Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

4131 guests and 8 members online

As I said previously with my McCain prediction, any forecast on an administration has to take a number of unforeseeables into account (what if a meteor hits in the first week of Obama’s presidency? It could happen), but a number of things would be certain. Should Obama become our next president, the mood on the part of nearly everyone is going to get a whole lot cheerier. Not only are we finally going to be rid of Bush, but we’re going to be rid of the last vestiges of his administration, and the opportunity for a positive change will be there. Whether or not that change will actually come is anybody’s guess, but for a while, it’s safe to assume that most people will feel a little better.

Beyond that I’m not sure, but for at least the first two years:

• Fewer and worse action movies. The Clinton Administration produced the biggest drought of decent summer blockbusters in modern history. Remember when the big movies to look forward to were Batman Forever? Godzilla? The Lost World? I challenge you to find one decent year among those eight. Whatever you want to say about Bush, his years in office gave us the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the few decent superhero movies to come out of the genre to date. Something about the democratic national mood seems less combative, less angry, less war-like, which might make for a better foreign policy, but also might account for some lamer movies. (To be fair, this might just be a Clinton thing, as Carter gave us the original Star Wars as well as the first.)
• More family movies. Sort of a continuation of the last item. We can anticipate the national mood getting better than it has been during the era that gave us Hostel and The Dark Knight, so we should probably be up for more broad-minded films of the Pixar ilk. Which, let’s face it, could be worse.
• Greater conservative visibility. If Obama wins, the conservative branch of this country is going to have to some serious soul-searching in terms of their media presence. Lord knows how they’re going to do it, or whether it will manifest itself in a more comedic way (such as An American Carol, coming out this October, which I think is going to do horribly) or in the more sincere way (such as all of those inspirational sports movies which all do better than you’d think they would), but they’ll figure out an angle in the next couple of years, and it’ll probably define the way they present themselves for the next decade.
• Greater African-American presence. Whether Obama wins or not, he’s opened the doors for a lot of African-Americans in the mainstream media. If he wins, however, we can count on films featuring African-American actors no longer being thought of as “black films,” and will achieve a greater market penetration.than they previously had. This will also create newer opportunities for African-American film-makers, who had experienced something of a renaissance in the early 90s.
• No more movies starring SNL alum. Probably not. Just wishful thinking.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

September 02, 2008, Brandon said:

Mr. Anders, I doubt very much that the bulk of Americans would agree with your broad assertions. You are no more cognizant of what the future will bring - regardless of which candidate wins in November - than your average magic 8 ball. Your party has failed to win a presidential election with a greater than 50% majority since Jimmy Carter in '76, and we saw how well that turned out. Here's a prediction for you: if your Messiah gets into office next year, ticket sales at the box office will plummet because no one will be able to afford a ticket after we're all forced to pay for socialized medicine for illegal aliens, expanded welfare programs designed to keep lazy-ass folks sitting at home watching daytime game shows, and Lashondra Jackson's twelfth abortion. Your man is an idiot, and you're an even bigger idiot if you equate the brooding storytelling and masterfully-crafted violence of a brilliant film like the Dark Knight with the average American's outlook on life because of the past eight years with Bush. Would we really see more mainstream black films with Obama? I don't know, but I'd sure love to see more characters like Robert Downey Jr.'s in Tropic Thunder. That was F'n brilliant. As far as SNL movies, you redeemed yourself a smidge with that comment. I'm astounded: you actually said one intelligent thing. Golf clap for you.

Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

September 02, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

Brandon I wouldn't exactly call Obama "my man." If I let it slip that I intend to vote for him, I'm sorry. I tried to be as balanced as possible with both of these articles, but I'm only human. 1) Even in the Great Depression, ticket sales for mainstream Hollywood films maintained pretty steady. In fact, the film industry was the only industry that did not face huge economic downturn (it went up). So even if we experience economic devastation in the next couple years, people will be going to movies, or at least downloading them from the internet (which is an entirely different debate). 2) The average American's (whatever that is) outlook on life during the past eight years has probably been more affected by 9/11, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than by Bush himself, but is nonetheless a pretty bleak one. I think it's fair to say that The Dark Knight had plenty of moments of intertextuality regarding our "war on terror." If you want me to be more specific, just let me know. 3) I do think we would see more mainstream black films if Obama became president, because it would be a major turning point in our culture. Just think about how much we could look down our noses at other major Western powers who have yet to jump such a hurdle. Just sayin'. 4) As long as we're going to bring politics into this (which is a-ok with me), let's not finger point at "illegal aliens" and "lazy-ass folks," because that's just going to degrade the quality of the conversation. 5) Tropic Thunder was indeed hilarious, unlike any SNL film since Wayne's World. Anders

Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

September 09, 2008, Sean Anthony said:

	As someone who is voting Obama I gotta say that terrible movies will always be around but so will good ones. During the Clinton years Titanic came out, while I dont like this movie. It is the HIGHEST grossing film ever. Every decade a new genre starts up and kills itself tens years after that. We have comic book movies goin then they will kill themselves out eventually. Its just fact.
	Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

September 09, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

That's true, but I just got out of film school, where they teach you nothing but how history affects the moods and tones of the films made at the time that you can't help believing it. Terrible movies will always be around, but some of their nature can shift over time. An interesting book on the matter is Rational Fears by Mark Jancovich, which makes the case that science fiction films of the fifties were largely influenced by the Cold War. It made a believer out of me.

Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

Name

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment Preview