The Goebbels Churn
The Company Men vs Red Moon Rising
When does advertising become propaganda? When does a storyline become a diatribe? At what point?
Consider first the movie The Company Men. For starters, the primary actors are Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Craig T. Nelson, and Kevin Costner. Costner, as it turns out, actually has some acting ability, and he put it to good use in this movie. One might almost say the same for Affleck, whose role was initially offered to Keanu Reeves. Unfortunately, the producers never did hear back from Reeves; turned out they were addressing a 2-by-12 plank of pine, and were unable to tell the difference.
Moving right along. The movie centers around the gradual demise of a corporation that, some decades earlier, had begun life as a shipbuilding company. Here are the relationships: Nelson and Jones came up through hard work in the shipbuilding company to become CEO and Vice-President, respectively, of a corporation that has grown through diversifying into other areas besides shipbuilding. Affleck, an upper level manager on his way further up, works under Jones. Costner, btw, is Affleck's disapproving father-in-law, who "works for a living," and Costner's performance in this role is totally credible, so much so that it's hard to understand why he was passed over for a Supporting Actor nod.
Moving right along. The economy is tanking; downsizing is inevitable; shipbuilding is losing oodles of money for the corporation, so . . . pink-slip to Affleck, who says, "Huh? What?" and "Why me?"
In these economic times, when in Real Life good and decent young men have trouble getting even sixteen hours a week at Staples, it's hard to feel sorry for Affleck, who lives in a small mansion, has a wife and two kids and a dog and two cars and separate cell phones and knows which wine goes with licorice. It's hard for the guy making, in Real Life, $8.75 an hour, to relate. You can't even say to Affleck, "Now you know how it feels, Buddy!" because Affleck gets a six-figure severance pay and thus has no idea--yet--how "it" feels.
But to Affleck's and the scriptwriters' credit, they make Affleck sympathetic enough so say that we almost understand his travails and almost can sympathize him--no mean task, that.
Affleck now spends an unspecified period of time looking for upper management positions elsewhere. Guess what? They ain't there. Aw . . . It doesn't matter which necktie Affleck wears, or how impressive his golf game. The positions aren't there.
In time the severance pay runs out. One of the cars is repossessed. The Golf Club denies him entrance. Domino's wants cash in advance of delivery. The dog goes off with the mailman. Oh, razza frackin and &^%$#$%^!!!!! I can't say "mailman." Someone might get offended. Make it . . . what do they call them now? . . . um . . . oh, yeh! Letter carrier. That's a good deal, enunciation-wise, expending five syllables when two will do.
Moving right along. Costner has already offered Affleck gainful employment as a hod carrier [so look it up!]. Affleck, who is accustomed to a weekly manicure just prior to his massage, tanning session, and golf game, declines. But yes, finally circumstances and poverty force Affleck to become a carpenter. His skills in this occupation are about what you might expect, including the swollen thumb with the black-and-blue nail. He struggles gamely to work . . . I should say "labor," which will gain the approval of the PC crowd, as the word employs two syllables instead of one.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . er, the corporation, more downsizing occurs. Folks at all levels of pay are being slipped a pink one. Meanwhile, Nelson manages to work out a stock deal where the corporation will be merged with a larger corporation, Nelson's stock will increase greatly in value, yada yada. The workers who are laid off have, of course, no such options. More downsizing occurs. There's a suicide. Finally Jones, who was friends with Nelson, is also downsized. He has, however, what is these days known as a golden parachute. Not literally, of course. Damn thing would plummet like a stone if tossed from an airplane.
Well, Jones has a small fortune, if one can apply the word "small" to any fortune. He also has an idea: go back to the roots. He invites Affleck on a tour of an abandoned, vast shipbuilding bay. Jones allows as how this is where it all began, the shipbuilding company, decades ago. Why, folks used to hang upside down from the rafters just to rivet the stern, or some such thing. They used to work fifteen hours a day, because they loved what they were doing, they saw the products of their labors and were proud of them, and so on. Yes, sir, says Jones, we're going back to the basics. We're going back into shipbuilding, just like we did decades ago. Jones then offers Affleck an upper management job, which Affleck accepts.
Aw . . . what a sweet ending. So heartwarming. It's like the bullet missed Old Yeller, he recovered from rabies, and is still chasing rabbits and wild hogs with alacrity.
