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Post by sdrew13163 on Jul 29, 2020 0:12:14 GMT
Who are some directors who have never waded into the political forum with their movies to any extent?
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 0:22:41 GMT
You are going to have to be more specific.
Almost anything can be seen as political in some way. I was going to say Tobe Hooper, but The Texas Chainsaw Masscare can be seen as political allegory. Liberal vs. Conservative, though maybe I'm looking to much into it.
M. Night Shyamalan?
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 29, 2020 0:37:02 GMT
Sydney Pollack said every film has a political POV whether it intentional or not.
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 0:42:46 GMT
Sydney Pollack said every film has a political POV whether it intentional or not. I think the OP is asking about directors who haven't made an overtly political movie. |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jul 29, 2020 0:45:50 GMT
I wanna say Tim Burton, but you could extrapolate some LGBT politics from Ed Wood.
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 0:49:58 GMT
I wanna say Tim Burton, but you could extrapolate some LGBT politics from Ed Wood. You can extrapolate politics from more than just Ed Wood. What about Planet of the Apes? |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jul 29, 2020 0:50:04 GMT
The problem here is a lot of directors often do slip in some politics, aleit through metaphors and analogies that can go under the radar. For instance, you knowhow there were a lot of cheesy 1950s b movies that featured space invaders? A lot of those were actually analogies for the Red Scare and fear of invading Russians/communists.
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Post by sdrew13163 on Jul 29, 2020 0:50:09 GMT
You are going to have to be more specific. Almost anything can be seen as political in some way. I was going to say Tobe Hooper, but The Texas Chainsaw Masscare can be seen as political allegory. Liberal vs. Conservative, though maybe I'm looking to much into it. M. Night Shyamalan? Overtly political. I’d consider Christopher Nolan qualified to be considered apolitical, even though many see TDK trilogy as right-leaning. He has always said that was never his intention, and if we’re going to speculate on things like that then Interstellar would be left-leaning considering it’s about the inevitable extinction of mankind due to climate change/depleted resources. Then you have someone like John Carpenter, who worked almost completely with allegorical movies, but never had a straightforward political movie. But it was his intention to make a political statement with said allegories, so he wouldn’t be apolitical. |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jul 29, 2020 0:52:33 GMT
I wanna say Tim Burton, but you could extrapolate some LGBT politics from Ed Wood. You can extrapolate politics from more than just Ed Wood. What about Planet of the Apes? I was thinking about that, but to be fair that was a remake (not his original idea) |
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 29, 2020 0:55:01 GMT
I think the OP is asking about directors who haven't made an overtly political movie. But in what sense?
I never considered john McTiernan films to be political but he was making a big fuss about fascist superhero movies so it occurred to me that in his movies, he doesn't present macho heroes. The caricatured soldiers in PREDATOR end up dead and the last one seems depressed or all fucked up in the helicopter. John McClane is a bad husband.
I'd say a journeyman director would be less likely to be overtly political --like Richard Fleischer or Roy Baker. Andrew McLaglen was kind of like the McTiernan of his day but he didn't have that kind of story theme--though one might see other things that were political for the time. There's political content to the Wild Geese.
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 0:56:11 GMT
You are going to have to be more specific. Almost anything can be seen as political in some way. I was going to say Tobe Hooper, but The Texas Chainsaw Masscare can be seen as political allegory. Liberal vs. Conservative, though maybe I'm looking to much into it. M. Night Shyamalan? Overtly political. I’d consider Christopher Nolan qualified to be considered apolitical, even though many see TDK trilogy as right-leaning. He has always said that was never his intention, and if we’re going to speculate on things like that then Interstellar would be left-leaning considering it’s about the inevitable extinction of mankind due to climate change/depleted resources. Then you have someone like John Carpenter, who worked almost completely with allegorical movies, but never had a straightforward political movie. But it was his intention to make a political statement with said allegories, so he wouldn’t be apolitical. I would say They Live is overtly political satire. |
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Post by sdrew13163 on Jul 29, 2020 1:00:13 GMT
Overtly political. I’d consider Christopher Nolan qualified to be considered apolitical, even though many see TDK trilogy as right-leaning. He has always said that was never his intention, and if we’re going to speculate on things like that then Interstellar would be left-leaning considering it’s about the inevitable extinction of mankind due to climate change/depleted resources. Then you have someone like John Carpenter, who worked almost completely with allegorical movies, but never had a straightforward political movie. But it was his intention to make a political statement with said allegories, so he wouldn’t be apolitical. I would say They Live is overtly political satire. Yes, overtly political *satire*. It’s not a straightforward political movie, though. The movie never states that this side is Group X and this side is Group Y. It’s technically the aliens vs the humans on its most basic level. We all know that’s not the message Carpenter was limiting himself to, but that’s what makes it an allegory. |
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 1:01:07 GMT
I think the OP is asking about directors who haven't made an overtly political movie. But in what sense?
