tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/at-the-movies-12362/articlesAt The Movies – The Conversation2015-11-24T10:07:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509232015-11-24T10:07:07Z2015-11-24T10:07:07ZCharlie Sheen, Rock Hudson and the changing face of HIV stigma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102811/original/image-20151123-18255-klju53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shocking secret? How the tabloids saw it</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/23139278256/in/photolist-BfJRgo-AaMWKC-zUrUxt-AkCZGP-AcVDW8-Qw3vY-AbXdUk-zeWcYd-r5t7ig-d5EGT7-hfvDPk-dyWKAi-bDW4qu-eZhoes-4CdSB8-zUnv7Y-A9DW4J-A9Eu8U-8Gr3mt-bmV4Ry-tmwZd-9L2QeW-4CdPxB-dBNzcN-9yDiHq-oxrG9J-5uDrNE-83fDJ1-83cvde-zUrT3p-83cuYx-LrM9E-9yST5C-ox8ytZ-8YSe7v-9yApLF-9yDm7j-9yUJ7y-5ijSv-9zgSFW-NgLky-NgLjA-hfExLa-8Dc9XM-ay3tow-9yKvfZ-LrCn5-LrCnW-qnTkh8-aMFgAn">Mike Mozart/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Charlie Sheen’s recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34845630">disclosure</a> that he is HIV positive echoes a similar announcement made by another movie star, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/01/entertainment/rock-hudson-anniversary-death/">Rock Hudson</a> 30 years ago – and it’s interesting to compare the two cases. </p>
<p>Both tried unsuccessfully to conceal their HIV status. Hudson was betrayed by his appearance: he was visibly unwell and his disclosure came just a few months before his death. Sheen appears, and is, healthy, but he says that he was being <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1589181/charlie-sheen-blackmailed-over-hiv-status">blackmailed</a> – and his need for secrecy and his vulnerability to extortion suggests that HIV stigma remains strong.</p>
<p>So what has changed between 1985 and 2015?</p>
<p>Well, HIV has changed immeasurably, thanks mainly to the development of effective pharmacological treatments. If Rock Hudson were diagnosed today, he could reasonably look forward to a healthy life expectancy. He might also expect to be non-infectious. Sheen’s use of the word “undetectable” has done much to alert non-specialist audiences to the transformations taking place in the lives of people with HIV. </p>
<p>Of the roughly 80,000 people with diagnosed HIV in the UK, for example, <a href="http://i-base.info/htb/27587">95% are having regular blood tests to measure levels of the virus. Of those, 90% are on treatments, and 90% of them are “virally suppressed” or “undetectable”</a>. This means that for the majority of people with diagnosed HIV in the UK: (a) their disease progression has been essentially halted and (b) they are functionally non-infectious, that is to say it would be very difficult for them to pass on HIV to their sexual partners. The challenge for public health now is to get the estimated <a href="http://www.savinglivesuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Savinglives-National-testing-sticker-vers.pdf">25,000 people</a> who have undiagnosed HIV infection to come forward for testing.</p>
<h2>Changing times</h2>
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<p>HIV stigma has come a long way, too. Perhaps it was because the symptoms of HIV were so visible in the 1980s that those who first wrote about it were cultural theorists such as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20474318_Disease_and_representation._Images_of_illness_from_madness_to_AIDS._By_Sander_Gilman._Essay_review">Sander Gilman</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Lesbian_and_Gay_Studies_Reader.html?id=PaNdHqo-9wIC">Simon Watney</a>. Recent cinematic histories such as <a href="http://surviveaplague.com">How to Survive a Plague</a> and <a href="http://www.unitedinanger.com">United in Anger</a> show us that HIV stigma, and the response to it were messy, political, confrontational and often theatrical.</p>
<p>However, in the intervening decades, the concept of HIV stigma has itself been transformed: HIV stigma has been metricised. Like all diseases, HIV has bio-medical, interpersonal and social/political dimensions. The challenge for public health systems is to formulate effective responses on all three fronts; and to measure effectiveness, we need metrics. </p>
<p>Demonstrating the efficacy of biomedical interventions is relatively straightforward. Likewise, we can measure the effectiveness of interpersonal interventions to improve knowledge and change behaviours. But intervening on the social/political level is more complicated. </p>
<p>Consensus in the early 2000s that HIV stigma compromises both the health of people with HIV and HIV prevention efforts led to the establishment of <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/targetsandcommitments">global targets</a> for the reduction of stigma and the proliferation of instruments to measure stigma. Thus, HIV stigma has emerged as pretty much the only ‘social’ metric used by public health systems to measure the effectiveness of responses to HIV.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102996/original/image-20151124-18255-1lkt27d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The red ribbon: changing attitudes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/xshamx/3538898056/in/photolist-6oHM6J-cC5UbU-6cYmLy-rpfsyt-hwX3tc-i1husM-nCBY3W-624rq-afRKUN-8B58rq-beXpQc-9YyT5h-nB8uMK-abMqf5-dS2wA-jKHEHn-hwWbiK-hwWAKm-67mQRq-mXniC6-m3ekmk-61y7dV-sdLXCd-rp46yL-67icCi-oywnZb-hwX5xK-9LAzam-78VnSV-y37KZ2-dGdB3m-2KEzx-hwX4gq-7rpXUq-KN3VA-7Nzfxr-mXnaHk-aepisK-bq3mLa-hfDBBb-pCUpCu-5fTN6R-s6XTTw-rXuYoc-rp449q-f7JUJR-beXdmP-hfvH5i-i1hyBt-7vJA4w">Sham Hardy/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>While no one would argue that HIV stigma does not present a major barrier to HIV treatment and care, this “metricisation” proposes a simplified construction of stigma: as something bad that “society” does to people with HIV or as something to be eradicated by interventions. </p>
<p>The work of <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=Foucault%2C+M.+%281979%29.+The+History+of+Sexuality%2C+Vol.+1%3A+an+introduction.+London%3A+Allen+Lane.&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5">Foucault</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=Goffman%2C+E.+%281963%29.+Stigma%3A+Notes+on+the+management+of+spoiled+identity.+New+York%3A+Prentice-Hall.&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5">Goffman</a> and – in relation to HIV – <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953602003040">Richard Parker</a>, however, reminds us of richer constructions of stigma; of stigma as it works on, between and <em>within</em> different groups to regulate behaviours and preserve or undermine existing power balances. </p>
<h2>Why stigma is here to stay</h2>
<p>Our own <a href="http://sigmaresearch.org.uk/reports/item/report2004f">work</a> shows the ways in which people with HIV are affected by stigma but also how they as individuals and groups are constrained to use stigma to maintain group and individual difference. Stigma is productive: for better or worse, it can’t be eradicated because it is an integral part of the way we work as a society.</p>
<p>This allows us to think about how HIV stigma has changed over the decades. In the early days, HIV infection itself was stigmatised: all people with HIV were the subject of moral condemnation. Later, a distinction arose between the “innocent victims” of HIV (those infected through blood products or in utero) and those who had “brought it on themselves” through their lifestyle: gay men, sex workers and people who use drugs. </p>
<h2>‘Bad’ ways of living</h2>
<p>However, more recently, the focus of stigma seems to be shifting away from how you <em>contracted</em> HIV infection and towards how you <em>live with</em> HIV. HIV stigma perpetuates ideas that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ways of living with HIV. </p>
<p>The “good” way is to be responsible: to take medications properly and look after yourself. Preferably one should be undetectable and should disclose one’s HIV status to all partners. The “bad” way is to be irresponsible: to be sexually promiscuous, inject drugs, be a sex worker, to not adhere to medications, to be unhealthy and probably have a detectable viral load.</p>
<p>Thus we see that in the same breath that he discloses his HIV status, Sheen distances himself from these aspects of “bad” HIV: he uses a lot of recreational drugs but he was never involved with “needles and that whole mess”; he had a lot of sexual partners, but he “always led with condoms and honesty”; he hired sex workers whom he is quick to describe as “unsavoury and insipid types”. Above all, he is under medical supervision – he presents his doctor in person on the <em>Today</em> show who verifies that he is “undetectable”. </p>
<p>HIV stigma presents those of us involved in public health with a dilemma. Stigma serves to perpetuate highly normative yet highly desirable (in public health terms) behaviours and attitudes: personal responsibility, treatment compliance, a healthy lifestyle etc. However it also demonises those deemed “irresponsible”: those people with HIV who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not adopt different behaviour. HIV stigma is simultaneously productive and divisive and that makes us very uncomfortable indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Keogh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Decades on, is HIV still a taboo subject?Peter Keogh, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/479112015-10-02T15:57:37Z2015-10-02T15:57:37ZThe Martian: a space epic that explores ordinary human decency<p>On the red planet, amid arid desert and rolling mountain ranges, six sleekly space-suited astronauts grope their way back to their launch vehicle, fleeing a sudden and vicious wind storm.</p>
