Politics and viewer habits
Jan. 25th, 2009 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakHere is a really interesting poll about how The West Wing would have been received if it had been about an Republican administration instead of a Democrat one, and whether or not it would have been as successful (always assuming the same quality of writing and acting etc.). It made me wonder about other shows and films, and how my own political beliefs influence my ability to enjoy a book/film/tv show.
The first two examples which came immediately to mind of something that revolted me ideologically to the point where I couldn't enjoy it anymore hailed from two opposite ends of the political spectrum. One was the 2002 movie Hero (directed by Zhang Ximou). Gorgeously shot, beautifully choreagraphed and acted, and I sat there, utterly chilled, being reminded of nothing as much as the seminar on Third Reich Propaganda movies I attended when at the university, though in the case of "Hero", we were talking left not right totalitarianism. But the basic idea - the invidual is nothing, the grand vision of a unified country under one leader is everything, and worth any sacrifice of lives and liberty - that was ever so familiar. Using Chinese history to express it the way Zhang Ximour did reminded me of the use of Prussian history by the Nazis in films such as the 1942 Veit Harlan film Der große König. (Vaguely based on events during the reign of Friedrich II., a Goebbels-ordered response to the defeat at Stalingrad, with scenes like the one in which Friedrich says it would have been the duty of a certain regiment to die to the last man rather than surrender, and scenes in which an officer saves a regiment by acting against a direct order but nonetheless is punished because he acted against the order which is presented as the right thing to do.) In a contemporary context - with the Tianmen massacre not that long ago when "Hero" was released, with the approval of the Chinese goverment - it really was just as horrifying, and to this day, I haven't been able to rewatch, or see any more films from this director, one of China's best.
The other example is the American show 24, the first two season of which I watched while being increasingly appalled and giving up after the first episode of the third. Glorification of torture in the age of Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo, vilification of human rights activists as stupid and lily-livered who just didn't get that A Man Had To Get His Hands Dirty In The Service Of The Greater Good - it was too much, it felt vile, and I stopped watching. Now, these two were extremes. But do I have shows/books/movies which aren't as extreme but have a conservative subtext or text I don't agree with, but which I nonetheless enjoy? Hm. Tolkien comes to mind. I have an old post somewhere about how much the concept of entire people as evil disturbs me (Gimli and Legolas competing about who has more Orc kills in a joking manner depends on the reader, or watcher in the case of the films, accepting the premise of Orcs - and trolls, and goblins - as creatures so single-mindedly evil and without any non-evil trait that it's impossible to do anything but kill them, a premise that much post-Tolkien fantasy copied), and there is an obvious implication in the general idea of West = Good, East = Bad. Same thing with C.S. Lewis. Still, I can read and enjoy Tolkien or C.S. Lewis. But they are dead authors, not contemporary ones. And for all the good points about the casting fail of a nearly all- white Sunnydale and Los Angeles in BTVS and AtS, or the utter fail of saddling the first regular black companion with an unrequited love story in New Who, I don't think anyone would seriously classify either Joss Whedon or Russell T. Davies or their respective shows as conservative, so I can't use these examples of shows I love who nonetheless occasionally do really stupid (to me) things. I'm trying to think of a show/movie/book that's meant to be conservative and which I nonetheless enjoy, and which isn't decades old or based on a text that's decades (or even centuries) old, and right now, I can't come up with any.
(Which isn't to say I haven't watched some. A few years ago, I was invited to the German premiere of The Patriot - aka Roland Emmerich directing Mel Gibson and shamelessly plagiarizing the grand finale of Hitlerjunge Quex for his climax, just substituting the Stars and Stripes for the swastika flagg and the sadistic Brit for the evil Communist, in the justfied confidence the American viewers wouldn't recognize it - and disliked every minute even before we came to that final embarrassment.)
There are, perhaps, some exceptions when it comes to comics. I'm thinking of Frank Miller before he went completely off the rails - I was impressed both by The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, despite the fact I had huge problems with some of the content. Though again, decades old text; otoh the author is still alive (and ranting), so maybe that qualifies. Oh, and I liked the first trade collection of Fables despite knowing Bill Willingham was at right-wing as they come, though I'm really glad I didn't continue (browsing through the third collection aside), given what I've heard about later events both in terms of actuall Fables content and of authorial intentions. I don't think my walls would have benefited from books thrown at them once I got to evil abortionists and/or evil workers rising. Still. Now I can think of some moderate conservatives whose work I've enjoyed - Clint Eastwood (a registered Republican) as a director, for example - but in this case I don't think the work in question qualifies as an example of conservative texts. Unforgiven, perhaps? Though I'd argue the main character is actually the anti Jack Bauer and the film is a critique of the "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" topos, I suppose it could be read differently. Hm.
