On tap this week:
— Martin Luther King the movie?
— American Idol sucks
— Entering the Dragon
I’m not a regular watcher of American Idol, never have been, but the show on the whole is fascinating material. I watched one season with several friends of mine once and I have to admit; it was quite addictive but ultimately was like a sugary soda. It’s all fine and dandy when you take it in, but it’s empty calories that leave you wanting for something more. But it is a big event on a regular basis, so I tune in for a little bit every season to see what the fuss was about. I may not be around a water cooler anymore, but I do like being somewhat informed on pop culture. And one thing has struck me about the last couple seasons of Idol: it’s about as rigged as it gets.
Let me clarify that statement. I still think it’s a popularity contest where people vote, and the winner is legitimate in that ugly fat women and dumb teenage girls vote for whichever guy would qualify as either their “gay friend” or as their ideal mate. Everyone needs to have a crush and you can’t blame homely, overweight women and young girls who don’t know better for liking Idol. There is an actual competition and final winner is a real, legitimate winner. This is a contest and the better person wins. It’s apparent to me that the buildup to the actual competition itself is about as filthy and rigged as it gets. How so, you ask?
Because none of the people who end up making it on the show are there by accident.
The show itself is just a three month advertising campaign to build around a product yet to be determined and see if any non-winning products can be turned into money makers as well. It’s always impressive at just how many former Idol contestants magically have music videos and records that come out within weeks or months of the show’s grand finale. In many ways it’s a glorified tryout for fame and fortune and I get that. There’s a reason why people drop out after getting close to the finals; they’ve gotten enough notoriety that they feel they don’t want to be stuck in what have been rumored to quite oppressive contracts the “winner” receives. You don’t even need to win to become a famous musician; the whore that Elliot Spitzer paid to slap his junk around sold like a million copies of her album via iTunes just because Spitzer was caught with his hand in her cookie jar.
Watching the various singers throughout the last couple years, it’s amazing how much polish they have. There’s a certain amount one gets from doing any activity over time, but it’d be impossible to argue that Adam Lambert (the gay fellow, I believe) wasn’t a professional singer before his “audition” to get on the show. You can say the same thing about probably 20 or so people who were in the final running to get on the show as well. While the big stadiums of people auditioning may be there to show that it isn’t rigged, that “anyone” has a chance, really 99.9999999% of those people are there so that Fox and Simon Cowell can claim that it’s fair. There’s probably one really talented person who makes it in who is truly an undiscovered talent, and I can see why they do it. Cowell wants anyone to think that you can go from being a waitress at Hooters to having a recording contract is something he does as opposed to giving a professional singer a marketing campaign paid for by Fox and advertisers on primetime television.
Part of the appeal of Idol is that we’re given people who are allegedly amateurs who are getting a break. But I doubt Adam or Kris or any of the people who made it to Hollywood waited in line with the rest of the unwashed masses hoping to get their big break. They were scheduled in, the judges had to act surprised at how great they were, and then bam! Hollywood. Don’t be surprised in a couple years when a tell-all book does to Idol what happened to Quiz Show and others of the first modern game show era. Me, I’ll sit back and watch trashy TV on VH1 because I know going in that there’s a certain level of dishonesty. You don’t watch a show called For the Love of Ray J for the intellectual stimulation, I admit, nor do you really believe that every slutty woman on it is there to “find love.”
And I’m ok with that. Nut then again that was probably the reason why I never got into the good colleges.
Random Thoughts of the Week
Steven Spielberg announced last week that he and his merry group of men had acquired the rights from the King estate to make a film about Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. With that announcement came some furor from two of Dr. King’s children, who are against a film, and I tend to agree with them about it.
My whole problem with the film is that making a film about Dr. King is perhaps the best case of walking the proverbial tightrope as one can imagine a film can come. Why? Because Dr. King may have been one of the voices of a generation, dead well before he should’ve, but he was still a man.
King was known for being quite the ladies man, apparently, even after he got married. He did call them a “form of anxiety reduction” allegedly. While there’s no documented evidence available, as anything the FBI has is sealed until 2027 from the public, and while it doesn’t take away from what he had to say it puts Spielberg and crew in a tight position.
If he shows King’s indiscretions, you’re putting a sort of truth to what really is innuendo and rumor that doesn‘t have that “smoking gun“ to prove it true. There’s no blue dress, no woman who has said “yes I borked a civil rights leader and here’s the proof” that we can point to as definitive and true.
If he doesn’t show it, then there’s going to be a group of people who will complain that you’re putting King up so high on a hill that he stops being a man and starts becoming something else entirely. MLK will walk on water, heal the lepers, nuke the whales and all that jazz. It’ll be so sweet that you’ll become a diabetic immediately after.
It’d be a discredit for either, but here’s the rub. To do any sort of biopic, you have to cover the man as a whole. And any degradation, or implied degradation, is going to cause a controversy like no other. I think any film that doesn’t portray King as the greatest human being who has ever lived, or some terms along those lines, is going to have Al Sharpton and company protesting it for being “racist” amongst other things.
I could go on and on, but there’s no happy ending. Lots of people are going to be upset no matter what because trying to embody an icon like Dr. King is above and beyond something I could reasonably see. Spielberg is a director who has embraced controversy before, but I imagine something like this isn’t what he will eventually sign up for. This just screams bad idea to me. Let Dr. King’s life be something we enjoy through his works, not through Jamie Foxx or Denzel Washington doing their best. It’s not like stepping into the shows of Ray Charles or Johnny Cash; King’s legacy is universal.
I think he represents something beyond what any actor, no matter how skilled, and as such a film about him that isn’t a documentary doesn’t sit right. Some people who have altered the course of history don’t belong on the silver screen because it tarnishes their legacy no matter what. Seeing someone else’s perception of King’s life and times, as opposed to the brilliance in his oratory and his written works, takes away from his significance.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s Film – Enter the Dragon
Perhaps the greatest martial arts film, I’ve seen it dozens of times on television but never all the way through. Always missed about at least half the flick every time, so being able to sit down and watch it all through was terrific. Still the best martial arts film ever made, in my opinion.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Harps and community college girls with low standards at The Alumni Club
Up – An old dude hooks up balloons to his house and goes on a wild adventure with a boy scout and a talking dog.
See it – Pixar is the reigning king of animated films and this is going to be spectacular.
Drag me to Hell – Sam Raimi returns to horror movies.
Skip It – It’s being hyped as a horror flick, but it’s PG-13. We all know what that means.
Do you have questions about movies, life, love, or Branigan’s Law? Shoot me an e-mail at Kubryk@Insidepulse.com and you could be featured in the next “Monday Morning Critic.” Include your name and hometown to improve your odds.