<p>Pelted and blinded by sand and metal, one of them is struck by debris and flung off into the darkness. The others, unable to stay any longer, leave him for dead, blasting off for Earth.</p>
<p>Later, the abandoned (yet still living) astronaut is snapped back to consciousness by a screeching alarm: his suit is out of oxygen. He’s been skewered in the stomach by a sheared-off piece of equipment. Picking himself up, he staggers inside the group’s now-deserted habitation module. Digging with pliers inside his belly, he plucks out pieces of buried shrapnel. Stapling his wound, he realizes he is stranded, alone, on Mars.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” he says, not unreasonably.</p>
<p>And so we meet Mark Watney: astronaut, botanist, survivalist and one of the more unlikely heroes of modern page and screen. </p>
<p>Adapted from Andy Weir’s novel, The Martian is the story of Watney’s attempt to stay alive long enough to be rescued. </p>
<p>It’s an uncomplicated plot: unlike most sci-fi blockbusters, there are no space monsters, no grand themes of intergalactic destiny, no evil villains. Earth is not in danger; time is not being traveled. The stakes are neither bigger, nor smaller, than a single human life – specifically, the life of Watney, played by Matt Damon with an appealing irreverence. </p>
<p>Watney is a talented problem-solver, yet he’s prone to the occasional overconfidence of a weekend home improvement enthusiast. Sparking a chemical reaction to produce water, Watney blasts himself across the room. Running out of ketchup to leaven the taste of his home-grown, life-sustaining potatoes, he dips them in crushed Vicodin. Asked by NASA for a PR photo, he poses, thumbs up and grinning, as the Fonz. Watney is motivated, it seems, by a refusal to be beaten by the absurd situation in which he finds himself. He’s also tickled by his accrual of self-anointed titles: best botanist on the planet, space pirate, colonial overlord of Mars.</p>
<p>What makes Watney adorable rather than obnoxious is his decency and self-effacement. He seems relatively untroubled by his own predicament, but crushed that his comrades will feel guilty for leaving him behind. He thinks of his parents, and wants them to know that he was on Mars doing something he loved and (as he doesn’t fail to note) was unbelievably good at.</p>
<p>A basic goodness characterizes his crewmates too: from Jessica Chastain’s effortlessly in-charge Commander Lewis to Michael Pena’s hotshot pilot Martinez, who is Watney’s closest friend on the crew. </p>
<p>It is Martinez who sends the first message to Watney once they realize he is still alive. “Sorry we left you behind on Mars,” Martinez texts Watney, “But we just don’t like you.”</p>
<p>The Martian is grounded in present or near-future technologies. Text messages drive the plot. Watney narrates his daily life to webcams in the habitation module, effectively creating his own channel on Martian YouTube. And of course, he has acquired his own <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BringHimHome?src=hash">hashtag</a> during the promotion of the movie.</p>
<p>Ridley Scott makes some excellent directorial choices. Reprising a technique he deployed in Alien, Scott has his astronauts talk like ordinary human beings, rather than stilted protagonists in a space opera. He effectively conveys the smallness of Watney against the vast desolation of Mars. The Hermes spacecraft is beautiful.</p>
<p>I thought it was a mistake, though, to set the Earth portion of the plot in motion so quickly. The book is dominated by Watney’s first-person narration, driving home his isolation. In the movie, we can see NASA working on a solution before we’ve really understood the extent of Watney’s problems, and, as a result, tension dissipates.</p>
<p>Yet tension is not this movie’s metier; it’s a relentlessly positive tale. Most uplifting was the confidence that ordinary human decency – not existential questioning or threat, not supernatural intervention – could be the driving force in a space epic. </p>
<p>Watney wants to stay alive, and his friends and colleagues want to rescue him. It’s no more complicated than that. So while Watney generally despairs of the disco music his departed colleagues left behind on their laptops, he doesn’t protest when the slightly on-the-nose <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkACVDFmeg">I Will Survive</a> turns up on the playlist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Benedict Dyson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Review: stranded on Mars’ desolate landscape, a cocky, endearing protagonist breathes life into this survival tale.Stephen Benedict Dyson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442542015-07-08T05:24:24Z2015-07-08T05:24:24ZDo 3D films make you dizzy – or is it just your imagination?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87622/original/image-20150707-1281-zcu5p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">3D films had a strange effect on Jason.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The realism of today’s 3D blockbusters can blow audiences away. By using 3D glasses to present different images to the two eyes, stereoscopic <a href="http://journal.smpte.org/content/121/4/24.abstract">3D technology fools the brain into believing it is viewing a real scene</a> rather than a flat image on a screen. Now 3D televisions enable viewers to experience the effect at home as well. </p>
<p>Yet 3D has not become as popular as some might have hoped. Many people say watching 3D gives them unpleasant side-effects such as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/6952352/Do-3D-films-make-you-sick.html">headache or nausea</a>. Scientists don’t fully understand why this is. It’s true that <a href="http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2121032">badly made 3D effects can cause discomfort</a>. However, makers of 3D content are <a href="http://www.sky.com/shop/__PDF/3D/Basic_Principles_of_Stereoscopic_3D_v1.pdf">well aware of the possible issues</a> and work hard to avoid them.</p>
<p>A more fundamental problem may be conflict between different senses. When we watch a film such as <a href="http://www.avatarmovie.com/index.html">Avatar</a>, our visual system may tell us that we are wheeling high in the skies of a distant moon, but other senses tell us that we are sitting motionless in a chair. Of course, 2D films present this kind of conflict as well, but our brains may simply be more used to accepting that 2D content is not “real”. </p>
<p>Some people have suggested that 3D content may cause more serious side effects. For example, <a href="http://www.samsung.com/ca/pdf/3D-tv-warning_en.pdf">Samsung’s safety leaflet</a> links its 3D TV set to a vast range of possible symptoms – not only headache, fatigue, motion sickness and eye strain, but also decreased postural stability, altered vision, dizziness, cramps, convulsions and even loss of awareness. Clearly if 3D TV has such effects, there are important safety implications. But to date, very little work has been done to assess this. </p>
<p>We recently <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsos.140522">invited 433 volunteers</a>, aged from 4 to 82 years, into my lab to watch the film <a href="http://toystory.disney.com">Toy Story</a> on either a 2D or 3D TV. We used two common types of 3D TV, known as “active” and “passive”. Participants carried out a battery of tests designed to assess their balance and coordination, both before and after viewing. They wore two triaxial accelerometers – small devices to record their body movements – as they walked around a simple obstacle course. To assess eye-hand coordination, participants played a “buzz the wire” game, guiding a hoop along a convoluted wire track without allowing the two to come into contact. </p>
<p>We argued that, if viewing 3D made participants dizzy, they would take longer to complete the obstacle course, and/or the accelerometers would show that their body movements were less stable. If it affected their vision, they would take longer to complete the “buzz the wire” game, and/or make more mistakes. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.3deyehealth.org/">Some people have suggested</a> that adverse effects with 3D reflect underlying visual problems. So we also had our volunteers’ vision <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/action/downloadTable?id=t0003&doi=10.1080%2F00140139.2014.914581&downloadType=PDF">thoroughly assessed</a> by eye care professionals before they visited the lab. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87623/original/image-20150707-1302-7ork3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Of course, Holly’s nausea had nothing to do with the 1kg of popcorn she’d just eaten.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>On our objective tests of balance and coordination, we couldn’t detect any effects of 3D at all. Not surprisingly, people tended to perform a little better the second time round. But it didn’t seem to matter whether they had watched the film in 2D or 3D, or whether the 3D was active or passive. We also couldn’t find any links between age or eyesight and whether people were affected by 3D.</p>
