| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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The Biblical admonition is to be as innocent as a lamb and as sly as a snake. Those protected from real and reel world realities tend to leave themselves defenseless against those realities. But those who have been inured to the true consequences of “evil” have undoubtedly missed the meaning of life.
I’ll sometimes indulge myself in a mindless film, but I try not to kid myself. I want my overall choice of films-to-see to represent who I am, including the occasional film to remind me of the joys of pure entertainment, and the occasional film outside my comfort level to keep my ability to sort the good from the bad finely honed.
4. Was I an active or passive audience member?
The role of the audience has been a major consideration in Film Theory. On one extreme film theory has emphasized the film’s “texts,” with the view that the audience was the receptor of these texts both consciously and unconsciously. On the other hand studies of the audience, instead of the film itself, show that there is at least some interaction between the audience member and the film itself, and that there is some picking and choosing in terms of what the audience takes in.
Paul Cowen (1991:353) says that, “Films, whether viewed as art or mass communication, are an enormous repository of explicit and implicit information about the projected and perceived racial, ethnic, and cultural identities of individuals and groups.” That that information may contribute to stereotypes, bias, prejudice, and racism is enormously problematic. Cowen’s potential antidote to this tendency is an “active role for the spectator.” If audiences tend to accept what they see on screen as truthful unless they have first hand experience that contradicts what they have seen, it is critically important that an astute audience member take an active role in sorting through all the information contained in a film. (And I think audience members do do this, especially with a film’s heroes. One can admire the heroic in James Bond, Shaft, Thelma and Louise without having to buy off on all of their individual choices.)