[Sound Off] Why Dumb Works
'G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra', directed by Stephen Sommers
I have a number of friends, both online and in local circles, who have said they’re going to see G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra this weekend. I don’t think any of them expects the film to be good. Quite the contrary — they expect it to be a big, dumb movie with characters inspired by action figures and stuff blowing up left and right. They’re OK with it being otherwise insipid. At the same time, I have few friends who want to go see the sci-fi think piece District 9 with me next week. It looks like too much thinking, I suppose. As one friend put it, “Summer movies are about turning off your brain for two hours and watching the fireworks.”
As a creative person, I used to get really upset and annoyed about how big, dumb action movies could do so well while legitimately good movies that actually had something to say could be missed by so much of the population. One classic example that should be familiar is The Shawshank Redemption, a movie that did terribly in the theaters, but which caught on when it reached the home video stage because word got out that it was actually good. Sadly, that doesn’t happen very often, and a lot of great films (and books, and video games, and various other forms of media) get ignored simply because they’re not big enough or dumb enough for the rest of the population.
Some might point to the arguments of the book The Long Tail and suggest that big, dumb films are designed for the masses, while good films are designed for a smaller niche of an audience. That argument sounds appealing, but I don’t think it’s the case. Art, even commercial art, tends to reflect the culture that it’s in. And in the case of big budget cinema, I’ve come to realize that the big, dumb movies (and other media) do well precisely because they’re big and dumb.
“Hold on… are you saying American audiences are dumb?” you might be asking.
That depends on how you define dumb. If you’re talking about dumb being a function of physical intelligence, then no. But if you’re talking about dumb being a function of willfull ignorance and a refusal to think beyond one’s basic desires and day-to-day activities, then yes. I think Americans are very dumb. More precisely, I think our media reflects how dumb we really are. And when I say “we”, I’m including myself, because I certainly don’t claim to be immune to this tendency myself… though I think I do get some credit for having avoided this summer’s blockbusters. (My low grad student income and the rising price of movies has something to do with that, too, incidentally.)
So, let’s go back to G.I. Joe. What’s the appeal? I’m going to argue that the audience knows, going in, that the film is not going to be intellectual or challenging to them in any way. They know it’s not going to change their lives, and that they’re going to talk with others about how bad the film was, not how good it was. They know they’re in for a special effects spectacle, not an involved piece of cinema. They know if they get up and go to the bathroom, they’re not going to miss anything big.
On the positive side, they’re going to have some social credibility for having seen the film. They’ll be able to say, “Yeah, I went and saw it, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected,” and others will listen. Some might have seen it themselves and will discuss it with them. There’s definitely some benefit there.
On the negative side, they’re going to be out the price of a movie and two hours of time. They might not be as entertained as they would be if they saw a film that was good and a spectacle (such as last summer’s Iron Man, the first two Terminator films, the first two Star Wars films, the first Die Hard and Predator films, the first two Spider-Man films, or the first two X-Men films), but they’re not going to feel like they missed out on anything. After all, even if the film was stupid, they got some value out of it.
Now, let’s consider a movie that’s slightly more cerebral, but still a blockbuster. I’m going to point to Pixar’s Up, which is a fantastic film and an artistic triumph from a critical perspective, but which I’ve heard several friends describe as boring. The only parts they really liked or remember were the scenes with the talking dogs. When I point out that Pixar managed to make a film where an old man’s memories were a character, where the kid is not smarter than the adult, where the theme is overcoming loneliness by making human connections, or where the adventure is about the growth of an old man so that he can be human again, they stare at me blankly. They tell me I read into things too much. Some tell me that animated films like Over the Hedge and Madagascar were more entertaining to them. (I found both to be stupid and preachy.)
On the other hand, last summer’s The Dark Knight Returns, a film I found rather bright but tedious, also got mixed reactions from some of my friends. Those who tend to stick to dumb movies were struck by how intelligent the plot was. Most thought it was one of the smartest movies they’d ever seen (though they couldn’t articulate to me why it was smart). A few were bewildered by it. My friends who tend to watch more intelligent films, on the other hand, tended to feel the way I did. We didn’t think that the movie was bad per se… we just felt it wasn’t quite the think piece others made it out to be.
Mike Judge's 'Idiocracy' describes a future in which dumb is the status quo.