<p>We did find that people who had viewed the 3D movie reported that the depth was <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2014.914581">more realistic</a>. They also reported more <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2014.914581">adverse effects</a>, mainly headache and eye strain, but also including dizziness or nausea. However, it’s not clear that the dizziness was really due to 3D.</p>
<p>Craftily, we gave some of our volunteers 3D glasses, making them think they were viewing in 3D, but showed them the film in 2D. These people <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/tandf/journals/content/terg20/2014/terg20.v057.i08/00140139.2014.914581/20140704/images/large/terg_a_914581_f0007_oc.jpeg">reported dizziness</a> at about the same rate (3%) as those viewing real 3D. In contrast, people viewing real 3D were much more likely to report headache or eyestrain (around 10%) than people who just thought they were viewing 3D. This suggests that while 3D gives some people a headache, it doesn’t really make people dizzy – people just expect it to. </p>
<p>Of course, it’s possible that 3D caused an impairment that was so subtle or transient that our tests failed to detect it. On the other hand, that also implies less cause for concern in everyday life. We also tested only one 3D film, choosing Toy Story as something fun and engaging for all age-groups. Even if computer-generated 3D from the experts at Pixar doesn’t cause dizziness, it remains possible that less carefully-controlled 3D content – say, live-action football – could do so.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, given the lack of previous work in this area, our study provides welcome reassurance. Can 3D effects give you a headache? Yes, for some people. Can they make you dizzy? Probably not. Do they make Toy Story more exciting? That depends who’s watching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Research in Jenny Read's laboratory is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health. PhD students co-supervised by Dr Read are currently funded by Epilepsy Action, the Wellcome Trust, the US National Institutes of Health, BSkyB, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Biology and Biotechnology Research Council. The research study described in this article was funded by BSkyB while Dr Read was also funded by a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society.</span></em></p>New research suggests if 3D films make you dizzy it’s probably all in your mind.Jenny Read, Reader in vision science, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368562015-02-04T11:14:15Z2015-02-04T11:14:15ZAmerican Sniper perpetuates Hollywood’s typical Arab stereotypes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70955/original/image-20150203-25540-5i3ddu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hollywood films have long depicted Arabs in a negative light. Pictured is the movie poster from 1921's The Sheik.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/The_Sheik_poster.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first Iraqis to appear in Clint Eastwood’s Iraq War drama, American Sniper, are a young mother and boy of maybe 12. They are seen from the point of view of the man who will kill them: Chris Kyle, the real-life Navy Seal whose tours in Iraq provide the narrative for this controversial movie. </p>
<p>Through his high-powered scope on a nearby rooftop, Kyle watches the mother, shrouded in her burqa and ḥijāb, hand a grenade to the boy and send him through the rubble towards a squad of American troops. </p>
<p>Kyle, though tortured by having to do it, executes them both. </p>
<p>But the movie does not pause to register the tragedy of their deaths. The drama in the scene – and throughout the movie –- turns on the crisis for Kyle, of the moral and emotional consequences of the war for <em>him</em>. </p>
<p>The woman and child, like all Iraqis in the film, are rendered as conspicuously “other”: distant, dangerous, unknowable and malevolent. In this scene, for example, Eastwood does not show us their fear or anguish. Filming the action from Kyle’s point of view keeps them at a remove from the viewers’ sympathies.</p>
<p>What’s more, the movie fails to provide any kind of larger context that might explain their actions. Except for a few throwaway lines, American Sniper does not delve into the circumstances surrounding the Iraq War and what many consider the US crimes and fabrications that led to it. </p>
<p>It certainly doesn’t present a point of view in which Iraqis, still reeling from the trauma of decades of totalitarian oppression, are seen as protecting their homeland from brutal foreign occupiers. </p>
<p>Instead, the Iraqis are derided as “savages” in the film by Kyle and others. And though that may represent attitudes held by the characters, Eastwood does not make it clear enough that the filmmakers don’t share their views, one of the reasons why the liberal U.S. media <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/01/25/the_ugly_truth_of_american_sniper_partner/">has criticized the film</a>.</p>
<p>These critics are correct when they say that American Sniper is consistent with historical representations of Arabs in Hollywood movies. As Jack Shaheen, who has done pioneering work on the subject, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reel-Bad-Arabs-Hollywood-Vilifies/dp/1566567521">writes</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Seen through Hollywood’s distorted lenses, Arabs look different and threatening. Projected along racial and religious lines, the stereotypes are deeply ingrained in American cinema. From 1896 until today, filmmakers have collectively indicted all Arabs as Public Enemy #1 – brutal, heartless, uncivilized religious fanatics and money-mad cultural “others” bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his work, Shaheen has analyzed virtually every Hollywood feature ever made that depicts Arabs, ranging from The Sheik (1921), to Disney’s Aladdin (1992), to Rules of Engagement (2000). He found that they are almost invariably depicted as “brute murderers, sleazy rapists, religious fanatics, oil-rich dimwits and abusers of women.” </p>
<p>Of course, these characters certainly don’t reflect the diversity and multiplicity of real Arabs who number in the hundreds of millions and contribute to a mosaic of cultures, languages and religions throughout the Middle East. </p>
<p>While other non-white groups, such as African Americans and Latinos, have arguably seen their representation in Hollywood films improve and diversify over time (at least marginally), Arabs and others of Middle Eastern descent continue to be maligned and silenced, still used as easy villains in recent movies such as Iron Man (2008) and Lone Survivor (2013). Even films that humanize them, such as Three Kings (1999), Syriana (2005), and The Hurt Locker (2008), still operate from white, American points of view and often feature Arabs as weak and backward. </p>
<p>Despite what could be described as more racially progressive work in earlier films – Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters From Iwo Jima (2006), Gran Torino (2008) – Eastwood engages in these traditional patterns of representation in American Sniper. </p>
<p>In one scene, Kyle and his men kick in the door of a family to use their house as a staging area. After a time, the family invites Kyle and his men to dinner. During the meal, Kyle suspects that the man is an insurgent. He leaves the table and searches the house, finding a cache of weapons: the man is the enemy he is suspected of being, and Kyle brutalizes him. Later, like so many of the Iraqis in this film, the man is mowed down by a US machine gun. </p>
<p>Compare this to a scene in Gran Torino, in which Eastwood’s character, a curmudgeonly old Korean War vet living in Detroit, is invited to dinner at the house of his next-door neighbors, who are Hmong people from Laos. The scene runs for almost ten minutes, as Eastwood lingers on three generations of immigrants – their customs, hardships and relationships to one another. Eastwood does more then humanize the Hmong in Gran Torino; he attempts to normalize them as people no different from their white neighbors, and portrays them with great deal of empathy.</p>
<p>Empathy is what’s missing in American Sniper – at least towards the Iraqis. And it’s Eastwood’s more progressive work that especially renders American Sniper such a disappointment. Given the opportunity to represent Iraqis with the depth and humanity he’s shown to non-whites and non-Americans in previous films, he instead succumbs to the same patterns of representation that have demonized Arabs in American film for a century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36856/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first Iraqis to appear in Clint Eastwood’s Iraq War drama, American Sniper, are a young mother and boy of maybe 12. They are seen from the point of view of the man who will kill them: Chris Kyle, the…Michael Green, Film and Media Studies Lecturer, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/349482014-12-28T16:39:27Z2014-12-28T16:39:27ZIn The Gambler, an anti-hero story is retold<p>“Life is a losing proposition,” explains Mark Wahlberg’s literature professor/compulsive gambler Jim Bennett. “You might as well get it over with.”</p>
