Legally Blonde 2 Director calls film "Politically Subversive"
07-06-03, 07:17 PM
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Legally Blonde 2 Director calls film "Politically Subversive"
From imdb:
Ummm, sure... 
'Legally Blonde 2' Director: Movie Is "Politically Subversive"
imageLegally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde director Charles Herman- Wurmfeld believes his new comedy is "politically subversive" - despite its harmless appearance. The new comedy sees Reese Witherspoon's hapless Elle Woods character move into politics - and Herman-Wurmfeld is urging audiences to look out for the political subtext of the movie, which he hopes hasn't been masked by the way the film has been marketed. He says, "I think this movie is deceptive, it's subversive. Though sometimes I feel like we've been so watered down that no one's going to notice. I saw in this new movie this greater political consciousness thing going on. When I read it, I thought this is like a manual for grass-roots activism. It's literally a like 'how to' of becoming political. My concern is that it's perceived and marketed as a kind of flag-waving, patriotic, fourth of July celebration, and I think it will be sold to Americans that way to a certain extent. But I think they're going to get a lot of medicine with their spoonful of sugar."
imageLegally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde director Charles Herman- Wurmfeld believes his new comedy is "politically subversive" - despite its harmless appearance. The new comedy sees Reese Witherspoon's hapless Elle Woods character move into politics - and Herman-Wurmfeld is urging audiences to look out for the political subtext of the movie, which he hopes hasn't been masked by the way the film has been marketed. He says, "I think this movie is deceptive, it's subversive. Though sometimes I feel like we've been so watered down that no one's going to notice. I saw in this new movie this greater political consciousness thing going on. When I read it, I thought this is like a manual for grass-roots activism. It's literally a like 'how to' of becoming political. My concern is that it's perceived and marketed as a kind of flag-waving, patriotic, fourth of July celebration, and I think it will be sold to Americans that way to a certain extent. But I think they're going to get a lot of medicine with their spoonful of sugar."
Last edited by DRG; 07-06-03 at 11:09 PM.
07-07-03, 10:21 AM
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Director "McG" declares movie, "Charlie's Angels:Full Throttle" to be a poignant statment of women's liberation and equality.
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Director "McG" declares movie, "Charlie's Angels:Full Throttle" to be a poignant statment of women's liberation and equality.
Last edited by Brain Stew; 07-07-03 at 10:23 AM.
07-07-03, 10:55 AM
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See, this is why I like Charlie's Angels. It has no message, and it revels in it. Doesn't try to pretend to be anything its not. Then you have LB2, which has the MOST idiotic, cheesy, worst attempt at a message ending I may have ever seen (I work at a movie theater, and I've seen Elle's "motivational speech" 10-15 times), with a director saying that it is not just froth, but it has the messages that can turn this country upside down. Ridiculous
07-07-03, 05:24 PM
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Three terrible things are going on here:
1. This director, and so many like him, are so tormented by the craftsman quality, non-artistic, star vehicle crap that they are forced to turn out in order to survive that they end up rationalizing it with foolish little stories like this one.
2. On the other hand, the pervasive auteur theory and the constant importance placed on the necesity for a director to be making "important" or "personal" work (put there by critics and people like me), creates a climate where a director can't put in a perfectly servicable, craftman quality job, and just be happy with it. While I'm sure I would find LB2 to be artisticly bankrupt and not worth my time, I'm sure it looks pretty, has some laughs, the music is mixed well, and comes in at all the right moments. I'm sure it's technically competent and nothing to be ashamed of. This guy should be happy he made it as good as he could considering the material, and then been done with it. It's the critical community that places a lot of pressure upon a director to be doing "important" and "personal" work, and when they aren't they feel compeled to B.S. us.
3. This bit of info combined with the recent spat of McG and company claiming the CA:FT is a feminist empowerment picture seems to be pointing to a new trend in Hollywood that is only now taking shape in my head. Taking the CA comments and combining it with the Legally Blonde comments, I'm detecting a possible trend that I can only explain as Hollywood somehow being "de facto important" or important after the fact.
It seems that directors (and perhaps the talent and producers behind them) are ashamed of the mindless films they've made (as I said above in point 2, they should be proud of their work and call it a day). This is perhaps due to a growing desire that in our post-9/11, post Gulf War II, world these people talents should be directed toward making a political statement, saying something about society, personal freedoms, etc. It's almost as if, after making 120 minutes of jiggling T&A, they are now ashamed of themselves for not making this generation's Easy Rider or Badlands and so they do what H'wood does best: spin it in the marketing. I think this trend (if that's what it is) is particularly ugly because it allows them to go on making crap with zero social significance and then claim that there is social significance during the press junkette.
And by the way 2 Fast 2 Furious is the greatest tale of crime and punishment since Le Miserable.
1. This director, and so many like him, are so tormented by the craftsman quality, non-artistic, star vehicle crap that they are forced to turn out in order to survive that they end up rationalizing it with foolish little stories like this one.
2. On the other hand, the pervasive auteur theory and the constant importance placed on the necesity for a director to be making "important" or "personal" work (put there by critics and people like me), creates a climate where a director can't put in a perfectly servicable, craftman quality job, and just be happy with it. While I'm sure I would find LB2 to be artisticly bankrupt and not worth my time, I'm sure it looks pretty, has some laughs, the music is mixed well, and comes in at all the right moments. I'm sure it's technically competent and nothing to be ashamed of. This guy should be happy he made it as good as he could considering the material, and then been done with it. It's the critical community that places a lot of pressure upon a director to be doing "important" and "personal" work, and when they aren't they feel compeled to B.S. us.
3. This bit of info combined with the recent spat of McG and company claiming the CA:FT is a feminist empowerment picture seems to be pointing to a new trend in Hollywood that is only now taking shape in my head. Taking the CA comments and combining it with the Legally Blonde comments, I'm detecting a possible trend that I can only explain as Hollywood somehow being "de facto important" or important after the fact.
It seems that directors (and perhaps the talent and producers behind them) are ashamed of the mindless films they've made (as I said above in point 2, they should be proud of their work and call it a day). This is perhaps due to a growing desire that in our post-9/11, post Gulf War II, world these people talents should be directed toward making a political statement, saying something about society, personal freedoms, etc. It's almost as if, after making 120 minutes of jiggling T&A, they are now ashamed of themselves for not making this generation's Easy Rider or Badlands and so they do what H'wood does best: spin it in the marketing. I think this trend (if that's what it is) is particularly ugly because it allows them to go on making crap with zero social significance and then claim that there is social significance during the press junkette.
And by the way 2 Fast 2 Furious is the greatest tale of crime and punishment since Le Miserable.
Last edited by Pants; 07-07-03 at 05:27 PM.
07-07-03, 07:11 PM
#13
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Director = You are just making a movie, I do not think you are going to change the USA.
Though we still need to change the political system. I am not sure how we can change people when they come into power, But RW&B is not the answer just as much as Born on the 4th of July was not.
Though we still need to change the political system. I am not sure how we can change people when they come into power, But RW&B is not the answer just as much as Born on the 4th of July was not.
