Once upon a time, I saw movies - often. They were, for me, like going to church. Not a religious experience. A SPIRITUAL one. That I aspired to have, every time I stood at the box office, and paid for my ticket at the entrance to a movie house. Yes, sometimes I was also seeking escape, entertainment. I had some awareness of that. But what I had only an intermittent awareness of, at best, was that, on its deepest level, the impulse to go to a movie was a spiritual hunger at the very center of my being, that was leading me.
A great movie, for example, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, seemed to me, to speak to, inform, and even to nourish this hunger, this need. In a way that, sometimes even my real life was unable to. There was, in the performance Gregory Peck gave in the film, as Atticus Finch, something about that indefinable, mysterious energy: Grace. And how it might be channeled through a human being and into the world in which we live. An example of how an individual had the potential to conduct himself, not only onscreen in a darkened movie theatre - but, in REAL LIFE. That’s how seriously I took films, or wanted to - once upon a time.
But something changed. Some several years ago, I began to get bored watching what was up there on the screen. Tried to force myself to remain in my seat in movie houses. And found, that more and more often I was unable to stay put until the end of the film I had paid to see. I began to wonder, not about what was up there on the screen, but instead, what I was missing outside of the movie theatre? Like, maybe a beautiful sunset? Or maybe, just - real life. Instead of reel life.
Some actors, to me, were also more than only actors. They were guides or examples. Of humanity, generosity of spirit. For example James Stewart in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
Or Maria Falconetti, as Jeanne d’ Arc in the 1928 film of Carl Dryer THE PASSION OF JOAN of ARC, or Vanessa Redgrave in the movie, JULIA. It almost felt like a transfusion was taking place, between the actor onscreen and my very heart and soul, when I was in the presence of a certain kind of a performance by an actor. When it happened I walked out of the theatre, not quite the same person as the one who had walked into it. I treasured that exchange. I believed in it, believed in the power of FILM. I still do.I remember a line in the movie, SWINGERS: “You’re so money!” And I think perhaps its what’s caused me to come to my computer this afternoon to see if there is anything inside in the way of an insight as to why I almost NEVER take the time anymore to see movies. I’ve the sense that the only consideration giving birth to most movies being made today is one thing and one thing only: MONEY!!
Its invaded every aspect of what’s being put up on the screen. Including the very faces of the
actors who are the biggest stars today. For example, George Clooney. “You’re so money, Georgie boy.” And, again, just for me, I can’t find anything else up there on that screen when you’re in front of the camera than the sense that “You are so money.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Of course, money matters. Its just that there doesn’t seem to me to be ANYTHING ELSE that also matters. I look at George Clooney, and there is nothing up there on the screen that compels me to KEEP looking at him. He’s no guide or example to me. Except for - how to appear to be - The Last Movie Star.
And then there’s Brad and Angelina. Pretty people. And until a couple of years ago when I stopped watching them - again, for me, nothing other than that. Prettiness holds my attention, for seconds, no more. The people making films today believe that prettiness is all that matters. Its why an Ashton and a Cameron above the title of a film are all the producers of that movie feel the folks out there need to see to run and see their film. And, did they run to see it, or stay away, in droves?There once was something more than appearance that anchored an actor’s presence onscreen. I don’t see or feel it anymore. Watch a Robert DeNiro movie these days. Any one - it doesn’t matter which one. There’re all the same, because he’s the same in all of them. He hasn’t evolved as an actor in the last twenty five years, at least. Not since he decided to become a movie star. Its why comics can so successfully parody him now. Its because of how successfully he parodies himself, film after film.
He makes faces at the camera, and calls it acting. And gets paid millions of dollars for it. LIKE JACK! See a movie like FIVE EASY PIECES, and then watch anything Jack Nicholson has done after it. And you’ll see JACK beginning to be JACK!!! - and nothing else ever since.
I’m afraid its happening right now to my favorite actor alive - Morgan Freeman. I’m hearing the ads for the new film he’s in with Angelina Jolie, WANTED - and for the very first time there is something that rings artificial in his voiceover for the film. As though my favorite actor is now all about- money!Say it isn’t so, Morgan, say it isn’t so that you’ve become:
Once, movie houses were, to me, WOMBS OF LIGHT. They were spaces where sometimes miraculous energy appeared, and was circulated. The vibrations of a person’s cells could be altered. He or she could be QUICKENED. Today they’ve become nothing more than cages of emptiness…. Cash registers of boredom.
