As evidenced by many of the other comments in this index, American movie audiences have the attention span of a gnat and tolerate ambitious filmmaking to very little extent. It is little wonder that Hollywood tries to do very little that doesn't come pre-packaged in a little product tie-in marketing campaign.
What is the role of the artist in a capitalist society?
It was a question that the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dedicated himself to asking and exploring (wait, wasn't he a character in the film? :^) ). This film made me pick up and read Gramsci again and I saw many similarities of ideas and themes.
Is the film great? No. But at the dawn of a new century and in the shadow of WTO protesting and worldwide distrust of relentless globalization the film asks questions that rarely make it to mainstream audiences through any other medium. The film suggests, like WTO in Seattle, that there is historical precedence for the belief that there are cracks in the consensus and not everyone is on board with what is going on in the new global economy. And great art CAN come from those who are consciously political and creating from their everyday life experience.
(BTW, Cherry Jones is quite a find.)
What is the role of the artist in a capitalist society?
It was a question that the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dedicated himself to asking and exploring (wait, wasn't he a character in the film? :^) ). This film made me pick up and read Gramsci again and I saw many similarities of ideas and themes.
Is the film great? No. But at the dawn of a new century and in the shadow of WTO protesting and worldwide distrust of relentless globalization the film asks questions that rarely make it to mainstream audiences through any other medium. The film suggests, like WTO in Seattle, that there is historical precedence for the belief that there are cracks in the consensus and not everyone is on board with what is going on in the new global economy. And great art CAN come from those who are consciously political and creating from their everyday life experience.
(BTW, Cherry Jones is quite a find.)