So Brett Ratner loses it; sprouts a gay slur, makes some disparaging remarks about one Olivia Munn and Lindsey Lohan and because of this he decides to resign from his sweet production job at next year’s Oscars ceremony. I really should have put some money on it.
See I’m in no way surprised because the outcome is as predictable as one of his movies. The so-called controversy, however, has reminded me of a certain trend that has flowed through Hollywood for the last few years.
You see for me; Ratner’s most infamous quote about rehearsals being for “fags” not only insults homosexuals, but it reeks of the same arrogance that has blighted some major studio projects for a while now. The idea that the Ratner can be placed in charge of a multi-million blockbuster movie and not give a shit about rehearsing and playing out scenes portrays a complete disregard for his craft and the acting profession. Considering the bile that Hollywood manages to spew at times, it also seems that many of his peers are following suit.
Like I said, I’m not surprised. But then nor should anyone else. We are currently in a Hollywood cycle where frat boy ignorance and ridiculous testosterone receives high reward. Ratner felt he could get away with what he said.
I mean, look at a director like Michael Bay, a director renowned for skipping on dramatic scenes in favour of watching things that go boom! His Transformer movies have brought in over a billion dollars and yet spell out a bully-boy jock mentality which portrays war as a fantastic thing while sidelining minority characters (gay, people of colour, women) as flat stereotypes whose only purpose are to be ogled or made fun of. We could also look into Bay’s reactions to both Megan Fox and Shia Labeouf when both spoke negatively about Bay (Fox) and Transformers 2 (Labeouf) and note that only one of them turned up in the third instalment.
The fact is that such simplistic views on gender, sexuality, race and all that comes with it, is the norm now. It’s not just Ratner and Bay. Look at McG (didn’t do too much when Bale kicked off did he?) or Zack Synder for instance. Both directors have given us their glossy, gusseted girl power movies in the Charlie’s Angels series and Sucker Punch respectively. The Fast and Furious franchise displays a slight amount of insight in sweaty male companionship but does so at the expense of its women, whom we’re usually introduced to arse first.
Todd Phillips has comedy down with his Hangover movies, which have grossed more than a third world country’s GDP and yet some critics consider the actions of the so-called “wolf pack” mean-spirited. Speaking of comedy gangs, wasn’t Katherine Heigl crying sexism about “frat pack” comedy Knocked Up? Allowing Seth Rogan yell back the so-called gender politics of The Ugly Truth? The fact is, considering the writers and directors of the products at hand, something like this is bound to happen.
Place all the movies I’ve mentioned (and some more I haven’t) in a circle and spin a bottle and no doubt you’ll find an uncomfortable, insensitive or stereotypical moment involving gay males, females and ethnic minorities. Quite simply some of Hollywood’s biggest movies are movies in a state of arrested development and it’s no surprise that some of the guys making them are also in the same state. Problem is if people are going to get in a tizzy over Ratner’s mumbled mouth malfunctions when he was going to produce the show which allegedly displays “what the best the industry has to offer” why isn’t more said and done about the mega blockbusters and their portrayals? The answer is of course ‘green’. Once again we shouldn’t be surprised because we all put our money on it.
When it comes to difficult complex subjects of race, gender or sexuality; Hollywood has always employed a get rich quick scheme to such things. Fact is most of these films make their box office earnings (Sucker Punch aside) and no one (critics aside) gives a damn. Hollywood has nearly always been this bloody-minded (it’s called show business for a reason) and subjects of race, gender or sexuality are always dealt with simplistically.
In the seventies, Coppola and the movie brats along with Polanski and the likes of Sam Peckinpah were praised by bringing forth complex yet accessible movies to the masses. Unfortunately it seems the machismo and excess-fuelled era of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckmeier have knocked that on the head and mainstream American filmmaking has never really recovered.
