I Just Don't Believe

[errantember]

I've followed up watching Dangerous Beauty (for the second time) with watching Moulin Rouge (my virgin experience.) There's a special kind of depression these two movies inspire, and, pausing half way through MR, I feel the need to put it down somewhere. The thing that bothers me about both of these movies is my total lack of faith in their messages. I do not believe in either courtly love or the idea that the existence of musicals somehow lifts up the human race. I feel very strongly that courtly love and the idea of an endless NRE experience is a poisonous falsehood that's lead to more human misery than anything besides war. And the thing that makes this belief hurt the most is that, like millions of others out there, I *want* to believe in the Perfect Relationship that Fixes Everything Forever, and that Love Conquers All, etc. And if both movies were just limitless romantic cheese, it would be easy to write them off as fluff. But in both cases, the fallacy of the idea of Perfect Love Forever is a strong undercurrent, forming a poignant juxtaposition that really cuts to the quick. And here again, if that's where it ended, I might be able to suspend my disbelief long enough to really get into things. But at least in Dangerous Beauty, the Final Message that, despite all the Little Difficulties (empires at war, sleeping with scores of people you don't love, the unexpected arrival of the Spanish Inquisition) it's possible to Make Courtly Love Work, and that members of the audience should Go For It, turning into the same lethal propaganda the rest of Madison Avenue is selling us.

It's hard to say if the failure of Ideal Love or the popularity of over-produced musicals is a worse tragedy for humankind. As a rule I passionately believe that musicals, like puns, are something the world would be better off without. And it's not that it's impossible to produce fantastic examples of each, because it is. But the incredible psychic damage done to the universe by the mainstream majority completely eclipses any possible benefit even the most fabulous gems could provide. I'd flush all my favorites away tomorrow if the rest went with them. I'd even be willing to take credit for doing so and be burned at the stake by musical theater fans everywhere. My death would be a small price to pay to free humankind from their pernicious influence forever. But I know it wouldn't help. Like a homophobe's mislead belief that "putting 'em all on an island somewhere would solve the problem," purging history of musicals and puns would be, at best, a temporary respite from the inevitable, as future "enthusiasts" squeezed forth the next generation of artistic defecant.

I don't really feel any better now , but at least I've whipped up a good lather of snobbishly righteous indignation to counterbalance my depression and ennui. Maybe now I can get off on Nicole Kidman in the most expensive outfit she's ever worn.

Or maybe not. *sob*

Comments

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

What I'm hearing is a rant against manipulating the masses into some idealistic feeling that If It's True Love, It'll Work Out.
I love musicals myself. Not all of them - it gets spotty in the 50's, for instance - but I love to sing mediocrely to myself. Gimme some Sweeney Todd or Little Shop of Horrors or Jesus Christ Superstar (except for I Don't Know How to Love Him) anyday.
Musicals have no sort of market-cornering action on the above. Almost *all* romantic tales have a happy ending. We tend to not be satisfied if they don't, like someone skipped the dessert.

FWIW, I couldn't take Moulin Rouge for more than 15 minutes.

And my pet rant is over movies that purposefully bring you down just so they can take credit for bringing you back up at the end. Lost puppies? The death of an innocent? Life-altering illness? Terrible tragedy X? Grrrrrrr. Severely manipulative.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

The manipulative and erroneous message is part of it, but a lot of it is just the fact that although I like *all* of the elements that go into musicals, I hate the art form passionately. Having people tell stories by getting up on stage and singing about them, is *so* likely to produce something awful that it just shouldn't be done. It's like saying that the second amendment gives every American citizen the right to posses nuclear weapons. I like Les Miserables. I like Camelot. I like Fiddler on the Roof. I suspect The Producers is probably brilliant, especially since it's a self-mocking musical. But if some super-power alien race gets access to the musical theater offerings of the human race, they're going to kill us all, probably without even the tiniest modicum of hesitation, to prevent the Horror from spreading elsewhere. Moulin Rouge alone would probably amount to a death sentence for us all. I've never seen an opera that was worth sitting through, either, and I've seen at least a representative sample.

It's ok to disagree with me. There are things that I love that a lot of other people hate. Brussel Sprouts are a good example. But it's hard for me *not* to take it seriously. I'm not sure why my hatred is so strong. I feel the same way about puns. When I meet someone who's obviously really into them, I have a hard trouble restraining my violence. And I genuinely think that if I saw someone like that walking out in front a moving bus, I wouldn't save them. It definitely seems irrational and unhealthy. Especially for someone who plans to take poly-oriented theatrical music on the road as part of his career.

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

I hear you, I do. I'll go watch my musicals in my corner and have a grand time of it. :) I do appreciate the ones with some actual storyline to them, and not the generic Hollywood story told in song, which is my primary complaint about the ones in the 50's and thereabouts.

But if you want to share some brussel sprouts (boiled only to a bright green and with butter) sometime and writhe in pain when someone lets loose with a pun, I'm there.