COLUMN: Of course it’s relevant
“Is what we do even relevant anymore?”
An actor on NBC’s “The West Wing” is reported to have asked that question recently, reflecting the mood of many in the entertainment industry and, presumably, on his own show. No doubt that’s why NBC has announced that the drama will air a “stand-alone episode” on terrorism next week, before its official fall premiere.
“We can almost guarantee it will involve President Josiah Bartlet and his staffers doing some serious soul-searching,” reported Marcus Errico of E! Online, a bit dryly. (For those unfamiliar with the series, everything on “The West Wing,” including deciding what to order for lunch, is an opportunity for serious soul-searching.)
Aaron Sorkin’s effort “to confront recent events as well as encourage tolerance of other cultures and ideas,” as the Los Angeles Times rather ominously put it, stands alone in another way. Most networks and movie studios are scrambling to delete excess violence and any references to terrorism, bombings and similar scenarios from their productions. That’s bad news for movies like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Collateral Damage,” which revolved around terrorist bombings and consequently has been shelved indefinitely.
“Better they should throw the whole project in the dumpster,” stated Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly, in one of many pensive articles that have been written lately about the futility of entertainment. “Seriously, would you ever, EVER want to watch things blow up for the fun of it again?”
Any attempt by Hollywood to examine its own products and ask if it’s really worth it to offend people-no matter how short-lived that attempt may be-should be encouraged. The real question, though, goes beyond whether entertainment should try to deal in a “soul-searching” way with terrorism or shun the subject altogether. It also goes beyond whether entertainment as a whole is even relevant anymore.
Consider the words of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman during the week of the attacks, when they announced the postponement of their show Assassins’ Broadway debut “in light of Tuesday’s assault on our nation and on the most fundamental things in which we all believe.”
The sudden remembrance of those “fundamental things” left no place for a show that encourages people to identify with presidential assassins (or, as Sondheim and Weidman preferred to phrase it even now, a show that “asks audiences to think critically about various aspects of the American experience”).
The real question is whether the entertainment industry will be able to show America’s newfound sense of priorities-the sudden importance of faith in God, for instance, and the renewed value people are placing on their families.
An industry that devoutly believes that the only good family is a dysfunctional family, that promiscuous single twenty-somethings are the only people worth watching, and that the highest praise is to call something “dark” or “edgy” has suddenly been shown just how out of touch it is.
All along, there have been those who complained about this mindset; they were simply told that this is how life really is. Are people who have heard about the frantic last phone calls to say “I love you” to husbands and wives, who have pieced together accounts of heroic acts by ordinary Americans, going to listen to that line anymore?
Already people are looking at certain kinds of shows-even some that had nothing to do with violence-with distaste. Reflecting on “Sex and the City,” Salon.com writer Jennifer Howze asks, “Could that flitty lifestyle seem more irrelevant?” (If there’s one thing stranger than Hollywood having a crisis of conscience, it’s a writer at Salon.com complaining about the shallowness of “Sex and the City.”)
For years, many in the entertainment industry have believed that their sole task is to “push the envelope,” to shock decent Americans out of their supposed complacency. Now, we can hope, they’re realizing that a task really worth doing lies before them: to use their abilities to tell stories that, even if they sometimes unsettle us, at bottom reflect those “fundamental things” that we need to be reminded of fairly often.
We can also hope they realize they’re perfectly capable of fulfilling such a task, if they’re willing to learn more about what’s important to Americans. This isn’t the first time, after all, that Hollywood has had to deal with sobering realities.
“I wasn’t sure if doing movies and acting were important enough, coming out of the war and all,” Jimmy Stewart once recalled about the making of `It’s a Wonderful Life.’ “Maybe (Lionel) Barrymore sensed something. He really helped lift my spirits. He reminded me that acting is important. Millions of people see you, and it helps shape their lives. Your acting has that kind of influence.”
Granted, Stewart and Barrymore were making a movie about the infinite value of one human life, a movie that has been known to put a stop to suicide attempts and cause people to change their entire outlook on life. Perhaps helping to act out one producer’s fantasies about a cleaned-up, Latin-spouting version of Bill Clinton just doesn’t inspire that sense of purpose. But there are stories that will, if Hollywood is willing to look for them.
Gina R. Dalfonzo is a cultural analyst at the Family Research Council. Readers may write to her at the Family Research Council, 801 G Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001.