Movies in Today's Society

Branden Negron

Visual Literacy

Professor Hammond

I’ve noticed a common theme in contemporary film today is some sort of world ending theme. Whether it be discussing the depletion of our earth’s natural resources as portrayed in James Cameron’s “Avatar” or literally showcasing our planet’s last days as seen in Roland Emmerich’s “2012”. As Film Noir came to be emblematic of the post World War Two era, I believe these world-ending genres have become a big part of our era, today.

I have noticed how more and more films have fed off of our society’s fear in addressing the world coming to an end. Movies have been made to satisfy each situation of when and how the world will end. This fear can be attributed to the whole theory that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and since they successfully predicted their empire’s demise it is believed that they would successfully predict civilization’s demise as well.

The film industry was smart in tackling our current global environmental issues considering we are surely seeing a dramatic change in our environment compared to centuries and even decades ago. However, I do believe that the production of these types of films have brought along positive aspects as far as making our population more aware of the issue, which is not to be taken lightly. Movies like “2012” and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” were created to instill fear in the audience, in a dark, helpless way, but do leave room for hope and recovery in the end. The feeling does remind me of Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Detour”, in the sense that Film Noir gives you a dark feeling through out the movie but sometimes ends on a lighter note.

I also enjoy seeing how it is that they even incorporate this theme of environmental destruction in children’s animation movies such as “Rango”, which was directed by Gore Verbinski. Rango proves similar to Avatar in the sense that it preaches the importance of natural resources and their level of necessity, which we had begun to start forgetting. Rango, to me, is one of the best allegories for our current economic and environmental state. This leads to the next big genre being depicted in films today. Our failing economy.

Movies such as “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, directed by Oliver Stone have done a great job to take fictitious events and relate them to the exact events we are witnessing in today’s America. Many movies have sort of assimilated the crashing markets to the end of the world, almost bringing them hand in hand. Once again, they are feeding off of the fear of the American people. They use characters that seem like ordinary people to put the audience right in the middle of the chaos. Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor and top critic on RottenTomatoes.com said, “Money Never Sleeps doesn't get inside the sociopathology of the money culture. In a sense, it is a product, an expression, of that culture. Maybe that's why it's so disagreeably agreeable.” This is true and goes to show that the film industry will portray something that can be universally understood to make sure the audience still gets the underlying message.

I believe that it doesn’t matter what era you’re in. Films will always mirror the trends and conditions of the time they are produced in. Right now the end of the world and end of our economy may be the dominant themes, but who knows what could be next, that is if we survive 2012.