I've thought about that a lot, and I don't know the answer. Many of the holocaust movies, and most of the movies that deal with genocide or terrorism, end up making the viewer feel like crap. I don't know if it's an indictment of the movie. It's certainly a criticism if movies are only supposed to entertain us and make us feel good. But when I think of a movie like Pollock, Basquiat or Prick up Your Ears, or Sometime in April, Raise the Red Lantern, or Shoa- these are not "entertaining" movies. And I can think of 50 more just like them- movies that are full of information, or a POV of history, or a portrait of a person who was, or an event that was, full of pain, or ugliness, or brutality.
I think such movies are art, but I don't think they are "good" entertainment. Art, as you know, can be shocking, distressing, even sick making. Think of Guernica- there are many movies that are like that- distressing, even horrible, to look at, yet they are important works of art all the same. |
