Comments on: Bay’s Movie(s) not Transforming http://www.poptheology.com/2009/07/transformers2/ Where religion meets pop culture. Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:50:18 +0000 hourly 1 By: Tony Mills http://www.poptheology.com/2009/07/transformers2/comment-page-1/#comment-5743 Tony Mills Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:41:26 +0000 http://www.poptheology.com/?p=1016#comment-5743 Thanks for this article. I think even for those who dislike this film, the filmic/technical weaknesses tend to obscure the political ignorance. And of course, those who like the film more often than not unexaminedly buy into the American Superiority Complex which this film propagates. This is a welcome perspective which I myself noticed. Transformers 2 is part of a long line of action films which portray what Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence refer to as the American Monomyth (see there book "The Myth of the American Superhero"), in which conservative political and especially military rhetoric and images are used in movies to bolster America's sense of independence and supremacy. What bothers me perhaps more than anything is that these movies--by both advertisements and fans--are presented as mindless and harmless (i.e. just popcorn flicks), neither of which is true. The special effects and asinine dialogue end up (accidentally or not) masking the very particular political agendas of their creators, in this case Michael Bay. It brings up another interesting point as well. Perhaps I am wrong here, but I think the common opinion is that mainstream Hollywood is full of liberal Democrats, and that the agenda of Hollywood films is to promote this political ideology. To be sure, there are a lot of liberals in Hollywood, but this article about Michael Bay highlights something Bill Maher said a few years ago when he was commenting on the Oscars: "Hollywood is much more conservative than people think." I wish more people talked about that. Thanks for this article. I think even for those who dislike this film, the filmic/technical weaknesses tend to obscure the political ignorance. And of course, those who like the film more often than not unexaminedly buy into the American Superiority Complex which this film propagates. This is a welcome perspective which I myself noticed. Transformers 2 is part of a long line of action films which portray what Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence refer to as the American Monomyth (see there book “The Myth of the American Superhero”), in which conservative political and especially military rhetoric and images are used in movies to bolster America’s sense of independence and supremacy.

What bothers me perhaps more than anything is that these movies–by both advertisements and fans–are presented as mindless and harmless (i.e. just popcorn flicks), neither of which is true. The special effects and asinine dialogue end up (accidentally or not) masking the very particular political agendas of their creators, in this case Michael Bay.

It brings up another interesting point as well. Perhaps I am wrong here, but I think the common opinion is that mainstream Hollywood is full of liberal Democrats, and that the agenda of Hollywood films is to promote this political ideology. To be sure, there are a lot of liberals in Hollywood, but this article about Michael Bay highlights something Bill Maher said a few years ago when he was commenting on the Oscars: “Hollywood is much more conservative than people think.” I wish more people talked about that.

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