<p>Intent on doing just that, Bennett runs up massive debts to dangerous gangsters in this new incarnation of The Gambler, a re-make of James Toback’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071532/">1974 film</a>, itself an interpretation of a Fyodor Dostoyevsky <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Gambler.html?id=q08LVy-0q2IC">novella</a>. The newest version is the slightest of the three tellings, but its occasional successes kept me watching.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68065/original/image-20141228-8213-1dsrybt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An advertisement for the 1974 version of The Gambler, which starred James Caan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/8/22/comedy-director-todd-phillips-to-develop-the-gambler-remake.html">Geek Tyrant</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With seven days to come up with $240,000, Bennett drains the family savings and is disowned by his mother. He leans on a student of his – a star basketball player – to shave points on a game. Moving from one underworld boss to another, he takes ever larger loans on ever harsher terms. Each time he gets staked, he gambles again. He mostly loses.</p>
<p>In its best moments, The Gambler is an effective re-make with some interesting twists. Jim Bennett ends up in a very different place than Axel Freed, the protagonist in the 1974 version. Toward the end of the movie, when Walhberg finally allows his natural likability to pierce the chilly exterior of the character, we hope he gets out of trouble. Brie Larson and John Goodman shine in supporting roles, offering Bennett the promise of redemption and the threat of annihilation, respectively. There’s an ethereal soundtrack and taut direction. In places, it’s reminiscent of Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, another modern anti-hero tale.</p>
<p>Each iteration of the gambler story raises the same question: why do these men of means risk everything? Dostoyevsky’s Alexei Ivanovich wanted the thrill of “dealing fate a blow on her cheek”; only by risking his life could he feel human: “behold, again I was a member of mankind.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68064/original/image-20141228-8211-17wtaa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dostoyevsky’s protagonist gambles to feel alive. Wahlberg’s gambling, on the other hand, is driven by his nihilism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6925918-M.jpg">Open Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Toback’s Axel Freed, played with snarling energy by James Caan, also sought to exert his will. “I like the uncertainty. The feeling that I might lose, but I won’t. Because I don’t want to.”</p>
<p>Wahlberg’s Jim Bennett is a more passive creature. He speaks not of exerting will over fate, but of not bothering to try. His gambling is driven by his nihilism.</p>
<p>Some elements of Bennett’s professorial ennui are believable. His one novel was well-reviewed but sold few copies. His major academic contribution is an innovative interpretation of Camus’ The Stranger, but the insight got buried in some now-forgotten textbook. These are frustrations many scholars will recognize.</p>
<p>The scenes of Wahlberg teaching class don’t ring true, though. We are told that he is bored with his job, his apathetic students and his mediocre colleagues. Yet we see him careening around the lecture hall, firing off bon mots on life, love, and literature. He knows the name and background of every student, peppering them with exhortations and insults, before settling his attention on one particular girl for an uncomfortably long exchange. By this time, the students would be thinking a lot of things, but “he seems bored” would likely not be one of them.</p>
<p>The fashionable verdict on this movie is that a viewer’s time would be better spent on the original. But there’s value in this telling of the story, too. The 1974 film has gained stature mostly in retrospect (it was largely overlooked at the time), and the tighter structure and more defined character arc in this new version will appeal to some. </p>
<p>The Gambler is a great human archetype, and stories as compelling as this can be told in more than one way. This isn’t the definitive telling of the tale, but Wahlberg’s gambler is distinctive enough to be worth betting a few hours of your time on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Benedict Dyson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“Life is a losing proposition,” explains Mark Wahlberg’s literature professor/compulsive gambler Jim Bennett. “You might as well get it over with.” Intent on doing just that, Bennett runs up massive debts…Stephen Benedict Dyson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/357522014-12-19T23:25:29Z2014-12-19T23:25:29ZThe Interview, Hollywood and the politics of ridicule<p>Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation. Judd Apatow is <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/judd-apatow-on-sony-canceling-the-interview.html">defending</a> comedy’s history of attacking people who are “bad to other people.” Rob Lowe, Steve Carell, Jimmy Kimmel and many, many more celebrities <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/celebrities-rage-on-twitter-after-sony-cancels-the-interview/">have added their voices to the mix</a>. </p>
<p>The Interview, which features Randall Park in the role of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, follows an absurd (and supposedly comical) assassination plot that <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/12/18/kim-jong-un-death-scene-from-the-interview-leaked/">ends with Mr. Kim’s violent death</a> (evidently, his head explodes). The filmmakers might argue this is “all in good fun,” but the people ridiculed in the film are clearly not amused.</p>
<p>The North Korea-linked cyber-terrorists who hacked into Sony’s computer network last month threatened violence against theaters that screened the film and any moviegoers who dared to attend. When theater owners began backing out of their commitments to show the film, Sony pulled The Interview from distribution. The situation was, effectively, a bomb scare called in to every theater in the U.S.</p>
<p>So far, public discussion has centered on the hackers’ success at using threats of violence to derail an American film. Particularly galling is the notion that cyber-terrorists can dictate the business decisions of an American company. Because the entertainment industry is involved, most see this <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/19/7422711/homeland-security-chief-calls-sony-hack-an-attack-on-our-freedom-of">as a direct attack on freedom of expression</a>. The loudest and most pervasive analysis of this situation is that Sony negotiated with terrorists, Sony caved, and the terrorists won. </p>
<p>On one level, this argument is a fair characterization. </p>
<p>However, we could use this incident as a springboard for a different – and more complicated – discussion, one that goes beyond the “they won, we lost” binary and introduces important questions: does the American entertainment industry have an ethical responsibility when it comes to representing real people? If so, what are the parameters of this responsibility? </p>
<p>The 2006 British film Death of a President portrayed the fictional assassination of George W. Bush. Many commentators couldn’t quite articulate the problem with showing the violent death of a living person, but there was a shock factor in this film that <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20061023003633/http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/UPDATE/609160394">went beyond simple bad taste</a>.</p>
<p>The Interview’s filmmakers probably thought Kim Jung Un was a safe target, given the overwhelmingly (and justifiably) negative public opinion of his regime. If the hackers hadn’t been able to make credible threats, the film might have gone virtually unnoticed by many Americans. Nonetheless, a fictional assassination of a real political figure is ethically problematic.</p>
<p>While Hollywood’s claim to the right of “creative expression” rings true, perhaps this freedom isn’t (or should not be) absolute. I am not suggesting any kind of externally imposed rules limiting the content of films; only from within the ranks of filmmakers can any kind of normative guidelines evolve. </p>
<p>In the end, Sony will most likely find a way to distribute The Interview – and the controversy is sure to enhance its profitability as an “on demand” option or even a theatrical release. </p>
