Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The highlights of Character Assassination


In an entry a few months ago, I left a small footnote to a podcast featuring a great interview between film reviewers Bobby Maddox and Barbara Nicolosi. As its transcript has finally been posted online, I had a chance to peruse it again today, and I'm just so impressed with it that I have to put up a full and prominent link here:

Character Assassination: How Hollywood Kills Off the Movie Hero

Her thesis shouldn't be anything new to someone who has heard me talk for more than 5 minutes on the good of storytelling.

Here are a few of the best quotes I'd like to highlight.

we need extraordinary heroes in our stories and plays so that we can be good to the guy next door. A super individual shames us into good behavior in real life.

Today, there is a tremendous cynicism about the capacity of the individual to impact the broader world, and the truth is that you probably can’t make that big of a difference. But storytelling has always been the terrain where someone could.

What I have noticed in the Millennials—the people who are coming of age in this new millennium—is a sadness about the possibility of heroism. This sadness comes from their lack of discipline.

That pretty much captures it. But, in the words of LaVar, you don't have to take my word for it...

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