<Sniff>
So what's wrong with that?
Oh, nothing much. Sure, the movie paints corporate hierarchs as heartless bastards who would downsize their own parents or offspring for a chance to increase the value of their stock holdings by $0.01 per share. And they're all, you know, alike, these corporate whizbangs. Selfish, greedy, insensitive, acquiring, clutching . . . where's my thesaurus? Dang, there's never an extinct reptile around when you want one . . .
Just to clear the record, I hold no brief for corporate hierarchs. Here's a real example. About two years ago, HyVee Corporation, which operates a vast chain of grocery stories and pharmacies in the Midwest, did away with the 15% employee discount on various items the employees could buy from the store--e.g., candy bars, potato chips, razor blades, deodorant, barbecues, toys, pet food, and so on. At the same time, HyVee became a primary sponsor of the Kansas City Chiefs professional football team by paying that team for the exclusive rights to advertise. Celery! The official vegetable of the Kansas City Chiefs! Buy a stalk today! That sort of thing.
Let's take a survey. All those who think the employee discount was eliminated to provide funds to purchase advertising right from the Chiefs, raise your hand.
Well, that's Real Life. So, no, I have no sympathy for corporate whizbangs.
On the other hand, corporations and companies do provide jobs. We just have to get them to provide those jobs in this country, not in someone else's.
But that's not my gripe about The Company Men.
It's fair to say that the movie narrative is told from a perspective that is definitely left of center on the political scale. It tilts, in some cases, into the Progressive viewpoint. Even that's okay. Writers and moviemakers often tell their stories from a particular point of view. Nothing wrong with that. One might even regard Nelson as a corporate archetype, from that point of view. Still no problem.
But look at the misrepresentation. "Just like we did decades ago," says Jones. Well, not going to happen. Look at the obstructions. OSHA, labor unions, Federal Trade Commission, FCC, corporate tax structures, zoning regulations--and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. And all of those obstructions were developed, promoted, and emplaced by folks whose viewpoint is that of the movie's perspective! The actions of these folks have made impossible the solution proposed by the movie, the political viewpoint of which dovetails that of those same folks. But the people behind the movie The Company Men wouldn't dare tell you that.
That's dishonest. That's propaganda. That's a diatribe.
Now consider for a moment Red Moon Rising, the latest novel to spill from the pen of J Alan Erwine. How many of you folks know that the "wine" in Erwine's name rhymes with "vine"? Yeh, that's what I said, too. But it's true.
Moving right along. In a few words, Red Moon Rising is the Gulf oil spill about four decades from now. Like The Company Men, there's an evil corporation headed by a malignant corporate hierarch. The protagonist of RMR, who appears on the novel's cover and, for some obscure reason, rather looks like the author, is Erik Singer. It seems the evil corporation has committed serial Gulf spillage, and Erik's brother Jeromie, which searching for evidence that would stop this corporate environmental rampage, was killed.
Here, in fact, is the official writeup for the novel:
"J Alan Erwine takes you into a future environmental nightmare that is not only all too possible, but is in fact well on the way there. The air and seas are filthy with pollution and oil spills, the U.S. Government is an effete and toothless replica of its former self, and business decides which rules they will allow to be enforced. Corporations lie, people die.
"Including Erik Singer's brother Jeromie, killed while seeking evidence against an oil company regarding their spills in the Gulf. After five years, Erik has had enough of wallowing in loss and self-pity. Emboldened by the words and visions of a Native American environmentalist, Erik is ready to act.
"And he has colleagues. The reluctant mayor of Tampa. The daughter of the most egregious industrialist. And a tree-hugging terrorist. Can just four people make a difference?"
But here is where the paths of Red Moon Rising and The Company Men diverge. While both narratives toe an orthodox point of view, the power of Erwine's story is not diluted by an impossible and contrary solution. There are no self-contradictions in Red Moon Rising. Erwine takes a point of view [which happens to be genuinely his own, btw], and guides it to a logical--and eminently possible--conclusion. His archetypes--the evil corporate magnate, the Native American environmentalist, the guilt-ridden young man who wants to "do something," the child in opposition to the father--these archetypes are consistent within the confines and parameters of the narrative, which is why they work, and which is why, at the end, you say "Yeah!" instead of "Huh?"
Without that consistency, you're just churning out propaganda. Or movies like The Company Men.
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