Today i'd like to talk about hollywood and a rather disturbing trend that i've noticed in movies over the past 5-6 yrs. Watching this year's academy awards , a rather low key affair by the way ( made watchable only by the redoutable George Clooney and the gorgeous Kiera Knightley), I came to the sad conclusion that hollywood is experiencing a rather lean patch .Not since 2003-04 when "THE LORD OF THE RINGS : THE RETURN OF THE KING" so overwhelmingly swept 11 oscars , has there been a majoraward and money spinning movie. Before going further let us just consider the more imp movies from 1990 - 2000(a) and those from2001-06(b).
a) Forrest Gump , Philadelphia, Schindler's List, Pulp Fiction,Titanic, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan , Jurassic Park, Silence of the Lambs, Braveheart.(just to name a few)
b) LotR trilogy, Matrix trilogy , Star wars (I,II,III), A beautiful mind, Chicago, Million Dollar Baby
Its easy to see that in the 2nd list probably only the Tolkien adaption (that too only part 3) would probably merit a place amongthe Thinking Man's Hall of Fame of Hollywood Classics (sorry to disappoint matrix fans but I do not consider any of the films to be classics).However in the first list, all the movies and perhaps a few that I've not named would certainly run very close if not find their place amonst the great all time movies. To add to this you have the steadily increasing list of attempted big budgeted epics which have bombed at the box ofice...your Troys , Alexanders and War of the Worlds . The popcorn fare of the Harry Potter series (& the more recent Narnia) fade miserably in comparison to the great fantasy classics e.g The Wizard of Oz. King Kong for all its wonderful effects would be hard pressed to surpass the undeniable nostalgia of the original black & white clasic.I have not seen a single one of the movies to headline this year's oscars (except Kong) but something tells me that things are not going to be too different from last year. .I watched all of million Dollar Baby, Aviator, Ray, Finding Neverland...all very good movies without bieng great. In none could I detect , either the grandeoise or the finesse or the take home punch so inherent of the classics of old.I personally believe that the best judge to a movie's real quality is the person's emotions as he leaves the theatre. So a great film is one where you feel extremes of emotion- exhilaration, deep sympathy , or simply a sense of awe . It is thus that over the years we either rejoiced as with the Von Trapp family's escape from nazi clutches, or had the good, the bad and the hideous ugly ofwar brought right into our living rooms at the opening D Day sequence in SPR. Over the past 4-5 yrs Hollywood has been built up a strange monotony , either trying to disturb still deeply conservative American roots with themes like Homosexuality and racism , or merely stitching together a 2hr visual effects roller coaster ride lacking the element of thought. (classic case in point : compare Jurassic Park to the 2 sequels or Gladiator to Troy). Somewhere along the line we have lost that spontaneous human emotion, the element which excited us with merely a scream of "Run Forrest Run" , or an embittered Huphrey Bogart drowning his heartache with the line " of all the gin joints in all the cities inthe entire world, she has to walk into mine" . The movie making touch which sent shivers down your spine at the mention of a single " Clarice" or at the word of the proud Colonel in a hostile courtroom " You can't handle the truth" ,is unfortunately missing over the past few years. What is more astonishing is that in these very same years , our own bollywood has acually taken giant steps in churning out cerebrally orgasmic movies the ilk of which would have done Hollywood of yore proud. Be it Black ,RDB, DCH, Lagaan, Page 3 . What a welcome relief to get fare so radically different form the diabetically sweet Yash chopra brigade.
So where do we go from here . Simple , you expect Hollywood to recover but hope it is sooner rether than later. Let us see what Tom Hanks dishes out in 'The DaVinci Code'. You also hope Bollywood keeps up the excellent work of these past few years. Indian film makers deserve a pat on thier backs. For once,they have at least matched ,if not beaten hollywood at their own game. Let us also hope ,1st that RDB is sent to the Oscars next year, and 2nd that it goes one step better than Lagaan. Surely no one will deny the immense potential of the same.