose a lot of sleep when the hillbillies are shot. But it doesn't urge anyone to think about
the question in real terms. Only in terms of: Rape-that's bad? Retribution-that's good?
Racism-That's bad? Racial equality-that's good? The Death Penalty-Can I go now?
So why does this phenomenon make me so angry? Because I think, we are smart enough
to get it. I think we can interpret morality tales that aren't so thinly veiled you can see
through them IMMEDIATELY. I feel like at some point people will hopefully ask for
more, but if not?. We will continue to be spoon fed the same inane tripe.
Fatts Maber
Vote Quimby
What do you think? Drop us a line at webmaster@simpleprop.com and give us some
feedback. Maybe we'll even run your letters in future Gambits. 'The Daily Gambit' is updated every weekday.
