If you don’t think working in the cultural influence professions is important when it comes to shaping the next generation, check out this video. If you’re one of the more than 14 million who have seen this already, it’s worth a second look. That incredibly cute clip says something about pop culture’s impact and, over time, its influence. The next time someone dismisses movies, television, or most genre fiction as frivolous pursuits, think about that three year old girl reciting back to her parents what happens in Star Wars. “But don’t talk back to Darth Vader. He’ll get ya.”
Posts Tagged ‘ pop culture ’
Another Angle on Sinatra’s ‘Way’
Essay by Hal White Perhaps only The American Culture (TAC) can talk intelligently about Frank Sinatra and simultaneously leave a reader wondering about the limits of personal responsibility. But that’s exactly what an article by Mike D’Virgilio has done—at least in my tiny little brain—for several weeks now. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. In 2009 TAC ran a brief article on Sinatra’s famous song “My Way” and its narcissistic lyrics. As most will recall, this song celebrates the premise that throughout the singer’s life he did things his way and was proud of that fact as he reflected on it in his later years. Like Mike D’Virgilio, I’ve long disliked this song for sending such a message. However, D’Virgilio indicated in his article (quoting from a Wall Street Journal column), that since Sinatra “utterly hated” this song—and only sang it because his audience wanted to hear it—that this revelation redeemed Sinatra in his eyes. I’ll grant you that I feel better about Sinatra now that I’ve learned this. But should that be the end of our analysis? I recently read a fascinating news article which discussed what’s called the “My Way” killings in the Philippines. The article was
The Future of Christian Cinema
In commenting on our discussion of Christian cinema (see posts immediately below), some visitors brought up a couple of interesting points. One is that any kind of Christian movie ought to be acceptable to both critics and audiences, and the other is that the economic realities of making Christian films today require a more encouraging stance than Barbara Nicolosi and I seem to have taken regarding Facing the Giants. Clearly both these observations are well-intentioned, but I think that adopting these recommendations would greatly harm any nascent Christian cinema, rather than helping it. Let’s examine them individually. First, the premise that any kind of Christian cinema ought to be good enough for Christians, with the implied corollary that any Christian film is at least better then what Hollywood puts out, ignores an imporatant reality: what is on the surface of a film does not always reflect what it all actually means. Many Hollywood films and TV programs, despite their often shabby surfaces, carry meanings that Christians should find quite appealing. If you have any doubts about this, click on the "Movies" and "Television" categories on this page and take a look at some analyses of Hollywood products showing how easily
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