Over at Big Hollywood is an interesting list of cinema clichés that should die. Number one is:
1. The Crazed Vet/Soldier: According to Hollywood, if you’re a veteran who fought in a war or a soldier returning from one, you are insane, dangerous and probably a murderous sociopath. Either that or you’re a pathetic loser with mental problems. An emotional basket case. And of course, only poor people join the military, only uneducated stooges easily fooled by government propaganda. No one joins the military because they believe in something. If they do they will find out how foolish they were and become disgusted with America.
I’ve complained about this to Amy so many times that I’m sure she’s sick of hearing about it. But it’s true: if you’ve been in war and seen action, you’re probably suffering from PTSD, and are either homicidal or suicidal. Or both. And former Special Forces soldiers are the worst. They either have PTSD (as above), or they’ve joined some hyper-violent private security firm or some organized crime body that robs banks. Has to be true, because I saw it on Numb3rs, CSI and just about every other TV drama out there.
3. The Evil Christian: Hollywood seems to say that anyone who believes in Christianity is a sexual deviant, crook or a murderer. Christians are always shown to be hypocrites and phonies. They’re never good people. They’re exposed as pious frauds when their “true colors” are revealed.
This is very often (though by means not “always”) true. Very few TV shows actually have religious characters who are central to the main story. Some claim to be religious but never attend services. Some family dramas are exceptions, but in most one-hour dramas on TV, if a character is a Christian, they are most likely a fundamentalist who is secretly a pedophile or murderer of some sort. Not that this is never the case, but like the PTSD-suffering soldiers, the ratio on TV is completely out of whack with reality.
Anyway, the others are interesting too, although I think the author of the list is perhaps a little too easily offended. In any case, the point is solid: Hollywood cuts itself off from a number of rich plot and character possibilities by being blinded in this way by its cultural biases. Let me just note that there are good examples of believing Christian characters. I’m immediately reminded of Shepherd Book of Firefly, who was not only a believing Christian, but a good and respected man on the crew. His religion was never denegrated on the ship by the other characters, even though some were obviously not on the same page. And it’s worth remembering that the character was created by Joss Whedon, a liberal atheist. It’s a good example of the sort of thing that Hollywood sometimes misses out on by not taking its commitment to tolerance and diversity seriously.
Naw, I’m not offended, just tired of this nonsense. This was kind of a red meat post and I let myself get worked up writing it so it would have some energy. I had a lot of fun with it. Part 2 is next.
Yeah, it definitely was red meat, and I could tell you were getting worked up. Mostly, though, I agreed with the starting point. I’m looking forward to part 2.
Funny, though, it would be better for Hollywood creatively and artistically to drop the cliches. And not just Hollywood, by the way, but writers of just about every genre. These cliches appear in just about every artistic form. I think it has more to do with the kind of life of the mind that is cultivated in artistic circles, which is very narrow and often bigoted. It never occurs to these artists trying to be countercultural that their own counterculture is the culture. The artistic community is small enough to enforce a rather rigid orthodoxy. But, then, it’s not unusual for countercultural cliques to adopt fascistic rigor in thought, dress, and opinion.