When I'm watching films, because somebody had to come up with the things that are in the film. The dialogue and the characters and the plots don't poof out of nowhere - well, they kind of do, but they need a someone, a sort of vehicle to creation if you will.
I know the things that go on in my own head. I know the ideas which give me nightmares. I know the things I have written and the things I want to write, to an extent. When I sit down to write, I don't always know where I'm going, but it comes from somewhere, and although we need external stimuli to fuel us, a lot of it comes from within. How we process things, how we analyse them and where we find the links between two seemingly unconnected events. That's where it all comes from.
What worries me is this:
Films like Death Race - Jason Statham being Jason Statham to an actually amazing and very interesting plot - and Death Race 2 - someone who is not Jason Stratham, but remarkably like him, acting like Jason Statham in a very Jason Statham way to a pretty good and still reasonably interesting plot - quite frankly worry me, because not only did someone create the idea, but they also made it feel real. They made it feel like it could happen.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Both of the films rely on the idea that the American economy and criminal justice system essentially collapse, leaving prisons at the mercy of business owners. Now, to make the system profitable, they begin to use the prisoners against each other, inciting violent action between these men - the certain prison in which it is set is home to pedophiles, rapists, murders and the like - and the aim is to kill as many of the others as possible. In a correctional facility, this seems a little squewed, especially when you find that the winner of the Death Race, or rather any man who manages to win five races, is given his freedom, this seems really silly. It's like kill a man to get in, kill several to get out.
Anyway, the reason this makes money is because people watch it on TV, 50million people. Then they move it to the internet, charging hundreds of dollars for subscriptions and still millions watch it.
I think, and I bloody hope, that this isn't going to happen. I understand that fake violence - wrestling, cage fighting and all that sort of thing - lacks a certain thrill, but this is primal. I take no joy in watching people beat the living day lights out of each other. Granted a good old car chase scene, I love, but when the cars get damaged, I get upset. I like cars.
The thing is, there are some people in the world who do terrible things, but this? I wonder if it would just become like the weekly football match. You buy in because you need to be able to talk about it in the office.
Charlie x
D:
You should see the original Death Race 2000. It's a bit cheesy now, but a lot of the ideas come from it.
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