Reflecting on reactions to these films in light of my argument today, however, I’m starting to realize that this desire people have to be “entertained” without having to think too much is what is driving a lot of our media. We really don’t want to go to the movies, or flip on the TV, or load up a video game, or read a book and find ourselves having to think too hard. We have this perception that we should only have to think when we’re really interested in something or being paid to do so. But when we engage art of any sort, we want to get it immediately. We don’t want to have to think about things, or digest them, or discuss them in terms of ourselves.
Now that I’ve realized this, though, the question for me, as a creative person, is what to do next. I’m not going to change the tastes of Americans, no matter how much I try. I’ll die a bitter, frustrated man if I attempt to do it. At the same time, I’m really not capable of creating dumb stuff on purpose. I can create dumb stuff by accident, no problem. But the sort of willful dumb that guys like Michael Bay and Stephen Sommers can put into their films… that I can’t do.
I don’t know. What do you guys think? Am I reading this wrong… or have I just found an explanation for why good movies shouldn’t expect to do well unless they are also based off a children’s toy and have a sufficient number of explosions and objectified women? Are we really that close to Idiocracy already?
Sound Off | SeanJJordan | 
August 9, 2009 12:23 pm
5 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Subscribe
By TheJenna, August 11, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
I guess the key for me (other than Chirstopher Eccleston <33333) is that if G.I. Joe is going to be bad- and, yes, I expect it will be!- it will at least have amazing action and fights and whatnot. Whereas if District 9 is bad, it will be slow and boring, or preachy and heavy-handed. See, in one scenario if the movie’s bad, I can still be entertained by explosions and whatnot; in the other scenario, I feel like I’ve totally wasted my time/money.
I guess I’m in the Shawshank Redemption group; if it’s a really good, thinking movie then I’ll see it when it comes out on DVD. Seeing it on a small screen isn’t going to retract form the movie. But why bother seeing G.I. Joe on a small screen, with tiny car chases and tiny sword fights?
By SeanJJordan, August 11, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
LOL, and that’s pretty much the essence of what I’m saying here, Jenna — our culture is such that we’d rather not take a chance on enlightenment when we have the sure thing of entertainment.
Your second point echoes a previous piece I wrote on why critics and moviegoers watch movies differently. Seeing films in the theater really has become about the spectacle, not the art form. And maybe it always WAS.
Still, I think there’s something weird at work when our culture will head out in the masses to films where women are objectified and racial stereotypes are played up amongst cartoonish storylines (which both Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra do, from what I’ve heard). Art DOES reflect culture, and when our most popular storytelling format contains that sort of content in its most popular offerings, I think it tells us something about who we are that is really, really disturbing.
By Jenna, August 12, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
BUT CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON.
By Jesse, August 16, 2009 @ 8:19 am
Hey Sean,
Nice blog. I don’t know why I was so surprised when I overheard people talking about going to see G.I. Joe, but I genuinely was. What could anybody have possibly seen/heard that would make them want to see that travesty? Now I know. And knowing is… never mind.
Apparently, I have no clue when it comes to judging a movie’s potential for financial success.
Btw, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the Watchmen movie (unless you’ve already covered it elsewhere, in which case I apologize).
By G. Carregha, October 4, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
Hey Sean,
Awesome article, I also have been thinking about why stupid crap like Transformers: Rise Of The Fallen (in my opinion, one of the worst if not *THE* worst movie I’ve ever seen) gets all that money. As a screenwriter/director/writer wannabe (as in “I’m still studying to become one) I do get down sometimes by thinking that, maybe, to survive as a writer I must make everything stupid and with explosions and nudity, lots of nudity and 0 IQ. I don’t caim I do the most intelligent introspective works ever, but I do try to make some clever and logic situations, outcomes and allegories. And then, after being two years structuring a small novel or a script, there comes Terminator: Salvation or that Transformers stupidity and gets jillions of bucks in their first weekend. Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth to try to do something good. I’ll still try to make good stuff but, it does feel awful.
Anyhow, I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks this way, and it seems we share some thoughts and opinions on some things. Some of this kind of thpughts often gets me shunned by my self-proclaimed left-winged intelectuals I hang out with =P.
Best thing about this article is that it is so right, and even if people knew about this point of view they’d say “nah, not me, I see them knowing they’re bad”. Gotta love people, right?
Great blog, Sean, keep the work, I’ll be coming here more often