| The
Cachet of Cash
Feature Article by Greg Wright
A lot
has apparently changed in Hollywood since the days of The
Player. Director Robert Altman’s scathing dark comedy-satire
brought the public an entirely new meaning for the word “pitch.”
Once a word used to describe what’s done from the mound on
a baseball field, the sticky stuff you find on your windshield when
you park under broken fir branches, or what you do with a crappy
teen drama you picked up at Safeway, the “pitch” a director
or screenwriter makes to studio honchos became symbolic of everything
that was crass, formulaic and decadent in Hollywood.
We
can just imagine the response of Tim Robbin’s studio exec
if a director were to pitch the following idea:
“Okay.
So. Imagine a teen drama, kinda like Fame, only not. This really
talented small-town girl whose dad’s a real jerk is all bummed
‘cause she kinda got her brother rkilled, you know, but she
gets into this school for the summer -- and her mom and aunt tell
her dad some lies so she can go off to LA. So it turns into this
coming-of-age fish-out-of-water story at this arts school, and,
well, you know how rebellious artists and teens can be. Only these
are really motivated and talented teens, so they really don’t
smoke or drink, much anyway, and they don’t really even hardly
date or anything either. They just dig their music, and really try
hard to win this big competition for a college scholarship. And
this girl, see, ‘cause she’s bummed about her brother,
gets discouraged, but she’s got this really great, encouraging
teacher who encourages her, and she finds this church where she
can pray. Oh, and by the way, even though the plot may sound kind
of forumlaic, we’re going to ignore some of the standard plot
conventions of movies like this, including the way in which the
movie ends.”
And
the director gets marched out the office. End of story.
Now,
flash forward fifteen years or so, and a major Hollywood studio
itself actually pitches this idea to writer Sam Schreiber, and comissions
him to do the screenplay. No kidding.
In
interviews with Schreiber in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, members
of the religious press were very interested in talking with him
about Raise Your Voice, wich opens October 8. The
movie is directed by Sean McNamara, a Catholic director who attends
the same Los Angeles church as Tom Shadyac (Bruce
Almighty). Were star Hilary Duff’s church and
prayer scenes scripted, we wanted to know, or did those come from
McNamara? They were a group effort, Shreiber told us, that included
the studio, too. And he’s pretty pleased with what ended up
on screen.
“I
think that faith plays a role in a lot of people’s lives,
and that Hollywood in general gives really short shrift to that,”
Schreiber said. But prayer, he continued, is “real, and I
just thought that it was there as a through-line for the character
-- that she could turn to that as part of a way of having an organized
inner life. And it wasn’t like a crutch. She wasn’t
blindly turning to faith. She was trying to use it to help organize
and help figure out what she was going through.”
I was
surprised, then, that the studio encouraged the spirituality of
Raise Your Voice, given Shreiber’s characterization
of Hollywood’s treatment of faith. Schreiber explained.
“I
think that in the wake of movies like Passion
and stuff like that you’ve seen a change in Hollywood, where
faith at one point was something that was kind of a “no-go”
zone, and now it’s a little bit of ‘cha-ching’
to it. I don’t think that they’re trying to exploit
it from a financial perspective, but I think that it’s out
there, and it’s certainly not going to do any harm to incorporate
it and possibly it might do you some good. So whereas previously,
you might have steered away from it and said, ‘Oh, I don’t
know if we really need that scene in a church,’ now you can
say, ‘Okay, that’s acceptable for that character.’”
But The Passion of the Christ
didn’t really change things, did it?
Hasn’t this trend been developing for some time?
“There
have been movies where spirituality played a role, but they were
always ‘niche’ movies, independent movies, and they
tended not to perform especially well. But then you had The Passion,
which suddenly said, ‘We’re going to change the rules
on you now. You didn’t see this coming, and here’s a
lesson.’ I don’t think that Hollywood is going to be
able to emulate that. Like The Blair Witch Project, you can’t
do it again. It happened once, nobody saw it coming, and any attempt
to replicate that is going to feel commercial and fake. But I think
it did wake people up to something that exists.”
Something
that exists, indeed -- and something that no amount of cash can
ever buy.
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ON
MUSIC (In the Hebrew Tradition)
Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Genesis 4:21). The
Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole
history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the
flood story, the first mention of music is in the account of Laban's
interview with Jacob (Genesis 31:27). After their triumphal passage
of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang their song
of deliverance (Exodus 15).
But the period of Samuel, David, and Solomon was the golden age
of Hebrew music, as it was of Hebrew poetry. Music was now for the
first time systematically cultivated. It was an essential part of
training in the schools of the prophets (1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel
19:19-24; 2 Kings 3:15; 1 Chron. 25:6). There now arose also a class
of professional singers (2 Samuel 19:35; Eccles. 2:8). The temple,
however, was the great school of music. In the conducting of its
services large bands of trained singers and players on instruments
were constantly employed (2 Samuel 6:5; 1 Chron. 15-16; 1 Chron.
23:5; 1 Chron. 25:1-6).
In private life also music seems to have held an important place
among the Hebrews (Eccles. 2:8; Amos 6:4-6; Isaiah 5:11-12; Isaiah
24:8-9; Psalm 137; Jeremiah 48:33; Luke 15:25).
Psalm 149:1-9 (Message Bible)
Hallelujah!
Sing to God a brand-new song,
praise him in the company of all who love him.
Let all Israel celebrate their Sovereign Creator,
Zion's children exult in their King.
Let them praise his name in dance;
strike up the band and make great music!
And why? Because God delights in his people,
festoons plain folk with salvation garlands!
Let true lovers break out in praise,
sing out from wherever they're sitting,
Shout the high praises of God,
brandish their swords in the wild sword-dance—
A portent of vengeance on the God-defying nations,
a signal that punishment's coming,
Their kings chained and hauled off to jail,
their leaders behind bars for good,
The judgment on them carried out to the letter
—and all who love God in the seat of honor!
Hallelujah!
Psalm
150:1-6 (Message Bible)
Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship,
praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah!
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