<p>But the question of ethics in the entertainment world will – and should – persist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Phalen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation…Patricia Phalen, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/352422014-12-18T18:35:56Z2014-12-18T18:35:56ZRebooting the history of the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67698/original/image-20141218-31034-i9un8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston's Moses is presented straightforwardly as a man certain of his mission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlton_Heston_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_trailer.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers to a particular sort of revision of familiar properties. Characters who have grown tired and typical and situations that have become predictable and self-referential are reimagined in a bolder, more believable style. </p>
<p>Recent examples include 2005’s Batman Begins and Casino Royale, released the following year.</p>
<p>Ridley Scott’s new film Exodus: Gods and Kings is another. In this case, Scott makes Cecil B. DeMille’s Technicolor spectacle The Ten Commandments, released in 1956, grittier and more plausible. To audiences today, the acting in DeMille’s epic seems bombastic, while the special effects appear naïve and literal. The hero Moses (Charleton Heston) is presented as a man facing straightforward choices between right and wrong, who never doubted his mission.</p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/OqCTq3EeDcY">With arms spread wide</a>, Heston’s Moses orders the Red Sea to part before him. “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us!” he cries. “Behold His mighty hand!”</p>
<p>The film was not exactly subtle.</p>
<p>In contrast, Scott’s revision contains more ambiguity. Moses (Christian Bale) is caught by surprise as much as anyone when the waves begin to pull back from the rocky shores of the Red Sea. Here, the parting acknowledges present day <a href="http://www.newsleader.com/story/life/2014/12/13/scientific-explanation-behind-parting-red-sea/20288229/">speculations</a> that unusual tidal, meteorological, or seismic circumstances could have created a temporary land bridge across a shallow section of sea.</p>
<p>Indeed, removing magic from the miraculous is Scott’s rebooting strategy. Unlike DeMille, who used special effects to show magical violations of natural laws, like the parting of the seas, Scott marshals his extensive digital manipulations mostly to increase the scale of natural events. Miraculous here means huge and spectacular, not supernatural; the ten plagues are rendered as ecological and climatological disasters, not demonstrations of Moses’s direct power over nature. </p>
<p>But in making Exodus more natural and Moses more believable, Scott’s reboot raises interesting theological questions. How does this strange and violent story fit into our own moral universe? </p>
<p>In The Ten Commandments, this wasn’t a problem. Despite its biblical trappings, DeMille’s movie was not asking questions of faith. Its “message” was political – a distinctly mid-twentieth-century American version of politics at the height of the Cold War. The conflict between Moses and Yul Brynner’s Rameses was “the story of the birth of freedom,” DeMille informs us in a <a href="http://youtu.be/o8iNvzzak5U">prologue</a>.</p>
<p>His film poses the question: “Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God?”</p>
<p>Exodus <em>is</em> a story of political freedom, of course, which is why it has inspired so many people who have struggled against oppression. But it is also a story of God destroying an entire society. In DeMille’s version of Exodus, these two aspects are in harmony. God and Moses visit the plagues on Egypt because that is the only way to free the Israelites from bondage.</p>
<p>In Scott’s movie, on the other hand, Moses is first shown organizing the Israelites into a resistance movement. But God grows impatient with this strategy, and tells Moses to stand aside while He batters the Egyptians with frogs, flies, blood, boils, etc. – before eventually killing the eldest child in every Egyptian family.</p>
<p>Moses himself refuses to take responsibility for this cruelty, questioning God and telling Ramses (Joel Edgerton) that these events are out of his control. Here, God’s intervention in history is shown as an alternative to political organization. </p>
<p>In The Ten Commandments, the end – political freedom – was shown to justify the means (divine plagues). In Exodus: Gods and Kings, the plagues are so spectacular and the Egyptian suffering so real that we must wonder, along with Moses, whether such means – in particular the killing of innocent children – could ever be justified. Like the tidal wave on the movie poster, this God is naturally powerful but morally inscrutable.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ridley Scott’s God is naturally powerful but morally inscrutable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://api.comingsoon.net//images//2014/Exodus:_Gods_and_Kings_16.jpg">comingsoon.net</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scott’s movie is dedicated to his brother and professional partner, the director Tony Scott, who committed suicide in August of 2012. No doubt the incomprehensibility of such a desperate act informs Scott’s depiction of God as ethically baffling.</p>
<p>But beyond this personal motivation, Scott’s movie captures something real about religion in the contemporary world. God seems to reveal Himself most clearly in catastrophic “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God">acts of God</a>” that interrupt human purposes. The Greek word for this kind of “revelation,” where God and the world are absolutely opposed, is “apocalypse.”</p>
<p>Scott has given us a Moses for our times – a Moses whose God is not a comprehensible law giver and emancipator but an incomprehensible judge and destroyer. Call it the ultimate reboot, a reboot of all creation. </p>
<p>Apocalypse: Gods and Kings – that’s the real title of Ridley Scott’s new film.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James McFarland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers…James McFarland, Assistant Professor of German, Cinema and Media Arts, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355272014-12-17T10:33:27Z2014-12-17T10:33:27ZRidley Scott’s casting of white actors is symptomatic of larger problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67357/original/image-20141216-14157-p0ges.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ridley Scott's casting choices for Exodus: Gods and Kings are emblematic of a larger, systemic problem in the entertainment industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/exodus-gods-and-kings-stills-should-we-boycott-ridley-scott-s-exodus-gods-and-kings.jpeg?width=1920&height=1200">Movie Pilot</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Director Ridley Scott recently set off a firestorm when he dismissed those who criticized him for casting white actors as every major character in the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings, while reserving roles like “Egyptian thief, "royal servant,” and “Egyptian lower class civilian” for actors of color.</p>
<p>“I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/ridley-scott-exodus-gods-and-kings-christian-bale-1201363668/">he told Variety</a>. At the film’s premiere, he scoffed at the idea of a boycott and recommended that those threatening to stay away from the film should “get a life.”</p>
<p>It would be terrific if the problem were isolated to Scott or Hollywood. But it’s an issue in the entertainment industry as a whole.</p>
<p>A 2014 <a href="http://www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu/index.php/2014/08/bunche-center-hollywood-diversity-report-media-coverage/%20http:/www.aapacnyc.org/stats-2011-2012.html">UCLA study</a> about casting in Hollywood concluded that for films in theatrical release, lead actors were 89.5 percent white. For Broadway and not-for-profit theaters the results were almost as dismal: white actors made up 79 percent of the lead roles.</p>
<p>Just last week highly respected British/South African actress Dame Janet Suzman <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/janet-suzman-black-people-theatre-white-invention">claimed that</a> “white people go to the theatre, it’s in their DNA” and that theater is “a white invention, a European invention and white people go to it.”</p>
<p>Suzman’s remarks were greeted with much the same anger as Scott’s had been.</p>
<p>“Ludicrous,” said Dawn Walton, artistic director of Eclipse, Britain’s leading black-led national touring company.</p>
<p>Artists of African and Asian descent around the world pointed to the diverse, millennia-old theater traditions on those continents.</p>
<p>Suzman didn’t simply refuse to apologize – she doubled down, identifying the origins of theater with playwright William Shakespeare.</p>
<p>When I bring up the topic of casting with my students, I often ask:
Can women play roles written for men? Can white performers play characters of color? Can people of color play characters of a “color” other than their own?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems as though there are few positive real world precedents; examples of prejudice or willful ignorance are far easier to find. </p>
<p>Like Mary Zimmerman, director of The Jungle Book at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. When asked about the racism of Kipling’s work, she <a href="http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/C-Notes/May-2013/Mary-Zimmerman-Race-Gender-Jungle-Book/">responded</a>, “I’ve decided to make it not a concern.”</p>
