Hollywood's Reality Is Not Harmless Pap

Hollywood’s summer season is upon us. There are a few good movies but mostly bad ones. Eye candy with mean messages. Technologically dazzling. Great special effects. Beautiful soft focus photography. Visually seductive and captivating. Fast paced action. Ear splitting sound.

That is the window dressing that makes Hollywood's summer fare palatable. Done well doesn't mean worth seeing.

So what about those less than memorable movies - are they just harmless pap to fill empty summer nights? Or do they produce a powerful influence on culture and on millions of young viewers?

Public Broadcasting media critic, Michael Medved, believes Hollywood tells three great lies about the kind of material they produce.

Big lie number one. "We are in the business of entertainment, we don't influence anybody." These same studio executives sell advertising to sandwich around their supposed value-neutral product with 30 second commercials designed to change the way people buy, the way people vote, the way they think act and feel.

Medved states, "So what are we supposed to believe, that thirty seconds of a commercial can change people but thirty minutes of a program can't? The entertainment industry not only changes our notion of what is accepted in society, but it charges our notion of what is expected."

Study after study confirms this conclusively damning fact - that prolonged exposure to violence on television promotes more hostile, aggressive and violent behavior and attitudes by people who see it.

Medved feels the truth is a simple two word phrase: "Messages matter. It matters what you put inside your imagination, the TV shows you watch, the music you listen to, the movies you go see . . . If you go and see one piece of garbage, it is not really going to kill you; it may be a bad experience, but it's not going to ruin your life." Medved concludes that the real harm of this constant media diet is its cumulative impact - because messages matter.

Big lie number two: "We just reflect society as it is, we don't shape society." Director Paul ver Hoven, director of, "Robocop," and, "Basic Instinct," states a common industry position. "If the face in the mirror is ugly, you don't blame the mirror. If you see society reflected in a mirror and society looks ugly, you don't blame the media, you blame society. We show the world just as it is."

Medved answers back, "The most violent ghetto in American life isn't southeastern Washington DC or south central Los Angeles, it's prime time television." On an average, there are seven murders a night on prime time television out of a total of 300 characters. That's 49 murders a week out of 300 characters. Medved points out that there is no place in America that approaches that crime rate.

Medved also points out that 72 percent of all speaking roles in feature films go to men and 60 percent on TV. Why? Because the emphasis is on violence.

Sex occurs three times as often among single characters as it does among married partners. Hollywood creates a distorted image that most people lead wild and crazy sex lives in a sex-drenched culture. Teenagers and young adults get the message that if they are not participating in premarital sexual activity there is something wrong with them - that they are nerds or losers.

What is under-represented on the screen? People going to church. When religious people are depicted, they are shown as nuts, crooks and losers. Medved concludes, "The world on the screen shows families that are less intact, less stable, less nourishing, a world that is more violent, more ugly, more profane and more destructive that the world most of us live in."

Medved encourages people to not look at the world through a TV screen. By looking out their windows instead, people, "see a country that is far better, that is far happier, that is far more decent and fulfilled than any of the world you see on TV and the movies."

Big lie number three: "If you don't like this material, it is always easy to turn it off." The entertainment industry shapes popular culture. Medved believes the movie and television industry glamorization of violence, promiscuity, profanity and anti-social behavior of every kind is tantamount to cultural pollution.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett concurs, "We live in a culture which at times seems dedicated to the corruption of the young, to assuring the loss of innocence before their time." Medved further adds, "And even if through some miraculous effort you protect your own children, what about everybody else's children?"

How can it be that Americans are so preoccupied with proper diet and exercise and abandon all discrimination when it comes to the images, messages and values that Hollywood aims at their minds, their imaginations and at their very souls?

If we can't turn it off; we can turn it down. Medved recommends that people improve the quality of their lives by going on a pop culture diet, by watching a bit less TV and by spending a bit less time at the movies. He feels it is absolutely appalling the amount of time Americans spend on this material - an average of 28 hours a week of television. Medved states, "The TV set doesn't need your gift (of attention), your family does, your community does, your country does.

Wouldn’t it be great if Hollywood had another bad summer?