Posts Tagged ‘Indiana Jones’

This year's version of The A-Team may be part of a new team trend for on-screen heroes

This upcoming summer movie season there are three movies that will be about a group of well trained special ops-type fighters who don’t “play by the rules,” starting with this weekend’s The Losers. This film, inspired by the comic book series of the same name, deals with a group of individual CIA black ops operatives who band together to find and kill whoever betrayed them and left them for dead. The other two films similar to this are The A-Team and The Expendables. The former is, if you don’t know already, based off of the TV series of the same name that first aired in 1983 about four ex-military men who were framed for a crime they didn’t commit and go about trying to clear their names, and the latter deals with a group of mercenaries hired to overthrow the vicious dictator of the small South American country of Vilena.

Well what’s so interesting about the fact that these films are releasing within a couple months of each other? Everyone one knows that Hollywood is a copycat town, right? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, studios like to hang their hats on proven formulas and trends, but that some trends appear at all is often reflective of the cultural mood of our country. Over the past few years there has been a heavy influx of films dealing with individual heroes, many of them being of the “super” variety. But aside from Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, there were John McClain, Rambo, Indiana Jones, and James Bond. Obviously, none of these rogue stand-alone men did everything by themselves (Batman had Alfred, Iron Man had Pepper Pots, James Bond had MI6, etc.), but by and large they did all of the most difficult and dangerous things by themselves. Americans love heroes that are individualistic and autonomous. They’ve loved them like that for decades and will continue to love them for decades more. What seems so peculiar about The Losers, The A-Team, and The Expendables being released in one summer season, then, is that the team concept stands out so sharply from this crowd of actioners.

These three movies are hardly pioneering new ground, of course, as the X-Men trilogy made the point during the middle of the first super hero wave of the new century that working as a team for a common goal is the real and only way to make progress. However the three films in question seem to have their sights set a lot lower than achieving social understanding and ridding the world of prejudice. In the case of The Losers, for example, the goal is simply to get revenge on the group’s would-be assassinators. So, because the scope is miniscule and the benefits gained from the group’s success are specific to just them, the individualistic sense is still ever-present. And, the same might be said of The A-Team as well. Because the goal in The Expendables is to overthrow a dictatorship it can be argued that the benefits of the heroes victory would not be exclusive to just them but would also include the entire citizenship of Vilena. So, you could say the sense of individual empowerment would at least not be the same variety found in the other two films. However, it is interesting to point out that The Expendables are a group made up of mercenaries, who are a breed of people not known for their team mentalities.

What do you all make of this? Is the concept of working as a team against evil going to become the new wave in action movies, or is it just a phase? Do you expect to see these films come close to enjoying the type of success that Iron Man 2 will no doubt garner? Which type of hero do you emulate the most? Which do you enjoy watching the most? Voice your opinions and let it be known what you think a true hero really is.

We’ll revisit this topic once all three films have been released (which will be mid-August) and ask you these same questions again. Then we’ll compare your responses to try and come to some sort of conclusion. Till then, just enjoy the movies!

Star Wars: In Concert

The film medium is getting another ego boost, with a collection of multiple orchestral concerts scheduled throughout the country over the next few months that will be reserved specifically for movie music. High-profile venues such as New York City’s Lincoln Center and Radio City Music Hall, as well as the Warner Grand theater in San Pedro Cali., will play host to renowned orchestras like the Golden State Pops Orchestra and Seattle Symphony, with composer John Williams himself conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic on October 16th-18th.

Movie scores that appear the most popular for these concerts include Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Psycho, and various Disney collections.

It is speculated, and apparently corroborated, that symphonies have decided to give more attention and practice towards movie scores as a means to draw larger audiences in order to battle the ongoing recession, which has hit the performing arts world rather hard. It is thought that more people will pay to go to concerts that play familiar and well loved movie music who ordinarily would not think to spend money to see a live orchestral concert. The idea seems so good, one wonders why they didn’t think of it before.

“Good music is good music, period,” says composer David Newman (Hoffa), who often conducts concerts of classic movie music, “and film music is part of our shared heritage.”  – Variety

It’s refreshing to hear such sentiments from an accomplished classical composer, and surely he is not alone. But has the professional symphony circuit truly embraced movie scores as a medium capable of being of such high status as the work of Aaron Copeland, Tchaikovsky, and Bach?

Personally, I of course hope that the great works of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, and others are finally getting their due by their orchestral peers. Audiences of films and concerts alike have appreciated their work for decades (ex., can anyone not hum the theme to Indiana Jones if asked to?). However, I wont believe that such great artists and their work have truly earned their peer’s respect until after the current economic recession concludes and symphonies no longer feel financially obligated to give them extra attention.

Do you think movie music is finally getting the recognition it deserves? Is the sudden showing of love for them purely to draw audiences for money? Tell us your thoughts by submitting your comments below.

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Source: Variety