<p>“Racism is in the eye of the beholder, you know?” She added. “If you look at that as racist, doesn’t that say more about what you’re projecting on to the character?”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the casting of white actors as Japanese characters in a Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society production of The Mikado <a href="http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/asian-blackface-mikado-stirs-controversy-seattle/">made national news this past summer</a>. The actors were made up to look like they were Japanese, leading critics to level charges of “yellow-face” at the production.</p>
<p>And Erin Quill, an actress of Chinese and European descent, wrote a <a href="http://fairyprincessdiaries.com/2012/07/07/moises-kaufman-can-kiss-my-ass-heres-why/">blog post</a> about a Broadway-bound musical in development at the La Jolla Playhouse.</p>
<p>The show, The Nightingale, based on a Hans Christian Anderson story about China, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-la-jolla-playhouse-asian-casting-nightingale-20120717-story.html">cast white actors in all the lead roles</a>. Quill listed all the Broadway-caliber actresses of Asian descent who could have played the lead in lieu of the white actress who was cast.</p>
<p>It’s often said that a good actor can play any role; all the time, actors offer brilliant performances of characters with whom they share little in common. Ordinary people play royalty and nobility, those who grew up with nothing play the wealthy, and actors innocent of any crime can play felons to great effect. </p>
<p>Why, then, does race matter in casting?</p>
<p>One answer is that the entertainment business – like many aspects of our society – is not a level playing field. White actors get cast far more often that performers of any other race, and there’s no single reason for this. In some cases it may be individuals – directors and producers who fear that actors of color aren’t marketable or appeal to too limited an audience. But more likely it is a system that positions whiteness as the norm, as a neutral casting choice that doesn’t carry any racial meanings. </p>
<p>Defenders of the status quo often take refuge in “the best person for the role” argument. However, this line of reasoning usually plays out not as the best person for the role, but as the “safest” choice for the role: a white, known commodity.</p>
<p>Just look at Ridley Scott – and while he may brush aside criticism of his casting decisions, his most recent film is, unfortunately, a microcosm of a much larger issue within the entertainment business. It’s up to audiences to resist the industry’s attempts to whitewash its products, to demand that casting choices reflect what our world actually looks like.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte M. Canning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Director Ridley Scott recently set off a firestorm when he dismissed those who criticized him for casting white actors as every major character in the recently released Exodus: Gods and Kings, while reserving…Charlotte M. Canning, Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professor in Drama, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/348352014-12-10T11:03:39Z2014-12-10T11:03:39ZGuardians of the Galaxy and the fall of the classic hero<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66766/original/image-20141209-32146-1bwxkmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Guardians of the Galaxy -- whose protagonists are a morally-gray motley crew -- could be seen as a satire of the classic hero tradition.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/121483302@N02/14693264267/in/photolist-oooPyx-oXME3w-pUp8XH-oXRiiX-pUHqy3-pVxTyi-7AahTt-pDu41K-oZ7NvP-pVRasc-pDvVXW-pDu4vT-pDqxZ6-pVZhyC-oDoaRy-nBUxCV-odzzFx-q9f3Ru-oTgejw-oL3qy2-efSGS9-oyssWj-nMgLYs-gT4rL1-kfUQa1-oT2UqL-h554sz-oqYjMj-pW672Y-oGA791-ouNtXi-odzBCi-oYfZz7-ait619-oBBPve-oFkWK9-ooXXzq-k8zJvr-k8CbuL-of3aiT-pDvTXU-gmB8R4-898aaT-phEo5L-pDqz1K-oA66cD-ftz7ax-oJbKLD-dm8ex2-feNKEv">BagoGames/Flickr </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A beautiful assassin. A superstrong thug. A star-lost child of the ‘80s. A sentient tree. A gun-toting raccoon. Meet the morally gray protagonists of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the film that raked in $770 million at the box office this past summer and was just released on DVD. </p>
<p>Guardians, I’d like you to meet 20th-century mythology theorist Joseph Campbell. Trust me, you’ll have a lot to talk about.</p>
<p>…Oh, what’s that? You already know Mr. Campbell? Ah, that’s right, I’d forgotten: you beat the <em>stuffing</em> out of his heroic monomyth in your movie this year.</p>
<p>For those unfamiliar with the term: Campbell’s monomyth, also known as the “Hero’s Quest” or “Hero’s Journey,” is a narrative pattern derived from his extensive analysis of myths and stories from all around the world. In his 1949 book <a href="http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=83&p9999_action=details&p9999_wid=692">The Hero with a Thousand Faces</a>, Campbell outlines the pattern that nearly every “heroic” protagonist, going all the way back to ancient times, follows.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, the protagonist is placed outside of his or her comfort zone, and, after toiling through various obstacles and setbacks, emerges to beat the bad guys and change the world for the better. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66767/original/image-20141209-32159-1egk7es.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mythologist Joseph Campbell noticed a pattern in the character arc of hero protagonists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Campbell_(cropped).png">Joan Halifax/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE">trailer</a> of its newest installment was released last week, think of the original Star Wars as an example. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSyyqctan2c">George Lucas had Campbell in mind</a> when he created Luke Skywalker, farmboy turned rebel hero. Lucas even paid attention to the finer points of Campbell’s model, giving Luke a teacher (Obi-Wan), helpers (Han Solo, the droids), a magic talisman or weapon (the light-saber), and, most importantly, a moment that Campbell calls “the Abyss.”</p>
<p>It’s this Abyss – also known as “The Belly of the Whale” – that’s the low point in the monomythic cycle and vital to understanding what’s so notable about Guardians of the Galaxy. In the original Star Wars, Luke Skywalker experiences – all things considered – an “easy” low point: he’s sucked underwater in the Death Star trash compactor. In The Empire Strikes Back, things get a bit thornier: he gets his whole hand chopped off (<a href="http://io9.com/if-the-rumors-are-true-star-wars-episode-vii-is-weird-1608208842">rumored to be a plot point</a> in <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-episode-7-droid-hand/">JJ Abrams’s The Force Awakens</a>) and plummets from Cloud City. Basically, if a hero doesn’t face an actual death, he or she has to (at least) deal with a metaphorical death before returning as a stronger, savvier version of himself.</p>
<p>But where was the Abyss moment in Guardians of the Galaxy? Was it when young Peter Quill loses his mother and is taken by aliens? Or, wait – maybe it’s when he’s thrown into that space prison and escapes? There’s also that moment when his team is nearly killed by an explosion in the Collector’s establishment. And Quill is all-but-dead when he leaves the safety of his ship to freeze and suffocate in exposed space while selflessly saving his teammate Gamora. And who can forget the scene when he is practically torn apart by wielding the Infinity Stone?</p>
<p>It’s as if Quill and his Guardians are running in loops around Campbell’s monomyth. Or, even better, the movie-makers are flagrantly disregarding it. They’re nearly satirizing it.</p>
<p>If audiences step back a bit, it’s easier to see how Guardians of the Galaxy might be a satire of the classic hero tradition. Villains are constantly interrupted mid-maniacal monologue, elaborate plans are impulsively overturned, and Quill, the movie’s closest thing to a hero, challenges the film’s protagonist to a dance-off. (Of course, there’s also the fact that two of the main characters are a tree and a raccoon!)</p>
<p>This is not to write off Guardians of the Galaxy and claim it’s a goof on Campbell’s model. Instead, it could be seen as a reaction to just how predictable, how tired, and even how broken the monomyth is today. The Guardians, remember, are just as much rogues as they are good guys. As Quill asks his team of misfits, “What should we do next: Something good, something bad? Bit of both?”</p>
<p>What Guardians of the Galaxy will do next – presumably in their Summer 2016 sequel – is continue to challenge our modern notions of heroism. Campbell’s monomyth was proposed just after World War II, at the dawn of the Cold War. It was a time when, in popular culture, the distinctions between heroes and villains were far more explicit. </p>
