NUTRITIONAL IMBALANCES: THE IMPACT OF MODERN MOVIES ON OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

In a world of constant change, what we "see" (what enters our bodies through our eyes) can potentially be as vital to "self preservation" and "growth" as what we eat or drink.

I often refer to movies as a species of "cinematic menu," comparing the consumption of a movie to a meal. If we carefully study the types of movies that are being released for mass consumption, we will find two basic kinds: those without the slightest importance to or connection with the realities that we face in the world (which usually tend to be the most successful at the box office for a time), and those that attempt to create some pseudo-significant social consciousness, but that are so bogged down by the weight of confused (and confusing) perspectives on reality, that they simply come across as banal vehicles of what could possibly be interpreted as "propaganda" in the most superficial definition of that ancient term that, ultimately, fail miserably with multicultural, global audiences who simply want (and deserve) their money's worth of quality entertainment.

There is currently little to no balance between entertainment and enlightenment. Without this essential and inseparable combination, as in the case of a lack of balance or equilibrium between form and content (or a square meal) a movie will fail because it will say and mean nothing, leaving us empty.

The language of movies, in order to have any impact on large groups of spectators, must be a universal vocabulary of images and sounds, in the form of stories and characters, that, like a well prepared meal, entices our senses. Entertainment must satisfy the hunger for escapism while satisfying our primordial need to be fed, to be revitalized with nutrition.

The masters of the cinema, whether consciously or by the sheer instinct of their vocation to express themselves or to communicate universal truths through the medium of film, have achieved this, albeit inconsistently. Consequently, there are movies that can be categorized as "masterpieces" and others, to use a common phrase of one of our more respected critics, simply "trash." This, of course, does not imply that every movie has to be a Citizen Kane, but it does make very clear that films that are intended or designed to satisfy the basic "hunger" for nutritional entertainment by means of audiovisual "junk food" will, in the long run, contribute to mental malnutrition, psychological malaise, and irresponsibility toward ourselves, our society and our planet.

If there be any truth to this speculation, movies have the responsibility to entertain by means of education as any good fable or parable, otherwise all we get out of the experience are loud sounds that contribute to our deafness and an incongruity of images that can lead to a collective symbolic blindness. Motion pictures are simply too powerful a medium to offer nothing more than punchlines of bad jokes. But I am optimistic that as we continue to evolve as human beings, our modes of communication through cinematic entertainment will, in terms of meaning and sustenance, contribute to our collective physical, mental and spiritual well being, instead of simply aiming to satisfy basic animal functions and appetites.

I do not buy the excuse that people are getting what they want at our so-called cineplexes. In terms of movies, they are buying out of habit and need what is simply made available on the cinematic menu, and that is where the industry at large has tragically failed, thus contributing to pandemic intellectual famine.