Hollywood is dying. And that’s good news for Christians – but not for the reason you might think.
Back in January, before the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Vanity Fair ran an article entitled “Why Hollywood as we know it is already over”, by Nick Bilton. The picture Bilton painted of today’s dying Hollywood was a dire one: a mixture of over-regulated and heavily unionised labour, with a state of affairs not working for anyone in the film industry – except those who benefit from jobs that are often non-jobs.
Take the example given at the opening of the article. A job description with the words “to dust away raindrops” must be a joke, surely? Well, no, it seems that someone on the set gets a paycheck for doing just that. This is one of the many absurdities highlighted by the article in an industry whose practices are wedded to the worst extremes of union practices dating back over 50 years.
We have to remember this is Hollywood. Most of the film-making around the world (and, indeed, around the United States) operates on diametrically opposed lines. Independent film-makers tend to do everything on the cheap – they have to. There is no one brushing raindrops away and getting paid for it, unless they are also the costumier, the make-up artist and, possibly, the assistant director as well.
Nevertheless, Hollywood is a world apart. And this is the case not just in regard to other film-makers but also to anyone outside the liberal bubble that floats over the Hollywood Hills. With the odd exception, faith-based or more conservative views have been all but taboo in Hollywood for the last 60 years or so. Therefore, the fact that the current Hollywood establishment is losing its grip on film-making should be an occasion for those whose values are different to take heart, and to take stock.
It is not just movie-making that is changing. Netflix and other such platforms have altered the rules of the entertainment game. Today people watch films on computer screens just as readily as at cinemas. Purists complain that the computer screen is no place to watch a film. When you next hear that lament, take a look at the age of the person making it. The new generations – basically anyone under 40 – do not care where they consume their entertainment: computer, tablet, phone or in 3D wraparound virtual reality.
And “consume” is the word here. For what has changed is not just the technology but also the manner of consumption. Box sets have become fashionable. Viewers spend whole weekends watching episode after episode of their favourite television series. That such series are now attracting the brightest Hollywood talent, and are talked about and reviewed as much as any theatrical release, indicates that something major has shifted in the world of visual entertainment.
Television was once the poor relation in terms of production values. That is no longer the case. In fact, it would be much easier to name television series over the past years that have provoked debate and interest, as well as gained audiences, than many present-day Hollywood releases. The hysterical reaction to Netflix films being shown in competition at Cannes this year only goes to show that something major within the industry is happening. A turning of the cinematic tide is underway.
A direct parallel can be drawn here to what took place 50 years ago. Then Hollywood stopped making bloated epics because independent film-makers had come along making cheaper and more popular films. Today, Hollywood may not be making Cleopatra – the hugely expensive 1963 epic that nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox – but it continues to spend millions of dollars on yet another superhero movie, followed by another from the same stable, interspersed with a superfluous remake or unnecessary sequel to a much-loved classic. Hollywood is not just running out of time, but also ideas. Perhaps this is not surprising when only certain narrow ideas are permitted airtime.
What does all this mean for film-makers of faith? First, they need to recognise that the stranglehold on exhibition is loosened. Platforms such as Netflix are already looking to the faith market as a possible source of income. Recently, a British film distributor, not a man of faith, told me that in a decreasing market he was interested in faith films because there was obviously an audience for them – as simple as that. And today, in his firm’s distribution company catalogue, alongside martial arts and horror movies, there sit a growing number of faith films.
As has always been the case, where this is all going to end will be determined by money – not just the making of it but the raising of it too. A faith-based film industry without financiers will be as devoid of production as any secular one without funds. No doubt some will want to continue to make feature films, but other faith-based film-makers will turn to crafting television mini-series that become box sets to be viewed over a weekend rather than an evening. This is something not to be feared, especially as more complex Christian themes and storylines often work better when given lengthier screen time.
Hollywood is passing away. Shall we observe movie industry liberals, dressed in funereal black, strolling forlornly across empty film-sets and sitting in cobwebbed Hollywood boardrooms as, at last, film-making escapes its ideological knots? With the ensuing result being a new breed of film-makers who tell stories that are not rehashed liberal fantasies but tales of real men and women, conscious of a dignity that Hollywood of recent decades not only overlooked but also, at times, undermined?
The answer is coming to a cinema near you.
KV Turley is a writer and film-maker
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