The first two examples which came immediately to mind of something that revolted me ideologically to the point where I couldn't enjoy it anymore hailed from two opposite ends of the political spectrum. One was the 2002 movie Hero (directed by Zhang Ximou). Gorgeously shot, beautifully choreagraphed and acted, and I sat there, utterly chilled, being reminded of nothing as much as the seminar on Third Reich Propaganda movies I attended when at the university, though in the case of "Hero", we were talking left not right totalitarianism. But the basic idea - the invidual is nothing, the grand vision of a unified country under one leader is everything, and worth any sacrifice of lives and liberty - that was ever so familiar. Using Chinese history to express it the way Zhang Ximour did reminded me of the use of Prussian history by the Nazis in films such as the 1942 Veit Harlan film Der große König. (Vaguely based on events during the reign of Friedrich II., a Goebbels-ordered response to the defeat at Stalingrad, with scenes like the one in which Friedrich says it would have been the duty of a certain regiment to die to the last man rather than surrender, and scenes in which an officer saves a regiment by acting against a direct order but nonetheless is punished because he acted against the order which is presented as the right thing to do.) In a contemporary context - with the Tianmen massacre not that long ago when "Hero" was released, with the approval of the Chinese goverment - it really was just as horrifying, and to this day, I haven't been able to rewatch, or see any more films from this director, one of China's best.
The other example is the American show 24, the first two season of which I watched while being increasingly appalled and giving up after the first episode of the third. Glorification of torture in the age of Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo, vilification of human rights activists as stupid and lily-livered who just didn't get that A Man Had To Get His Hands Dirty In The Service Of The Greater Good - it was too much, it felt vile, and I stopped watching. Now, these two were extremes. But do I have shows/books/movies which aren't as extreme but have a conservative subtext or text I don't agree with, but which I nonetheless enjoy? Hm. Tolkien comes to mind. I have an old post somewhere about how much the concept of entire people as evil disturbs me (Gimli and Legolas competing about who has more Orc kills in a joking manner depends on the reader, or watcher in the case of the films, accepting the premise of Orcs - and trolls, and goblins - as creatures so single-mindedly evil and without any non-evil trait that it's impossible to do anything but kill them, a premise that much post-Tolkien fantasy copied), and there is an obvious implication in the general idea of West = Good, East = Bad. Same thing with C.S. Lewis. Still, I can read and enjoy Tolkien or C.S. Lewis. But they are dead authors, not contemporary ones. And for all the good points about the casting fail of a nearly all- white Sunnydale and Los Angeles in BTVS and AtS, or the utter fail of saddling the first regular black companion with an unrequited love story in New Who, I don't think anyone would seriously classify either Joss Whedon or Russell T. Davies or their respective shows as conservative, so I can't use these examples of shows I love who nonetheless occasionally do really stupid (to me) things. I'm trying to think of a show/movie/book that's meant to be conservative and which I nonetheless enjoy, and which isn't decades old or based on a text that's decades (or even centuries) old, and right now, I can't come up with any.
(Which isn't to say I haven't watched some. A few years ago, I was invited to the German premiere of The Patriot - aka Roland Emmerich directing Mel Gibson and shamelessly plagiarizing the grand finale of Hitlerjunge Quex for his climax, just substituting the Stars and Stripes for the swastika flagg and the sadistic Brit for the evil Communist, in the justfied confidence the American viewers wouldn't recognize it - and disliked every minute even before we came to that final embarrassment.)
There are, perhaps, some exceptions when it comes to comics. I'm thinking of Frank Miller before he went completely off the rails - I was impressed both by The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, despite the fact I had huge problems with some of the content. Though again, decades old text; otoh the author is still alive (and ranting), so maybe that qualifies. Oh, and I liked the first trade collection of Fables despite knowing Bill Willingham was at right-wing as they come, though I'm really glad I didn't continue (browsing through the third collection aside), given what I've heard about later events both in terms of actuall Fables content and of authorial intentions. I don't think my walls would have benefited from books thrown at them once I got to evil abortionists and/or evil workers rising. Still. Now I can think of some moderate conservatives whose work I've enjoyed - Clint Eastwood (a registered Republican) as a director, for example - but in this case I don't think the work in question qualifies as an example of conservative texts. Unforgiven, perhaps? Though I'd argue the main character is actually the anti Jack Bauer and the film is a critique of the "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" topos, I suppose it could be read differently. Hm.