I never considered john McTiernan films to be political but he was making a big fuss about fascist superhero movies so it occurred to me that in his movies, he doesn't present macho heroes. The caricatured soldiers in PREDATOR end up dead and the last one seems depressed or all fucked up in the helicopter. John McClane is a bad husband.
I'd say a journeyman director would be less likely to be overtly political --like Richard Fleischer or Roy Baker. Andrew McLaglen was kind of like the McTiernan of his day but he didn't have that kind of story theme--though one might see other things that were political for the time. There's political content to the Wild Geese.
In what sense? Movies in which you have to look for it. Something like Predator doesn't feel political unless you are looking for it. Someone doesn't come out of Predator feeling that they have just watched a political movie. |
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 29, 2020 1:03:03 GMT
THE FOG movie politics come out in the way that the town is presented as corrupt from the get go.
It stole gold from lepers (sickly throwaways in society).
It makes for an interesting horror story and more unnerving than if it was about invaders coming into the innocent town, but ultimately we are being asked to side with the vengeful lepers.
Hal Holbrook's priest was not a bad guy-and yet he gets it at the end too. There's a demoralizing subtext.
Same with HALLOWEEN--the killer is not some deformed outsider or even someone sickly, he's your average suburban boy driven to violence by the loosening morals of teenagers.
One cannot just dismiss him--and he disappears at the end so the evil is not neutralized.
CHRISTINE is less trendy in its politics--the nerdy teenager ends up being the evil one, and the football jock is the good guy (although he ends up injured permanently). But the compacted car shows some movement--so even there it isn't totally defeated.
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 1:03:09 GMT
I would say They Live is overtly political satire. Yes, overtly political *satire*. It’s not a straightforward political movie, though. The movie never states that this side is Group X and this side is Group Y. It’s technically the aliens vs the humans on its most basic level. We all know that’s not the message Carpenter was limiting himself to, but that’s what makes it an allegory. It's your question, so I'll just go along with what you say is or isn't overtly political in your opinion. Of course They Live is allegory, but it is very in your face about it. You have to be dense not to see it as what it is. Prime is reaching to the point of hilarity with Halloween and The Fog imo. You have to really be looking for for it with those movies and when you find it it is still a stretch. Like Sydney Pollock said, you can find politics in any movie even if it wasn't the director's intention. I think this thread is far more interesting in discussing politics in movies than just naming directors. |
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Post by ck100 on Jul 29, 2020 1:03:39 GMT
Brett Ratner?  |
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jul 29, 2020 1:03:53 GMT
Also another problem is politics can be wildly interepred/extrapolated in differenet ways that might not even necessarily be what the director intended. For instance the movie "Office Space" portrays the mundanity of office life and the soul crushing emptiness of corporatism. Many people (particularly leftists) may interpret that as a critique on capitalism and class struggles that arise from it. This would be rather odd if that's what the director intended though (Mike Judge is a libertarian).
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Post by lowtacks86 on Jul 29, 2020 1:04:59 GMT
Brett Ratner? Actually you could extrapolate multiculturalism and racial acceptance from "Rush Hour" |
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 29, 2020 1:10:17 GMT
In what sense? Movies in which you have to look for it. Something like Predator doesn't feel political unless you are looking for it. Someone doesn't come out of Predator feeling that they have just watched a political movie. No but that's where the Pollack point comes in--he's saying that every director will have a political sensibility--how they regard characters. I think the exaggerated macho stuff in Predator was McTiernan's way of mocking soldier culture. At the end Arnie is grim and looks fucked up--HOW DO WE KNOW THIS? By the looks of concern on the faces of RG Armstrong and the woman. It could have ended with Arnie smiling or making a joke to show he was ok---remember how confident he was when he emerged from the helicopter? He also said about Libya--"we're a rescue team-not assassins." But that didn't change the way he and company go in and blissfully blow everyone up "knock knock!"
Compare to PREDATOR 2 -- Danny Glover emerges unscathed from the ship and even has a little tussle with "My Bodyguard." No psychological trauma for him.
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Post by moviemouth on Jul 29, 2020 1:16:44 GMT
In what sense? Movies in which you have to look for it. Something like Predator doesn't feel political unless you are looking for it. Someone doesn't come out of Predator feeling that they have just watched a political movie. No but that's where the Pollack point comes in--he's saying that every director will have a political sensibility--how they regard characters. I think the exaggerated macho stuff in Predator was McTiernan's way of mocking soldier culture. At the end Arnie is grim and looks fucked up--HOW DO WE KNOW THIS? By the looks of concern on the faces of RG Armstrong and the woman. It could have ended with Arnie smiling or making a joke to show he was ok---remember how confident he was when he emerged from the helicopter? He also said about Libya--"we're a rescue team-not assassins." But that didn't change the way he and company go in and blissfully blow everyone up "knock knock!"
Compare to PREDATOR 2 -- Danny Glover emerges unscathed from the ship and even has a little tussle with "My Bodyguard." No psychological trauma for him.
Yes, but now you are ignoring what the OP is asking for. He isn't asking for the Sydney Pollock definition of political movies. You just love to argue and I am done with this argument. |
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