The Usual Suspects At least in America, if not the whole of the Western world (which could be argued as being any industrilized nation, where leisurely activities consume our non work related hours) entertainment is king. From the obsession that cities have with their sports teams, celebrity gossip (Perez Hilton's A&R deal : http://popwatch.ew.com/2008/02/26/perez-hilton-re/) and the general hysteria behind famous people in America has approached epic proportions.
The line between celebrity news and actual news is blurred the line between reality and fiction. This has been going on for some time and has undermined our culture to the point where the truth becomes harder and harder to find.
Perhaps starting with the inauguration of Jesse Ventura, the Governor of Minnesota, or rather more widely known Ronald Regan, actor turned President, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, Comedian Al Franken turned Senator of Minnesota, the inundation of media stars into legitimate societal roles has slowly degraded that what was once held in high esteem.
Put it this way, we are only one Carl Weathers away from having the majority of the main cast from Predator running public policy in the United States. With those sorts of people, you could seriously get a stew going…(R.I.P Arrested Development)
Now this is not the only reason behind our culture crash, and I believe that every person has a right, whether they are famous for entertaining the masses, to do what they want in this regard, the way that it has been handled couldn’t be any messier.
Imagine a dystopian universe where we glorify celebrities as deities, only to rip them down and replace them with new ones, whom we idolize before destroying them, would certainly be some form of a hell now wouldn’t it…?
When the worlds of entertainment and serious dialogue/discussion/world changing events begin to merge, the hazy veil between the two begins to merge. Films like the Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and The Strangers slowly aid in diminishing this line, where moviegoers and even worse, people who only hear about the movie and then talk about it 3rd party, spread rumors about what they heard and what they think they heard. This rumor spreading, with the mixture of reality and fiction, can cause a detrimental effect on the people of our society.
These movies have used handheld camera techniques, a style known as Cinéma vérité to further promote the notion that it was a real event, and to connect the viewer with the people in the scene, creating a reality to pull right off the silver screen. This style of docudrama or edutainment breaks that line between reality and fiction to create an immersive style of entertainment, that pushes the boundaries of what we as entertainment consumers consider fact and fiction…if there’s a genre called edutainment then there must be a hybrid for truths and untruths…faction?
Another example is H.G Wells’ War of the Worlds 1938 broadcast. Now part of American journalist history, the original broadcast sent people into a panic, thinking that everything from Aliens to Nazis were invading the East Coast of the US. After the event, even Adolf Hitler was cited in saying: "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy."
Let us not get out of hand here and claim that we’re associating anything here on this blog with Nazi’s or any other form of actual fascism (despite previous posts about fascism AND aliens…it’s all about synchronicity people) but the fact that this sort of thing has happened before and through the integration of media and reality, is happening yet again, should certainly raise some alarms.
Recent films Paranormal Activity, and The Fourth Kind , are the next iteration of this style of film, and this corrosion of that thin border separating the worlds of fiction and fact. Paranormal Activity, at first comes across as a sincere home video of an otherworldly home invasion, yet audiences witness hand held footage to evoke that voyeuristic quality that they are along for the ride with the characters in the movie. As real as this may seem, the people on screen are still getting paid lots of money; the money that we have shelled out to make it seem as real as possible.
Where the problem exists is with movies like The Fourth Kind , where it is purported to be a factual interpretation of actual events that transpired in the remote town of Nome, Alaska. While some of the story is based in truth, the movie suggests the strange circumstances revolve around alien abduction, and leaves a lot up for question.
Nome is situated on a flat, sparse piece of Alaskan territory, not nestled in forests and mountains along a Fjord, as the movie was filmed in Eastern Europe. The majority of citizens in the town are not Caucasian but Native American. Trivial facts indeed, but upon further investigation, the main character in the movie Dr. Abigail Tyler, (Milla Jovovich) doesn’t even appear to exist. Additionally the actual disappearances, investigated by the Anchorage Daily News found no supporting evidence of abduction.
The film open with an “honest” (and quite plain looking) introduction by Jovovich saying that the audience is about to witness a mixture of actual footage from the events and Hollywood storytelling. And yes readers the story is quite captivating, if you are willing to go along for the ride, the set and setting are convincing. However one must ask oneself if Ms. Jovovich and Elias Koteas (yes Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…) are involved in the 4th Kind to selflessly promote the mystery of missing persons in Alaska?
The handheld, seemingly real scenes of otherworldly visitors, albeit spooky, come off slightly ridiculous outside the darkened theatre. Without ruining some of the more disturbing scenes in the movie, Mr. Bigglesworth wonders if Alaskan police would willingly disclose police footage of a crime scene to Hollywood, of unexplained phenomena.
To cover up the fact that these people are now difficult to find (if they exist at all), or that the FBI has visited Nome many times in the past handful of years, is the fact that the names of people have been changed to protect them.
The issue that matters here most is the notion that The Fourth Kind uses fictional Hollywood footage and most certainly fabricated “actual” footage, claiming that it is documented unedited evidence from Nome fades the line between genuine and fraudulent completely.
We now have a movie that has its feet completely entrenched in the world of movies and magic, and the world we all live in. Here at the Collective, we all can enjoy the mysteries of the universe, and will even entertain a conspiracy theory based in some fact. But when it starts to erode away at people’s sense of reality for profit and ratings, the danger becomes incredibly clear.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)http://www.examiner.com/x-22738-New-Haven-Movie-Examiner~y2009m9d5-The-real-story-behind-The-Fourth-Kindhttp://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/06/fourth.kind.real/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/09/the-fourth-kind-sleep-paralysis
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