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When Did Hollywood Lose Faith in Love?
It’s been nine years since a movie that could in any way be defined as “romance” made the year’s top 10 grossers list (and that one was the third Twilight film, so make of that what you will.)
Coincidentally or not, it’s been at least that long since any half-decent sex scandal rocked the industry. The most shocking thing about the Sony emails is just how totally unsexy the private talk is. Harry Cohn, the ruthless founder of Sony Studios, nee Columbia, was rolling in his grave asking, don’t these people ever talk about anything besides money and deals?
No doubt, there’s plenty of disgusting, boorish behavior around sex all over Hollywood, but it all just has this … disgusting, boorish quality. The NY Post recently featured a video report from “Inside LA’s Most Exclusive Sex Party” — this thing called Sanctm thing that Bill Maher (of course) is a proud patron of. If you can find anywhere on this planet a less sexy, more tedious-looking exclusive sex party, chopped salads at La Scala are on me. The Exclusive Sex Parties are so focused on the Exclusive part, in this global elite, dead-behind-the-eyes Soho House that the Sex really takes a back seat to the aroma of money and networking.
It’s interesting to note that the decade and a half since Hollywood lost the ability to make romantic films that captured the worlds imagination (and the half decade since they stopped even trying) roughly coincides with the period in which Hollywood has been unable to mint new stars; those little things that pre-CGI were once the keys to the industry’s hold on the world.
The key to creating stars, forging lasting bonds between them, and the public once involved the simple formula of showing them in situations that created an emotional attachment. And it’s tough for a city that has no emotions, beyond squeezing in a pilates class before a 8 AM breakfast meeting, to figure out what situations there are in the world that might build a sense of yearning for the plight of leading men and women.
Was it because they saved the planet from computer-animated monsters that the world filled their bedrooms with posters of Hollywood stars? Was because they played the wise-cracking second-string comic relief hero in a Marvel ensemble film? Was it when they did the voice work for a talking animal in an animated franchise? Hmmm … Hollywood’s still thinking.
Richard Rushfield is the author of The Ankler, a daily newsletter about the entertainment industry. Subscribe at theankler.com
Published in Entertainment
When’s the last time Hollywood made a Bogie-caliber film? Oh, right — The Harder They Fall
Reading you post, I couldn’t help but think of La La Land. If you haven’t seen it, this post could spoil it for you.
Love clearly took a back seat to commerce and individuality. Following you heart meant a path to self fulfillment instead of love. They both were poor and struggling until they turned their backs on love and then became prosperous. Being one’s self and prospering was the clear romantic notion of the film.
It is hard to love without compromising. Hollywood has contempt for anyone who would compromise. Therefore, Hollywood has contempt for love.
Middle age soccer moms don’t go to the movies except with their kids. Therefore Hollywood does not make movies for them anymore. Even movies they want to see they just don’t have time for. If someone was smart they would always be chasing the streaming and rental markets which is how women watch movies.
Richard,
First we must ask the question when did America lose faith in Love. I think that we have been slowly chipping away at the family and the foundations of love for a very long time. However, we only broke into free fall recently. The entire left didn’t care that a married President was having sex with an under-aged intern in the oval office and justified this because his voting record on their laundry list of social programs was what mattered. Then the left descended into a witch hunt over a very decent black supreme court nominee because his opinions on abortion might not be completely up to their extreme standard.
For me this was the moment in time when marriage, the family, and love itself was trashed by the cultural elite (the left) and our culture went into free-fall. Finally, Obama presided over the crash with SSM and Transgenderism obliterating whatever remained. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could get the culture away from the left for a while that there is still a huge market for Love out there untapped.
The stuff dreams are made of.
Regards,
Jim
I was going to write about La La Land, too. But it’s one of a spate of movies that trash the idea of romantic love, even kids’ movies, like Frozen, Brave.
Even 15 years ago when my daughter was little, Princesses were IN–so many, of all races! Okay, they got to show they were brave etc, but it was pretty clear that some day their prince would come. Not any more.
Because our culture has turned away from the business of the world: reproduction, which is after all why we have romantic sexual attraction.
Biological sex isn’t even “real” any more, at least, it doesn’t count for anything. Children are not supposed to imagine the future along lines of gender roles. To make sure they don’t, Prez B. Hasbeen Omega set put to destroy the whole idea of the male-female dichotomy, starting right at the point where kids learn about it long before puberty: the bathroom. This in turn destroys the precious bonding with the parent of that child’s sex.
Politically correct parents are now anxious about even guiding their children in accordance with their biological sex, actually asking for irreversible surgery to be performed! (Mark my words: you’ve heard of FGM? Well, this practice will be known as JGM –juvenile gender mutilation– when these poor maimed infants reach adulthood.)
