The Internet is a breeding ground for people who don’t want to have any fun.
Recently, I saw the film The Monuments Men. To give a brief review, the film is flawed but is ultimately a good time. Director George Clooney made a film reminiscent of movies like The Dirty Dozen or even Sands of Iwo Jima.
It’s a men-going-off-to-war romp where the real fun lies in hearing Bill Murray and Bob Balaban exchange witty one-liners instead of the wartime action sequences.
The film is ultimately a harmless good time at the movies.
But if you go online, it would appear that those blogging about it seem to have had everything but a good time.
Complaints range from the boisterous (and truly great) score by Alexandre Desplat to the cheeky to humor to the loose way that Clooney plays with history.
People have a right to voice their opinions, but jeez…sometimes people should keep their rage to themselves. Writer/director/producer/star George Clooney wasn’t trying to make a stark film like Saving Private Ryan. He was trying to tell a simpler, lighter story. There should be room for both kinds of films within our culture.
For those complaining about historical inaccuracies, I invoke the spirit of the late, great Roger Ebert when I say, “The movies are not a history lesson.”
Besides, it seems hypocritical to criticize Clooney and co-writer/co-producer Grant Heslov for historical inaccuracies when Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic Inglourious Basterds was largely applauded, despite the fact it depicts Adolf Hitler and most of the German high command being killed off in a fictitious movie theater explosion.
I just don’t understand why we can’t just take movies for what they are – entertainment. I can understand disliking something if it didn’t entertain you, but why on God’s green earth do people online always feel the need to tear something apart if they personally didn’t like it or take exception with the treatment of history.
The same could be said of complaints given to Gravity and American Hustle, both films dinged by people online complaining about historical inaccuracies.
Perhaps one instance that truly bothers me is the people complaining about 12 Years a Slave. Some even question whether Solomon Northup was even ever really a slave.
That’s not the point of the film, or even Northup’s book.
The point is to demonstrate for a an audience of free people how devastating slavery truly was (and in some corners of the world, is).
So the next time you walk out of a theater, remember to take what you’ve seen with a grain of salt. It’s just pretend.
Brian Laughran
Senior Viewpoints Editor
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