Captain Renault: “What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
Rick Blaine: “My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
Renault: “The waters! What waters? We’re in the desert…”
Rick: “I was misinformed…”
That is just one snippet of dialogue from my favorite movie. According to the American Film Institute, there are five lines of dialogue from Casablanca in the Top 100 movie quotes of all time.
There is another interesting fact in that list. Dialogue from only one movie in this millenium is included. It’s from 2002’s The Lord of the Rings — taken from a book published in 1954.
What led me to that research was reading Harvey Radin’s July 17, Daily Post column reference to the Hollywood writers’ strike.
Mr Radin opined that a Hollywood CEO’s comment about the striking writers having “unrealistic expectations” was mere “PR messaging and rhetoric”, because …“Considering what writers, actors, and all, bring to the industry… the creativity, energy and skills that make an industry… entertainment, in this case… the people who’ve made the industry what it is today..”
Mr Radin is eminently more qualified than I on the subject of PR — so I don’t question his proposition that using the term “unrealistic expectations” is just that. But I believe my qualifications to judge the quality of movies is equal to his.
Where I believe Mr Radin misses the point the CEO was making is that, considering what the movie industry “is today”, the striking writers expectations are unrealistic.
What they are creating is a lousy product.
When was the last time Hollywood released a movie on a par with those in which the 100 Top lines of dialogue appear? All we get now are superheros from comic books, CGI-created nonsense, and — worst of all — sequels that are so bad they despoil once great franchises.
Then there is the propaganda being passed off as entertainment. Political correctness in movie making has gotten so bad even some within the industry are calling it out.
I’ve been a movie fan all my life. I enjoy watching good ones, and have seen some many multiple times. I have a shelf full of DVDs. Movies are all I watch on TV since nearly everything else created by the striking writers on that ‘great wasteland’ is mindnumbing drek.
Because there are no new movies worth seeing, I’ve only been to one at a movie theater in the past decade, No Time to Die — and that was on a date night with Mrs Beatty, who wanted to see James Bond’s denoumont on the big screen. (She insists Bond didn’t really die in the final missile attack — but his brand of macho is no longer politically correct, so it was time for him go.)
I’ve been watching Bond — James Bond — on the big screen since his first appearance in Dr. No (1962), and have seen every one since. Some of them sucked – like Moonraker, Live and Let Die, and every one starring Roger Moore. The best ones followed the books — all of which I’ve read — including where Bond passes through my hometown: Clearwater, Florida.
(FYI – the second Bond movie, From Russia With Love, most closely follows the book.)
But, alas, it seems even the Bond franchise is falling prey to the PC Zeitgeist. In No Time to Die we are introduced to the “new” 007 who replaced Bond upon his retirement — a woman.
I’m sorry, but how long could a woman have lasted in a fight with OddJob?
But it seems that all movies now must feature a “strong female lead character” — which one actor who has played them thinks has become “boring”.
Such female characters are simply unrealistic. I’ve known a couple of women trained, and accomplished, in martial arts. They will be the first to tell you they would never be able to stand up against trained males. Yet in Hollywood’s fantasy land, petite woman take on and defeat much larger males — sometimes multiple males.
But if you want to see a realistic movie portrayal of what happens if a highly trained female tries to take on a trained male, watch when Emily Blunt’s FBI swat officer character punches Josh Brolin’s CIA operative character, in Sicario. He immediately overwhelms her physically.
That reflects the real world — not Hollywood. The real world is as described by tennis star Serena Williams when asked about her playing against men. Males are simply faster and stronger than females.
So I must disagree with Mr Radin’s conclusion that the description of the Hollywood writers demands are “unrealistic” and “mere PR” .
Considering the poor quality of the product those writers are creating, if I were the “CEO of a major entertainment business” Mr Radin quotes, I’d tell the striking writers to go market their so-called talents elsewhere — and I’d find a new batch of writers. Maybe new ones could come up with dialogue like this:
Yvonne: “Where were you last night?”
Rick Blaine: “That was so long ago I don’t remember.”
Yvonne: “Will I see you tonight?”
Rick: “I never make plans that far ahead.”