<p>Today, Quill and company are being presented to movie-going audiences at a time when when we’re distancing ourselves from old models – when we sorely crave a new pattern. The pure hero, the “white hat” of the old Westerns, is largely lost to us. Brilliant actors like Robin Williams and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are done in by their own personal ghosts, musicians like Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston succumb to their addictions, and politicians – like the <a href="http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/20803102/4-of-illinois-last-7-governors-went-to-prison">four Illinois governors who have been sent to prison</a> – continue to disappoint. The Dark Knight perhaps said it best: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” </p>
<p>The monomyth is making its final orbit. Heroes are so yesterday. Welcome, instead, to the tomorrow of the Guardians: characters who are a little good, a little bad, and more unpredictable than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A. David Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A beautiful assassin. A superstrong thug. A star-lost child of the ‘80s. A sentient tree. A gun-toting raccoon. Meet the morally gray protagonists of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the film that raked…A. David Lewis, Arts & Sciences Faculty Associate, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/339222014-11-24T09:56:48Z2014-11-24T09:56:48ZEvent cinema could save the movie theater<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65223/original/image-20141121-1037-u9tayv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Movie theaters have seen declining box office revenues over the past two years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rodgers_Theatre,_204-224_N._Broadway_Street,_Poplar_Bluff,_Mo,_USA.jpg">Michael Gabler/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If Dumber and Dumber To, Interstellar and Big Hero 6 didn’t get you to the movies last week, you weren’t alone: just before Thanksgiving, Box Office Mojo put year-to-date gross receipts at almost <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/">$9 billion</a>. </p>
<p>This substantial sum is actually not–so-good news for the movie business, since it represents a decline of almost 4% compared to 2013 – which also saw a box office sales decrease from 2012.</p>
<p>Is the future of public movie going in jeopardy? What might be its salvation?</p>
<p>Almost every Main Street had a cinema until mall-based, multi-screen cineplexes forced many local marquees to go dark. Then home video and cable television came along. Theater owners responded by investing in bigger screens and better projection and versioning (2D, 3D, 70mm and IMAX), which kept the box office booming through 2012.</p>
<p>But now the movie theater business has approached what appears to be a tipping point, where annual box office increases are no longer guaranteed. Affordable home entertainment systems, handheld devices with brilliant displays, and on-demand access to almost any movie ever made – many of them free – pose escalating challenges for theater owners.</p>
<p>Movie theaters still have an appeal. One is better technology. A pristine 35mm print of “Interstellar” or an IMAX 3D Experience of “Big Hero 6” cannot be delivered anywhere except on a big screen. Another is novelty. Many theaters have dressed up their operation, offering full food and drink service in lieu of sticky sodas and buttery popcorn. Watching Dumb and Dumber To inside Showcase Cinemas’ <a href="http://www.showcasecinemas.com/dining/superlux-inseat-dining">Lux Level</a> while eating “succulent steaks” and choosing from a “world-class wine list” might be a tempting experience for adults. </p>
<p>But novelties wear off, and audiences need additional incentives before spending their entertainment dollars. After all, why go to the movies when the same shows can be enjoyed – privately and much more conveniently – for less?</p>
<p>Enter The Vatican – featuring Popes Francis and Benedict XVI – and something called “event cinema.” Its arrival happened not a moment too soon for theater owners in need of new content to attract general audiences. </p>
<p>Last April, in Rome, two of the most iconic Popes in history, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, were jointly canonized. These dual ceremonies are widely considered to be among the highest-profile public events in Vatican history. To mark the historic occasion, the Vatican embarked on a mission to create a landmark movie and television event as part of the Vatican’s new technological initiative. Sister Susan Wolf, a Digital Media Consultant for Religious Services in the US, explained the initiative on <a href="http://www.catholicwebsolutions.com/2013/11/12/the-vaticans-social-media-intiatives-insights-and-reflections/">catholicwebsolutions.com</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is very important for those of us in ministry to learn and adapt to this new digital world, realizing that digital technology is not just a means to an end, but it is creating a new environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the first time an official papal ceremony could be experienced in theaters worldwide in an immersive, 3D environment. 33 cameras were deployed: 13 in 3D, 15 in High-Definition and five in the UltraHD 4K format.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">April’s canonization of Pope John Paul II and John XXIII was a landmark moment for event cinema.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canonization_2014-_The_Canonization_of_Saint_John_XXIII_and_Saint_John_Paul_II_(14036819834).jpg">Jeffrey Bruno/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the approximately 500 theaters showcasing the event, Italy led with more than 120, closely followed by the Unites States, where more than 100 opted in. Latin America followed with 29. The canonization was shown exclusively in 3D in Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Croatia and the UK. Half of the theaters in Italy offered 3D showings, while none of the American did. There was no admission charge and attendance <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/05/prweb11825706.htm">exceeded</a> owners’ expectations in the United States. </p>
<p>The screening of the canonization was so successful that it has already spawned a theatrical release and a sequel.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Sony, which broadcast last summer’s World Cup in 4K in select theaters across England, announced it is installing upgraded 3D and 4K systems in 400 theaters across the UK, with other countries soon to follow.</p>
<p>According to a knowledgeable industry source, at least one Major League Baseball franchise tested 4K transmission of a simulated game in a ballpark setting this fall, launching speculation that the team may begin offering games in UltraHD in theatrical settings. Not only could this attract a global fan base and create new revenue streams, but theater lobbies worldwide – which currently contain little more than ticket takers and concession stands – could also morph into sports bars and betting parlors. Depending on what’s playing, paying audiences will no longer have to be so courteous and quiet during the show.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, an HD broadcast of the current Broadway smash hit Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco, was beamed to 900 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, the first time the esteemed “National Theater Live” series chose an American play for its popular theatrical distribution. The ticket price? $20, or about one-sixth of its live-show equivalent.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Broadway fans have been able to see Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco, streamed in HD at movie theaters across the country – for one-sixth of the price of seeing the play in person.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://variety.com/2014/legit/news/broadways-of-mice-and-men-with-james-franco-hits-movie-theaters-in-november-1201303845/">Variety</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the Associated Press <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1bf707fd3a5946b5952ec1f460facf05/james-franco-helps-event-cinema-come-age">recently reported</a>, the landmark broadcast comes at a time when so-called event cinema has exploded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When once there was just the Metropolitan Opera at the movie theater, now there’s the Bolshoi Ballet, concerts from One Direction and a steady stream of English plays. Other brands jumping in include The Royal Ballet, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Monty Python and the Big Apple Circus. Movie patrons can even enjoy museum exhibitions, like one on Pompeii from the British Museum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Content is King,” goes the time-honored Hollywood adage. And American theater owners are wisely moving beyond Hollywood royalty by including singers, Broadway stars, world-renowned athletes – and even saints – in their repertoire, hoping that event cinema may ultimately be their theaters’ salvation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Bogosian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If Dumber and Dumber To, Interstellar and Big Hero 6 didn’t get you to the movies last week, you weren’t alone: just before Thanksgiving, Box Office Mojo put year-to-date gross receipts at almost $9 billion…Ted Bogosian, Instructor and Visiting Filmmaker, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/333962014-11-07T20:01:10Z2014-11-07T20:01:10ZInterstellar: Nolan’s flawed masterpiece<p>At about the midway point of Interstellar, a spacecraft descends into the atmosphere of a pristine white planet. Gliding downwards, the tip of the craft brushes against a cloud, and the cloud shatters in a shower of crystal. It’s a startlingly beautiful image – worthy of Kubrick, even – and it stole the breath of the audience at the IMAX screening I attended. </p>
