My mother said to me this Friday: "The companies are buying our culture from us" after watching what we had assumed was a light-hearted comedy of little to no substance.
'The Internship' is a 2 hour commercial where the main characters work to fulfill their dreams of being employed by Google. Movies as a propaganda tool is nothing new; it's no secret that the American army was in bed with Hollywood during the Second World War to produce movies to instill patriotism. This is something radically different though. This is not a commercial for a mindset, a belief or an idea. This is a commercial for a tangible, real company with stocks, shareholders and products. Let's not forget that these war propaganda movies have their counterarguments which show the horrors of war; in the genre of movies about Google there is one solitary voice: Working at Google is the most awesome job on Earth.
We as consumers are now paying to see commercials. What pisses me off is that I, my mother and my brother had no idea what we were in for. We were unable to perform as educated consumers, unwillingly sacrificing our hard-earned cash and time from our private lives to be indoctrinated. Here I see the downside of living in a country where we don't examine or censor the movies we distribute; although the issue of sex and violence in movies and how that affects the fragile minds is not a cause I personally feel that strongly about, propaganda with very clear parameters is not something I want to have such widespread distribution and influence as a movie.
Worst part is that I did not see the foulness completely at first. I left the cinema with a bad taste in my mouth from the blandness, the clichéd story and the blatant fact that Google had waved their gigantic wallet around to produce, promote and show this commercial at my local theater. Discussing the movie more, I remembered that since I've seen this movie a million times already I was filling in the blanks myself. The setting could have easily changed to a hockey team which is the underdogs, who are determined to win and that determination pays off in the end. I rooted and identified with the lovable losers and wanted them (me) to fulfill their dreams. This time, I didn't want to win the local hockey championship though; I wanted to work for Google.
'The Internship' is a 2 hour commercial where the main characters work to fulfill their dreams of being employed by Google. Movies as a propaganda tool is nothing new; it's no secret that the American army was in bed with Hollywood during the Second World War to produce movies to instill patriotism. This is something radically different though. This is not a commercial for a mindset, a belief or an idea. This is a commercial for a tangible, real company with stocks, shareholders and products. Let's not forget that these war propaganda movies have their counterarguments which show the horrors of war; in the genre of movies about Google there is one solitary voice: Working at Google is the most awesome job on Earth.
We as consumers are now paying to see commercials. What pisses me off is that I, my mother and my brother had no idea what we were in for. We were unable to perform as educated consumers, unwillingly sacrificing our hard-earned cash and time from our private lives to be indoctrinated. Here I see the downside of living in a country where we don't examine or censor the movies we distribute; although the issue of sex and violence in movies and how that affects the fragile minds is not a cause I personally feel that strongly about, propaganda with very clear parameters is not something I want to have such widespread distribution and influence as a movie.
Worst part is that I did not see the foulness completely at first. I left the cinema with a bad taste in my mouth from the blandness, the clichéd story and the blatant fact that Google had waved their gigantic wallet around to produce, promote and show this commercial at my local theater. Discussing the movie more, I remembered that since I've seen this movie a million times already I was filling in the blanks myself. The setting could have easily changed to a hockey team which is the underdogs, who are determined to win and that determination pays off in the end. I rooted and identified with the lovable losers and wanted them (me) to fulfill their dreams. This time, I didn't want to win the local hockey championship though; I wanted to work for Google.
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