the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.
I mean they did.
Don’t Look Up was huge. It had an all-star, ensemble cast and was one of the biggest releases of 2021.
How many times do you expect them to best the drum?
The Day After Tomorrow had a dude that was basically a stand-in for Dick Cheney so Dennis Quaid could tell him that he should have done more sooner.
Waterworld, earth covered in water after the ice caps melted.
Geostorm took for granted that we needed a global network of satellites to battle climate change.
And who can forget The Happening or Birdemic?
Oh, you wanted good movies? (tho I lowkey love Geostorm)
Many people forget that the reason everybody is trying to find a new planet in interstellar, is because climate change made theirs unhabitable.
Was it explicitly climate change? I thought it was “blight” or whatever fictional disease killing crops.
Not to mention the entire series of “Scorcher” movies, starring the famous Tugg Speedman.
And the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach.
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
My brother-in-law explicitly thought that the movie was commentary on “the liberal media.”
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.