Bursting the Bubble

Forget the Flat Earth Society. I've found a new cult with beliefs that are way further out there. They're past the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, past the LaRouche supporters, and way past the JFK assassination nuts. They've got skewed, illogical beliefs through which they filter everything they see and hear. They are the LA Bubblers, and I've outlined their beliefs below.

Beliefs of the LA Bubblers:
1. The city of Los Angeles is encased in a giant bubble.
2. We cannot penetrate this bubble.
3. We cannot communicate through this bubble.
4. Anything that happens in Los Angeles - including filmmaking - happens inside the impenetrable bubble. What happens in the world outside has no effect on LA or its people whatsoever.

Ridiculous, right? There are people who actually believe this. I know them. I've tried to explain to them a hundred times that there is no bubble around LA, but some people just don't get it. They'll try to tell you that celebrities, filmmakers, producers, and the like inhabit some kind of magical world totally seperate from ours. And while that may be true when it comes to things like, um, snow, it's not true when it comes to things like war. Believe it or not, those slick image makers are well aware that there's a war on. And - get this- it affects the things they think, do, or say, just as it affects the rest of us.

C'mon, make the leap with me Bubblers. If war affects the things fimmakers do, and if what they do is make movies, then...you got it! War affects movies. There, that wasn't so hard, was it? In 10th grade we called that the Transitive property. You can see the effects of war on film in terms of which films get made: War of the Worlds (anti-occupation), Munich (anti-retaliatory justice), and 300 (pro-war).

Now before you get all Ivy League on me, hear me out. I don't think 300 is about the Iraq War. I don't think it's about Sparta, though, either. Like a slew of Hollywood movies before it, 300 is about extolling an "American" ideology, and there's nothing crazy or conspiratorial about that. Films like Armaageddon, shows like 24, and basically any action film all do the same thing, and with good reason. People like to see movies that make them feel good about their culture, and films with right-wing ideologies do just that by depicting worlds in which current American cultural values triumph over others. When they do it right, most people don't even realize it. For example, I'll bet you didn't realize the first time you saw Armageddon that the American flag is shown about every 15 seconds, but it is. You can make a drinking game out of it. I call it, "Subliminalcohol."

What's interesting about this whole 300 controversy is that they did screw up by not hiding the ideology well enough. The film is laden with various right-wing slogans like "Come and take them!" (NRA) and "Freedom isn't free" (Pick-up trucks). The Persian army is made up of the Right's historical enemies: Non-whites, homosexuals, loose women, and some kind of clarient-playing bear. Whether he's killing diplomats or legislators, Leonidas shows the same contempt for the rule of law that is such an integral part of right-wing thinking.

Even so, that stuff is in so many other films that the audience still might have missed it. What really pulled the covers off of 300 was its narrative which - by coincidence - hit a little close to home. In the film, Leonidas the warrior king seeks to protect his Western nation from an attacking Middle Eastern power by marching to war. He faces resistance from his legislature, one of whom is secretly rooting for the enemy (if that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same charge that war-happy Republicans have been lodging at the Democrats since 2003). Though everyone doubts him, the brave Leonidas goes to war and waits for the rest of his nation to send a 'surge' of reinforcements. 'Surge' was my contribution.

As any LA Bubbler can tell you, 300 is based on a comic book from 1998, so it can't possibly be about the Iraq War. That argument is flawed, but the conclusion is accurate (this time). 300 isn't about Iraq. It's about how awesome America is and - for reasons that have more to do with right-wing symoblism and less to do with narrative filmmaking - it fails to get its message across.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the next big right-wing film comes out. Will audiences revolt, like they did with 300? Or will the filmmakers bury the message snugly in a distant narrative? I'm betting on the former, and it looks like I'm not alone. I've just started watching season 5 of 24, and the producers of that show are shying away from making Jack Bauer the anti-bureaucracy, pro-torture, Arab-hating SOB he's been in the past. Perhaps, like the rest of America, they're getting sick of the Right too. Even so, I'm not expecting to see any snow anytime soon.