Marky Mark asked what I thought of the controversy over the deletion of the words "American way" from a description of what Superman stands for. I've not seen the movie yet but apparently Perry White says something like "truth, justice and all that stuff."
The Fleischer cartoons only had "truth and justice. There's a good piece at the New York Times site (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/opinion/30lundegaard.html?hp) about the history of the phrase.
Trivial pursuit is the name of the political game today. Major real issues from the cost of gas to the out-sourcing of jobs to how they hell we are going to get out of Iraq seem to get less political traction than something like this with too many people.
Now there is a debate over whether or not Superman is an American! Okay fan boys and girls, Superman is a classic illegal. He entered this country illegally and Pa and Ma Kent hid his real identity. He's suspect because he has two identities! But we are willing to overlook his illegal status because of the work he does for us! Think Superman has a passport? He comes in and out of this nation without papers. He doesn't go through customs. No one wands him at an airport. He doesn't file flight plans with the FAA. In effect he is a licensed pilot.
Hey picking fruit, watching our kids, sewing clothes and saving the planet: it's all the same!
I spent five years in talk radio and I understand this is exactly the kind of fluff issues that some talk show hosts love to present . It doesn't mean a damn thing, but it gets people angry and calling: Another example of the godless liberals who run Hollywood! They've taken Superman from us!
In the current press environment when the popular morning "news" show can feature hatemonger Ann Coulter spewing her filth and packaging it as "news," what can you expect about something nonsensical as this?
If Superman were actually real, don't you think he either be the dictator of the planet or the most apolitical person in the world? I figure for his own sanity he'd either have to one or the other.
More stuff on real things....the Fleischer Superman shorts tomorrow!
© 2006 by Gordon Michael Dobbs. My word alone here.
You tell 'em, Mikey!
ReplyDeleteI'm back! Dang these things are addictive. Sometimes I think I oughta go cold turkey from talking, but then, I remember I hardly ever EVER watch TV or go to the movies etc, and then I stop beating myself up for not working working WORKING!!!
ReplyDeleteHere's what I was sitting here thinking about as I was WORKING, and I just had to hop back on and say:
You're right about most of this of course. But I don't think the bleating sheep are quite as clueless as this sounds. Of course there are people who are, like, totally into Brad and Angelina's baby and Ohmigod Katie Couric, while having no idea what that whole war in Iraq deal is about. Those are the ones who are more obsessed with Supe's mention in the news than in those boring old "human rights issues", whatever THEY are. It may even be a depressingly huge portion of the population, but they buy dishwashing liquid and they get their sugar-tit every morning from Katie (or whoever took her place) and the competition.
I don't think Coulter's filth is packaged as "news" any more than Michael Moore's filth or Mary Matelin's filth or James Carville's filth. It's just talking head crap that is ramped up enough to get people's attention so they don't change channels and miss the dishwashing liquid commercials.
Oh yeah!
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think the debate is over whether Superman is American so much as whether "The American Way" is an ideal to be idealized. The creators of this movie (according to an article they are quoted in) do not think that it is, and intentionally and determinedly left that phrase out of the movie for that reason.
I hate superheroes anyway! Superman can blow Osama for all I care. I'm sorry I brought it up! No, wait, you were talking about Superman anyway, THAT'S what made me think of it and say it!
Whew! I thought I was drifting over to the Dark Side there for a minute.
I'm going back to work now.
Bye.
So I take it you're not interested in seeing the film!?
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. I know you swore off superhero movies after the last Batman film.
Hey, Mark and Mike --
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the vast international market SUPERMAN RETURNS in playing to had a part in the decision -- which, after all, isn't part of the Superman mythos per se, just the radio and TV programs, which were mere bips on the Superman 65-year-old licensing screen.
Rather than ramping up the attitude and indignation over the movie and a dialogue decision, best to address the reasons the US has so sorely plummeted in the international arena since the initial 9/11 empathy with the US was so badly squandered, abused and refuted by our ongoing and current hamfisted foreign relations.
The indignation via right-wing pundits is instructive, per usual. We've no one to blame but ourselves, really -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Bolton et al have made us the most reviled nation on Earth, and earned that reassessment with their bullying, boorish and needlessly bull-headed and violent wrecklessness. They're shitheads, thus we're shitheads by proxy (at least I didn't vote for this hyena pack, though that counts for nada in the reality of things).
No wonder Supes is distancing himself, metaphorically speaking.
So Superman is gonna blow Osama? Is this just more Brokeback fallout?
ReplyDelete