Occam’s Razor
Mar. 28th, 2008 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribETA Links fixed!
A few days back, Rand SImberg, a blogger I follow, wondered why Hollywood Businessmen were so commonly murderers. Rand came up with a somewhat convoluted explanation, the gist of which was “liberal Hollywood writers don’t like or understand businessmen.”
Er, wrong. Using the famous principle of Occam’s Razor, a simpler explanation presents itself. There are three reasons Hollywood businessmen are violent murderers, none of which have a darn thing to do with politics.
1) Dramatic Tension. In a legitimate business environment, the worst thing that can happen is bankruptcy. Even that is somewhat contrived, but more importantly, fails the “so what” test. Many people have gone bankrupt and then gone on to live long happy lives. On the other hand, catching a bullet in the chest is not conducive to long happy lives.
2) Moral Clarity. In a movie, one doesn’t have a lot of time or space to establish characters. So, a very easy way to make somebody be the bad guy is for them to be a murderer. This is especially true in the summer blockbuster subgenre, where every line of dialog means less time to Blow Stuff Up Real Good.
3) Visual Interest. Real business is not very visually interesting. It’s pictures of people sitting at desks or in conference rooms. Not exactly something I’d want to watch, especially after having done just that for eight hours. Now, shootouts and bombs blowing up? That’s got real visual interest.
One should always be careful in ascribing grand political motives to things done for non-political reasons. Hollywood movies, especially the ones anybody’s actually seen, are made to make money, not political statements.
A few days back, Rand SImberg, a blogger I follow, wondered why Hollywood Businessmen were so commonly murderers. Rand came up with a somewhat convoluted explanation, the gist of which was “liberal Hollywood writers don’t like or understand businessmen.”
Er, wrong. Using the famous principle of Occam’s Razor, a simpler explanation presents itself. There are three reasons Hollywood businessmen are violent murderers, none of which have a darn thing to do with politics.
1) Dramatic Tension. In a legitimate business environment, the worst thing that can happen is bankruptcy. Even that is somewhat contrived, but more importantly, fails the “so what” test. Many people have gone bankrupt and then gone on to live long happy lives. On the other hand, catching a bullet in the chest is not conducive to long happy lives.
2) Moral Clarity. In a movie, one doesn’t have a lot of time or space to establish characters. So, a very easy way to make somebody be the bad guy is for them to be a murderer. This is especially true in the summer blockbuster subgenre, where every line of dialog means less time to Blow Stuff Up Real Good.
3) Visual Interest. Real business is not very visually interesting. It’s pictures of people sitting at desks or in conference rooms. Not exactly something I’d want to watch, especially after having done just that for eight hours. Now, shootouts and bombs blowing up? That’s got real visual interest.
One should always be careful in ascribing grand political motives to things done for non-political reasons. Hollywood movies, especially the ones anybody’s actually seen, are made to make money, not political statements.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 05:25 pm (UTC)This may be true, in this instance, but you remind me immediately of an insightful essay I read some years (decades) ago, about why Hollywood seems to hate small towns. They're all depicted as nests of corruption and bigotry and murder - whereas in reality, small towns are communities where people leave their doors unlocked, and neighbors watch over your children because they're neighbors.
You'd never know this from watching TV.
The short version of the explanation is remembered childhood anti-Semitism: Most people, including screenwriters, were born in small towns, however they may have moved to The Big City later, and smart-aleck, sarcastic bookworm four-eyes kids got picked on in such places… and some went on to become Hollywood screenwriters.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 08:08 pm (UTC)We're on the right side of the tracks - but I can see the tracks from my upstairs window. Literally.
However .. that's not as secure as it might seem. We've got a big window to one side of that door - all a determined thief has to do is break a window and he's in.
Of course .. then he's up to his ass in German Shepherds so I figure he's sorta screwed at that point.