Of Art and Industry

I feel guilty posting the video below for its propagation of the content held within but do so to discuss rather than flaunt. I by no means attempt to pick on Tarantino, a simple search would yield dozens of other examples. What’s interesting (read: questionable, deplorable) is both its content and the implications its contents draw.

One. The videographer here is as close as one could be to a leach without having slimy skin and a circular tooth-filled sucker. Their blatant and inhumane disregard for their subject is offensive. And even if Tarantino had stood still, smiling into the camera, Who Cares? The unfortunate answer is that someone, somewhere does care.

Two. We are a culture who feed off of other’s popularity, who flock to the site of someone famous just to see them. The funny part is, if you hang around them enough you realize that they are, drum roll, Human. They are not Gods, they are not an urban legend creature, and they have two legs, two arms, and a head. And all the other body parts in most cases.

As is obvious, our film industry has created the star system, admittedly a hugely successful system at that. What the average person doesn't seem to realize is that behind the commercialized image, behind the screen personas, behind the glitz and glamour of’ The Movies’ are real people. Tarantino, Sean Penn, and even Madonna are real human beings the same as anyone else. They just happen to be famous. It is unfortunate that the paparazzi exist but likely that they always will. What is interesting, and just as unfortunate, is that they are becoming blurred with legitimate news photographers.

I hesitate to say they have their place, some press needs to exist for movies in order to help fuel the system. However, their modes are unsavory and embarrassing. As is obvious in this video, they can be like little kids sneaking a peak at someone famous, waiting for them to do something stupid that they can exploit. Granted, celebrities are in the public eye and many of them like this spot, but does that validate the frenzied atmosphere of hundreds of flashes going off all yielding the exact-same-picture?

It would certainly be too much to ask for the general public to respect the film industry as an art form. Although Hollywood would need to cover some ground to get there, perhaps someday our movies will all be films whose social and artistic value supersedes their inclusion of stars.