The Sad State of the Movies

...If the trade gossip is true, we should underline desperately...

...The reporter phrased it gently in a publicity story about a soon-to-be-released film by saying that "M-G-M desperately needs a hit, a new lease on life...

...Which brings us to another point: actually what we are witnessing is the greatest propaganda campaign since the Second World War...

...In addition* to the disasters listed above, movie-goers in recent months have been subjected to this extraordinary selection: Getting Straight, The Revolutionary, Performance, Up in the Cellar, Ice, and R.P.M...

...I can see it now: the major stockholders will be forced to kick out the James Aubreys and enlist a new crew of financial wizards who will have the practical insight to realize what the public wants (including we much-maligned under-25er's) and to provide it...

...People with this rare urban disease seem to be drawn mysteriously to careers in the "creative" industries...

...In their mad dash to cash in on the New Left and its hip sympathizers the studios are only following the lead of two other major media...

...I will be able to endure watching that venerable lion roaring on the silver screen only when they have changed the slogan from ars gratis tumultus et sexus back to ars gratia artis...

...Of course M-G-M is not the only corporation providing the American people with such haute entertainment...

...It is an irony, and a flaw, to which we have become accustomed...

...After bankrolling films of this stature M-G-M's financial collapse might be regarded as a mercy killing (The latter two films were pet projects of M-G-M president James Aubrey, whose last job -interestingly enough - was as president of CBS...

...Next time it's on, you are welcome to come on over and enjoy the show...

...That idyllic vision of the free enterprise system which we inherited from our forefathers pales by comparison with this tainted real-life version...

...The magazines run a close second, as Professor Nathan Glazar recently pointed out: Violence is extolled in The New York Review which began with only literary ambitions in 1962...

...Until then, we can only scan the pages of the television listings, hoping to find an old classic as the afternoon movie...

...At this point only television seems undecided, although personally I view such programs as The Storefront Lawyers with growing suspicion...

...Thus our movie theatres have become nothing more than temples to the Almighty Dollar...

...The phrase is self-explanatory...

...The Strawberry Statement: According to Playboy, "uninhibited sex plus antiestablishment attitudes equal box-office bonanzas with the under-25 audience, or so reasoned the producers...

...The more detached among us will grasp the irony of capitalists publicizing the virtues of those who seek the destruction of capitalism...

...ng some popcorn...

...Once in a while one of our local stations shows a Sherlock Holmes flick with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in their original title roles...

...However, I doubt that anyone can remember a propaganda campaign on such a grand level, pushing such mediocre ideas in such a ludicrous manner...

...For those who feel compelled to shed a few tears at the passing of a modern institution, let's quickly review three of M-G-M's most touted recent releases: Zabriskie Point: Antonioni's version of young America was so incredibly simplistic and pretentious that even the New Yorker was forced to pan it...

...Bring some popcorn...

...The quest for profits is not hampered by such irrelevant factors as integrity...

...Of course, another element is involved in his flood of turned-on movies: a athological fear of being out of style...

...The producers were wrong...

...Again, we thought we had become accustomed to this, especially after Mr...

...Dontcha see, mister, that any one of those hard-hat thugs could be a Joe...

...Tom Hay den, who urges his audiences to kill policemen, is treated as a hero in Esquire...

...Cinema The Sad State of the Movies Wick Allison The rumor has been confirmed by the Washington Post: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which has been suffering lately from a case of advanced senility, may soon die altogether...

...Errol Flynn as the Norwegian freedom fighter" has been, replaced by Elliot Gould as the bomb-throwing campus idealist...

...Dontcha see...

...In one of his more perceptive moments (of which there are many) essayist Tom Wolfe found that white liberals have assumed a new identity which he termed "radical chic...

...Dontcha see, lady, that Stanley Sweetheart freaked out on drugs because he needed real answers...

...The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart: This attempt to explain the life of a typical Columbia student evoked nothing but yawns...

...if a revolution will sell tickets, modern priests such as James Aubrey are willing to embrace it with open arms...

...The large publishing houses have long been in the business of subsidizing the "Movement" with the publication of such books as Jerry Rubin's Do It!, Bobby Seale's Seize the Time and Abbie Hoffman's Revolution For the Hell of It (a title which tells it like it is...

...In addition to multiplying the company profits and polishing their own "with-it" image, many of the younger decision-makers in the media business are attempting to win converts to the cause...

...Eldridge Cleaver merits an adulatory Playboy interview...

...Revolutions Per Minute - get it...

...Clutching Milton Friedman to our breasts and refusing to counsel intervention even though the entire society seems hell bent on ideological suicide, we can only hope that next year's audit finds the motion-picture industry in a state of near bankruptcy...

...Agnew's attacks on the news media...

...And the end is not in sight...

...As a sad fact, capitalism brings with it as an unfortunate consequence a phenomenon known as the commercial mentality, a remarkable shortsightedness which is incapable of seeing beyond the projected profit margins on the ledger sheet...