Steven C. Scheer

Hollywood Values Steven C. Scheer

Have you ever felt that while you and your friends watched the same movie, you didn't really see the same movie? Have you ever wondered why so many people see so many different things in movies? A few years ago I had an opportunity to hear Michael Medved, the author of Hollywood vs. America (1992), in person. In the question-and-answer period after his lecture he happened to call Titanic (1997) a corrupt movie because, as he said, it shows that all an old woman remembers late in her life is the fact that when she was young 'she got laid in the back seat of a car.' At that time I haven't seen the movie yet, but some instinct told me that there must be more to the story than that. Sure enough, when I did see the movie, I saw something entirely different. I saw an old woman remember, among other things, making love to a young man who not long after that gave up his life that she might live as that fated voyage came to a tragic end. Since 'greater love has no man,' I didn't think there was anything corrupt about this, but this is the sort of thoughtlessly negative reaction to Hollywood that has prompted me to write Hollywood Values. My book presents heart-felt yet accurate interpretations of an adequate sampling of movies made in the last 20 years in four different thematic categories. I deal with movies that show Hollywood going to school, falling in love, fighting for justice, and making a difference. The movies I treat include such wonderful and insightful examples as Dead Poets Society and Patch Adams, or The Age of Innocence and American Beauty, or The Verdict and Erin Brockovich, or The Color Purple and Fargo, to name just a few. I treat each of the movies I cover in the book seriously, giving each a chance to show us what each is all about. The movies treated in my book are chock full of values, including some obviously traditional ones. But we can't understand them if we can't enjoy them, and we can't enjoy them if we don't watch them with open minds. Movies, li