How to Save Hollywood

Many of you may think that Hollywood is fine, still makes great movies and is in no need of saving. Well, I suppose it's all relative since what's "great" to one person is pure unadulterated crap to another. That's fair and I totally get that. But there is a problem with Hollywood when actors bring their personal or political views into the public arena and insult half or even over half of the same people who keep them working. No butts in the seats means no paydays for them. It's that simple.

Take a look at today's films. How many can you mention that have been made in the last 10 years that can be considered classics? I mean real classics such as Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane or The Wizard of Oz? I don't mean your favorites, I mean real movies that can and will stand the test of time?

Some are loved and revered because of plots, some are because of character development and others simply because of the great acting. That more rare than ever before. I can list my personal favorites such as Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Norton, Sandra Bulloch, Tom Hanks and Paul Giamatti as well as proven favorite Hollywood staples Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Some of these are favorites of half the world and others, such as Giamatti, are underrated and may forever be so. Again, this is all relative. The point is I think Hollywood is in trouble because not only have they run out of ideas and are making quality films like they used to that people want to see with great acting, but because they're simply not listening to what the people want to see. They're pretty much telling them. How is this? They're not making stars anymore, they're making brands. You've heard of product placement? Well, it seems now the whole film is based on a product. The latest of which is comic book-based movies. Not that these movies aren't any good, it's just that you can only do so much with material people already know and can tell where and when it ends. The same goes for bio-pics. Yes, Patton was great. But then over the years you have Nixon, W, The Doors and so on. The problem could be anything from historical accuracy to miscasting.

But the real problem lie in the way films are made. Political messages in children's films, skewed political messages in general, bad casting, cronyism, rehashed and tired ideas ( including needless sequels and prequels) and above all else bad stories. The biggest-selling movies in history (other than special effects-laden ones-except when the effects helped to tell the story) have primarily been about the stories; and feel-good stories at that. No one wants to leave the theater feeling bad about what they just saw. Another big problem is marketing. Learn from history what people want to see, not from out-of-touch "critics" and "researchers" who get their tickets for free and are clearly are not movie fans.

So when I recently saw this column by Big Hollywood's John Nolte (I don't know how recent the column is) an noticed he mirrored a lot of my own concerns, I had to link it here. A great top 10 list and it has to be one of the most profound articles about why Hollywood doesn't work anymore.