Many actors and producers have talked about adapting Ayn Rand’s classic Atlas Shrugged for the big screen, but 53 years after its publication no one has dared tackle the ambitious project—until now.
No-one has dared to successfully mate a human with a water buffalo, but that doesn’t mean it’s a cutting-edge ingenious idea.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice & Milo & Otis & Harold & Maude & Fanny & Alexander & Batman & Robin & Tenspeed & Brownshoe & Sid & Nancy & Henry & June & Benny & Joon & Bonnie & Clyde & Jeckyll & Hyde & Thelma & Louise & Starsky & Hutch & Tuner & Hooch & Tango & Cash & Stanley & Iris & Romeo + Juliet & Wallace & Gromit & Beavis & Butt-Head & Fat Man & Little Boy & Melinda & Melinda & Akeelah & the Bee & Harold & Lucinda & Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid & Marley & Me
You know what? I like Kevin Smith, I think his movies are funny, and I think his podcasts are funny. Why? He seems exactly like the kind of guy I’d *really* enjoy hanging out with and having a conversation. And his podcasts and movies to me are just that: a conversation. And I love that conversation.
He’s my favorite director because of that. He doesn’t make the best movies, and none of his films are in my top ten (and possibly twenty) of all time, but I always enjoy his films. I enjoy that conversation that we have: similar backgrounds, similar tastes, similar age, similar cultural experiences… these things make up a sort of friendship through the screen. There’s a connection in a real sense because of those things. He doesn’t know who the fuck I am, but I don’t care. He’s a likable guy and we’d likely get along nicely.
So it pisses me off when I see people shitting all over the guy because of the inevitable hipster backlash (“CLERKS IS SHIT”) and not because anyone has taken the time to fucking watch these films. You guys aren’t arguing taste; you’re passing value judgments on those who like (or even, heaven forbid, LOVE) Kevin Smith films. Because what you’re actually saying is *I’m* awful because I like what he does.
I don’t find him egotistical (quite the opposite) or overbearing (I think he’s very enthusiastic in conversation and doesn’t always notice he’s hogging the mic, but when he does notice, he’ll be the first to back the fuck off) or puerile or stupid or whatever adjectives you choose.
So get the fuck over yourselves. He took a second to tell his fans he’s taken stock and is proud he accomplished something that isn’t easy. That, for all the crap he’s endured, all the foul and nasty criticism you fucking hipsters and your film critic ilk have thrown at him, he’s glad he fucking bothered to enter the business in the first place. And he has every right to feel that way.
If music, painting, film, sculpture, dance, opera, television, and literature can all be art and the vast majority of works from those genres are crap (and they are; we only ever talk about the good operas/ballets/etc because the bad ones are rightfully ignored after a time), why can’t video games be art? It’s just another form of entertainment. Art should be what stands out as an effort to move an audience. Beethoven’s Ninth, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, The Godfather, The Thinker, Swan Lake, Don Giovanni, “The Wire”, and The Lord of the Rings are all examples of art (to those familiar with them). Why can’t video games have their exemplary representatives of art as well?
Between Grim Fandango and Heavy Rain, if you can’t see the potential for art in games, then you really have no practical concept of what art is. Those games affect you as much as entertain and engage you.
That’s art.
(That would be my counter-argument to Mr Ebert, with whom I mostly agree on a great many things and whom I fully respect.)
Copyright © 2000–2011 Order 50. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. All content by Kane Gruber, unless otherwise specified. We use a modified/personalized version of Modern Clix, an original theme created by Rodrigo Galindez. Coding genius courtesy of Wordpress, whom/which we love. Gleefully hosted by the good folks at Dreamhost. Published occasionally.