No, see, romantic love leads to marriage, family, division of labor, making certain choices which will determine other choices. Hollywood, as the Left’s Bread and Circus, can no longer have that.
Boy, you nailed that.
Very good post, but Hollywood does still make a good love story on rare occasions. Last year’s Oscar nominated Loving would be one, but the box office wasn’t there.
I lost my post, hope I don’t repeat
Billy Wilder said he liked to tell a story, not a moral. Hollywood can make romantic movies if they can forget about being PC. PC is predictable. Most people can guess the direction of a Hallmark movie.
Disney’s remake of Cinderella was actually very well done. Most girls still want a Prince Charming, a house with a picket fence, and a man that is a man, chivalrous. Yet, men are bashed for being chivalrous today.
Unless they are meant to be mindless, goofy entertainment, they generally miss the mark on the fine edge of good storytelling.
It is a very difficult thing to do, just like creating any type of artwork. A lot of what the Beatles produced were forgettable. There is a small area (edginess) in a story or piece of artwork, where on one side it is too nice, mild, blah, and on the other too nastry and gross. It is like a sweet spot on a golf club. The art teacher used to say to the young students they needed to up their edginess, and so they produced things like heads with horns and blood dripping off them.
As a middle-aged soccer mom, I go to movies roughly twice a month, once with my husband (something loud and Sci-Fi or action oriented) and once with three of my closest lady friends (usually a Rom-Com or something artsy). Women of a certain age do attend movies…Hollywood just doesn’t do a great job of making movies we particularly enjoy
If you’re limiting your definition of “Hollywood” to big screen theatrical releases you have a (very small) point. It’s true, that sort of movie doesn’t tend to get big, lavish, theatrical release.
But then, why would it?
What extra value does one get from seeing a Rom-Drama or a Rom-Com in a 21st Century theatre that one wouldn’t get from seeing such a film in one’s living room at much lower cost and in much greater romantic comfort?
Maybe it’s just me, but shlepping out to the megaplex and paying $50+ to watch a movie in the company of a couple hundred strangers is not my idea of a romantic evening.
If, however, you expand your definition of “Hollywood” to include television, online streaming, and small-run independent theatres, there’s still plenty of Rom to go around.
For cryin’ out loud, Netflix has a tv show called, simply, “Love”.
On Wikipedia’s list of films released in 2016, 17 of ’em are listed as “romance” or “romantic”, and that doesn’t include movies with romantic subplots such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Deadpool, or The Legend of Tarzan.
Heck, the Wikipedia list doesn’t even classify Loving as a “romance”, and that movie is all about one couple’s fight for the legal right to get married!
@hypatia said pretty much what I was going to say. PC and feminism have trashed any notion we used to have of romantic love. The movie people seem to think we want to see women portrayed as strong and macho Amazons who need a man like a fish needs a bicycle, and men as a bunch of pajama-boy beta males who cry. They’re terrified to depict manly men who sweep into the room and back the woman up against the wall (which, I hate to tell ya, Hollywood, is our fantasy). Until they get over themselves, I’ll be watching Netflix action movies where men are men.
Very true, but here and there, when one peeks through, movies like 50 Shades and Sex and the City still become female movie-going events. Imagine if Hollywood could try to serve them a little better..
Agreed. I like comedies, but a comedy is going to be just as funny on my TV screen as in a theater. And a month of Netflix is only a little more than the price of one movie ticket. Unless I suddenly become wealthier, the only time I want to go to a theater is if it’s something visually spectacular, such as a Star Trek or Lord of the Rings movie.
Movie tickets must be really cheap where you live. A month of Netflix costs less than a single movie ticket for me.
Theatrically, “Hollywood” serves them what they’re willing to buy tickets for.
On the small screen, “Hollywood” serves that demographic with a veritable avalanche of content.
Furthermore, it’s likely you’re not a consumer of the same marketing/advertising channels that serve that demographic, and therefore you would miss most of the advertising for the content that’s directed at them. How many women’s magazines do you read, for example? Roms aren’t going to be advertised in copies of Field & Stream.
The Universe just provided a perfect example to illustrate my point: The sequel to Love, Actually will premiere on BBC and NBC rather than in theatres, even though the original was one of the most popular Roms of all time.
I never saw the movie, but I have the sound track.
You are an exception to the norm. When it comes to making movies Hollywood chances stereotypical norms not small segment exceptions of the population. Not making good love stories anymore I understand is more business related not making decent Christian movies is pure bigotry. It was interesting listen to Ira Glass (Of This American Life) on Revalent’s Podcast this month , talking about how even he saw it. How he was shocked seeing a movie were one of the Characters went aside to pray before making a decisions. How this is a common act that millions of Christian engage in every day many more for major decisions. However this was the only time he had seen Hollywood show a Character who someone engage in this common practice.