Movies are the Best Revenge

I know it's hard to believe, but Hollywood once made good films. Even great ones. The one that the blowhards in North Korea apparently blew their tops over would not have qualified as either, but that, it seems, is about as good as it gets any more in that self-absorbed town that still fancies itself as the entertainment capital of the world.

What Hollywood still has--Sony Studios or no--is an archive, a repertoire if you will, of great films, from over the last century. And believe it or not, as I witnessed first hand and played my own small part in making it happen, it was those films that carried out the real revolution in China: the post-Maoist, post-Communist revolution that made the people (if not yet the government) of China want to join the rest of the world--really for the first time in it's 7,000 year history.

It wasn't intentional--far from it. And Hollywood moguls still fret about how the Chinese 'stole' all their movies. But the point they miss is they watched them. And loved them. On TV, in theaters, on video tapes, then CDs and DVD's, on iPads, smartphones, wherever. And by seeing these films, they saw the rest of the world through American and European eyes, and they wanted in. It was really that simple. Which is why, for my nearly three years teaching in China between '04 and '07 I showed movies. Lots of movies. Because more than perhaps any other medium movies open eyes, ears, hearts, and minds. Junk will always be junk. But the truth is, good movies affect all six senses.

And that's what needs to happen in North Korea. If the Obama Administration, or for that matter the C.I.A. really want to punish North Korea, then saturate them with Hollywood's worst films: possibly starting with 'The Interview.' Put it on all their screens. Saturate their satellites, if they have any, or park some of ours out their just out of missile range and beam them down 24/7. Do air drops. By drone. Find a way. Hire translators and dub them in Korean. For punishment, the bad ones at first. Then give them some good ones. Then some great ones. For a comedy, give them 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World.' Followed by 'The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!" Which did more to end the Cold War than anything that Reagan could even imagine. I showed both of those to my English majors in China and they loved them.

Introduce them to Peter Sellers. And Audrey Hepburn. Introduce them to Billy Wilder. Then Gene Wilder. Then anything done by anyone, ever, from Saturday Night Live. Give them 'M.A.S.H.'

The list is endless--you could make your own list. The point is this: once the tech spies figure out how to reverse hack--preferably with Chinese help--the door to Western thinking, lifestyles, beliefs, humor, tragedy, love, and history would be open forever and as in China, once people actually saw at least a romanticized version of what life was like elsewhere they would want in. Who wouldn't love 'Sleepless in Seattle" or practically any Tom Hanks movie? And once a mind is opened, it can never be closed again.

Who knows, with a government contract, Hollywood might even make some money this time. And poor Angelina Jolie might even get a raise!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Red Tide is Coming

Image
For those of you who once read my blogs, and might read them again, I am back. It has been a year of silence, that happily is about to be broken. I was fighting many battles in my absence, in many ways and at many levels: for my life. I am back, at least for now, because I have won those battles at last, if not the war. As to that, one cannot truly control the outcome of one's life, much as we might wish otherwise. Still, we can try. Imagine, if you will, having to pick up your life and move (we've all done that) but in the process, incurring a grievous injury requiring surgery. Then take it further: that you go to sleep in pain, and wake up a different person. Or two different persons: persons who do not relate to you, who are hostile to you and to each other. One is manic; the other profoundly depressed. So then you reach out for help and are given medications, and the medications trigger a terrible reaction. So then you try, try again, and finally find balance. Imagi...
Read more

Serial Killers: a Troublesome Trend

Image
  As a mystery author ( E.C. Ayres ) I am troubled by a trend in the writing and publication of mystery/suspense thrillers: serial killers have become a near requirement in today's literary fare. Personally, I yearn for the days of Agatha Chrystie, Mickie Spillane, and Sam Spade. It was all about character development, depth of relationship (bright and dark), memory and recollection, illusion and disillusionment. What happened in those novels were vivid reflections of life as it is or was truly lived (and sometimes, ended). They reflected our actual world, albeit focusing on a particular location or aspect. The keys, always, were character and suspense. And when done right, it can be unforgettable. There can be exceptions, of course, to this trend (or any trend) as always. The book that triggered my need to write this blog was this one:  As I delved into the early chapters I was instantly troubled by the opening introduction of a serial killer just getting warmed up, it seemed...
Read more

Films and TV Series of Private Investigators

Image
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's  Sherlock Holmes  stories have been produced in both film and television on numerous occasions. The BBC's recent series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (previously known as Frodo in his impetuous youth) is just the latest example. Well acted and scripted (mostly original material), although I took a strong objection to the final two episodes involving Holmes' evil sister: a character I suspect Doyle would have discarded into the dust bin, and rightfully so. There have been two other series including the recent  Elementary  starring Lucy Lieu, glaring as ever. There have also been at least three movies, with a fourth in development (apparently the producers don't even have a script. Just a name, which is, apparently, sufficient). The most recent two films star  Robert Downey Jr . and  Jude Law , and likewise the third. I recommend both, and hopefully the sequel will meet those standards. I did have trouble,...
Read more