<p>Then: “Ice cloud!” announces one of the astronauts piloting the craft, witlessly and unnecessarily.</p>
<p>So here we have the paradox of a Christopher Nolan movie. It’s astonishing yet occasionally plodding, far too long but well worth the time. Nolan’s recurring themes – the power of ideas, the negotiable nature of reality – are present and better realized than ever before. But so are his big vices: an apparent reluctance to submit to any form of pruning, and a habit of telling instead of showing, which produces some wretchedly clunky dialogue in this otherwise must-see, near-great movie. </p>
<p>In the drab future of the opening act, we see that the Earth has become a giant dust bowl, and humanity is reliving the Great Depression-era of subsistence farming and narrowed horizons. “The blight,” an agricultural pestilence, is ruining the planet’s crops, and the population has put aside dreams of the stars in favor of a desperate effort to grow enough food to survive. Nolan delivers a sly comment on our contemporary reluctance to fund off-world exploration: his opening shot is of a model Space Shuttle on a bookshelf, half buried by the dust that’s fouling the planet.</p>
<p>Matthew McConaughey’s retired test pilot Cooper is a man out of time, his thirst to explore unquenched by the drudgery of squeezing the last life out of the Earth’s soil. Cooper’s young daughter Murph is his soulmate, and their connection is the movie’s emotional center. Their relationship, one of loss and bitter recrimination, is heartbreaking. </p>
<p>Murph and Cooper together figure out the strange – even supernatural – clues that point toward a secret last mission to leave Earth in search of a new home. It’s clear that Cooper, an excellent pilot, has to go, and that as a consequence he will miss most of his daughter’s life. Murph’s pleading insistence that she has read the clues again, and they say her father must stay with her, looms over what follows. The search for a new home will be dangerous. </p>
<p>“It’s not like looking for a new condo,” says Anne Hathaway’s scientist Amelia Brand.</p>
<p>Interstellar is Cooper’s story, and McConaughey is in almost every scene. He carries the load director Christopher and co-writer Jonathan Nolan give him – everyman farmer, laconic space hero, grieving father – with the intense, slightly off-kilter energy that has characterized his recent career. His performance viewing a video screen of stored messages from his children is deeply moving: his expectant face strains as he hopes for some words, anything, from his estranged daughter. The screen stays dark, and McConaughey crumbles at the realization that she has nothing to say to him.</p>
<p>A director with a more disciplined approach would have cut an hour from the movie. Like Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, there seemed to be a natural end point at least five minutes before we reach the credits. One – not two – Obelisk-shaped robots (literal chatter-boxes that flirt with the specter of Jar-Jar Binks) would have been enough. And I wish Nolan had left out a lengthy, horribly misjudged speech about love.</p>
<p>But to complain about Nolan’s profligacy at this point is like opening an Anthony Trollope novel and being disappointed at not finding the terse prose of Hemingway. Better to luxuriate in the abundance of Interstellar.</p>
<p>Many artists spend their career telling the same story again and again in slightly different ways, trying to perfect it. Nolan comes closer here than he has before, adding the crucial element of authentic emotion and helped by a wonderful leading performance from McConaughey. For all its flaws, Interstellar is a landmark movie.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Benedict Dyson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At about the midway point of Interstellar, a spacecraft descends into the atmosphere of a pristine white planet. Gliding downwards, the tip of the craft brushes against a cloud, and the cloud shatters…Stephen Benedict Dyson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/317422014-09-16T04:44:56Z2014-09-16T04:44:56ZMargaret and David’s farewell is a bad day at the movies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59212/original/jjxdg3t4-1410913117.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Screen Shot at AM</span> </figcaption></figure><p>If you think of the enduring screen partnerships – Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Grahame Kennedy and Bert Newton – few are based on equality of authority and mutual respect.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59105/original/9hyy6mt4-1410842193.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At The Movie hosts David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But elements of equality of authority and mutual respect are the first things that come to mind as the ABC announces the end of the 28-year screen partnership of Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton. The final episode of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/">At the Movies</a> will be recorded on December 9, after which the program will be quietly conducted to the back stalls to enjoy retirement.</p>
<p>And there was also the business of how annoying they could be to each another and to us the hapless and helpless viewers. But from its first iteration on SBS as The Movie Show, there was never a question of Margaret playing straight woman to David, and even less of the reverse being workable.</p>
<p>David and Margaret came to cinema by very contrasting routes.</p>
<p>David grew up in Britain and was seduced by the silver screen at a young age. His arrival in Australia to become the director of the Sydney Film Festival in 1966 breathed some European vitality into the Sydney film scene. The fight against film censorship that rapidly followed set the scene for the censorship reforms of Attorney General Don Chipp, in the dying days of Billy McMahon’s Coalition government.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59106/original/6rbyxgzs-1410842455.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret and David back in the day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Margaret came to film, in part, through marriage. Her first husband, the late Hans Pomeranz, founded Spectrum Films behind a shopfront in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby. Spectrum Films quickly metastasised into adjourning premises, becoming a warren of cutting rooms production offices and storage cupboards.</p>
<p>When the day-shift ended, feral film makers, funded by the new Experimental Film and TV Fund, would appear to work on through the night on their great masterpieces, few of which are still remembered today.</p>
<p>When The Movie Show first appeared on SBS, it filled a need for intelligent conversations about films. ABC radio had long met this need with reviewers such as Frank Legg but the old style critics had not adapted to new demands in programming for radio or TV.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/STEv-U_-R2Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush review Margaret and David.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>SBS took a chance and the couple grew into the redoubtable duo. Always with substance to their contestable views, their arguments were informed by deep experience of the cinema.</p>
<p>As Cate Blanchett put it when she and Geoffrey Rush <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STEv-U_-R2Y">reviewed</a> David and Margaret, à la David and Margaret:</p>
<p>Cate: [W]hen it comes to anti-censorship, film trivia or just sitting enthralled in the dark, they have a lot in common. It is a relationship that’s based on genuine affection, but I warn you that this piece has a disturbing style that has them fighting like a killer whale and a seal and laughing at the same time.</p>
<p>Geoffrey: Ahhhh! Well!! A formula like this is derivative and witless, but I was presently surprised.</p>
<p>Derivative? Yes. Talking heads are derivative but with the right heads, compulsive.</p>
<p>But no more pleasant surprises now, until the lightening of the David and Margaret double-act strikes again, and their successors arise from the primal swamp of opinion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent O'Donnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you think of the enduring screen partnerships – Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Grahame Kennedy and Bert Newton – few are based on equality of authority and mutual respect. But elements of equality…Vincent O'Donnell, Honorary Research Associate of the School of Media and Communication , RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.