
Terry Gilliam on the death of Hollywood - Alex3917
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/19/terry_gilliam_hollywood_is_just_%E2%80%9Cgray_frightened_people%E2%80%9D_holding_on_for_dear_life/
======
vincvinc
I submitted a very interesting Grantland article a few days ago that goes into
exactly that (it failed getting HN attention, unfortunately). Just one look at
those lists of upcoming releases and you can see what is happening to Hollwood
right now.

[http://grantland.com/features/2014-hollywood-blockbusters-
fr...](http://grantland.com/features/2014-hollywood-blockbusters-franchises-
box-office/)

~~~
_broody
Wow. I just read that article yesterday while browsing for some critiques of
The Hobbit Part 3: Alfrid's Quest _[sic]_ , and I was nodding furiously all
the way through. Brilliant, brilliant framing of the state of Hollywood.

I was ensnared by franchise hype for the last couple of years, and seeing this
film was the turning point for me to stop and reflect that not one of the
dozen+ franchise movies I saw at the theater in this time managed to remotely
live up to my expectations.

I believe all is not lost, though. Other industries have shown the public
eventually fatigues from such exhaustive, quality-less milking. Personally
I've had my fill of being duped with franchise marketing, and next time I
start thinking of wasting my money on one more of these ridiculous plot-less,
CGI-bloated rehashes, I'll look for a decent original movie to wash the
temptation off.

~~~
tunap
What? No more time shifting reboot regurgitants for you? What if Kahn morphs
into Kanye for hip-hop goodness? You're going to miss yet another weak Spider
Man/Superman/Iron Man written to appeal to a 10yo(seemingly written by said
10yo), or the greatest Terminator peppered with digital homages to Arnold and
paper thin plot lines. Perhaps 'Transformers VII: It Can't Get Any Worse' will
entice you back. Think of the popcorn, man!

~~~
aswanson
Hilarious. As a comic fan as a kid, I always wanted to see my X-men, Avengers,
Stark, et. al. on the big screen. I had no idea how nightmarish it would turn
out. A lot of it has to do with growing up, but as I sit with my kids through
these movies I can't help but think: Every one of these movies is nothing but
a goddamned Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode.

------
saturdayplace
Hollywood has already validated its product, and found product-market fit.
It's now just stamping out products it's pretty sure people will buy. Anyone
claiming Hollywood doesn't make things people want to buy would, given the
choice, swap bank accounts with any of a _very large_ number of Hollywood
executives. The coffers of which are _by definition_ filled with customers'
dollars. You may not like most of what's on offer, but then, like is so often
mentioned around here, you are not the target customer.

~~~
rverghes
Is that true though? Take a look at this:
[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/)

The number of tickets sold seems to be on a steady decline since the early
2000s. It's only because the average ticket price is increasing that the total
gross is increasing, and even that has been relatively stagnant for the past
five years.

------
Nanzikambe

        "It’s just — this is crazy. You go to a rock concert and  before the first
        song is finished, the tweets are coming through. It makes me crazy because
        people are not relating to the real world anymore. That’s very worrisome.
        Hunter Thompson predicted America would soon be a nation of panicky sheep,
        and I think it’s adding to the problem."
    

In a nutshell, I couldn't agree more with the notion

~~~
aswanson
He's right. People can't live in the moment anymore. They're only able to
report it happening.

~~~
jschwartzi
This is why I don't take pictures with my phone or use Facebook or Twitter. I
don't want to become just another reporter of experiences like everyone else.
They're mine, and if someone wants to know about them they should have to ask
like they did back before these tools existed.

~~~
na85
>I don't take pictures with my phone or use Facebook or Twitter. I don't want
to become just another reporter of experiences like everyone else.

I often feel the same way, but then I wonder if that makes me avant-garde and
enlightened, or just a curmudgeon stuck in the past.

~~~
jschwartzi
I think there are two historical views of technology that people take. View 1
holds that any new technology is better because it saves time performing some
task that used to take a long time previously. View 2 holds that any new
technology is suspect unless it can be shown that there was truly no value in
the time spent before the technology came about.

I think there's value in both views, but I'm also more of a View 2 rather than
View 1 person, and that's why I prefer not to do those things. I also don't
own a microwave, toaster, or coffee maker. Instead I use a French Press and an
oven.

Realize that when you choose to do something differently from the way it was
done in the past, there is necessarily a trade off to be made, either in your
enjoyment of time, or the quality of your output, or both.

------
aswanson
One of the informative/funny things that came out of the Sony hack was that
the studios themselves, at least at the lower rungs, are sick of the
formulaic, Adam Sandler style movies as well. They just keep throwing money at
it because they have no creativity. They cited 'The Hunger Games' as the type
of stuff they should continue with; I think they just need more wider-read
people in charge of the studios.

------
vanderZwan
Thank you for posting this - wonderful interview, and I also wasn't aware of
Terry Gilliam's new film yet so that's an added bonus for me!

~~~
jacquesm
Highly recommended: The Zero Theorem if you haven't seen it yet.

~~~
ape4
I saw it. Thought it was terrible. Not just because the "computer hacker" and
"hacking" in the film was beyond silly. I didn't care about any of the
characters or story.

~~~
monocasa
I don't know, I thought the computer work was actually a pretty good visual
metaphor for proof assistant software like Coq.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_assistant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_assistant)

------
e3pi
Nice to see billionaires can be creative artists and still have fun:

".. ..I love Matt [Damon] in the film. I think he’s fantastic as that
character. I’ve never seen him do that before, and that’s great. I actually
said, “Matt, I’ve got a small part. A few days work.” he said “Don’t bother,
I’m in.”

------
Pyret
In the olden days there used to be 3 channels on TV max. That's how I see
Hollywood. It has maybe 2 and a half concept it keeps selling whereas TV, let
alone Internet, wouldn't be able to get away with it these days.

