Gabler, Neal
25.02.2007
The movie magic is gone (14.01.2011)

“Hollywood, which once captured the nerve center of American life, doesn’t matter much anymore.”

“More than any other form, they [movies] defined us, and to this day, the rest of the world knows us as much for our films as for any other export.”

“Before demographics became the marketing mantra, the movies were the art of the middle. They provided a common experience and language — a sense of unity. In the dark we were one.”

“Now, however, when people prefer to identify themselves as members of ever-smaller cohorts — ethnic, political, demographic, regional, religious — the movies can no longer be the art of the middle. The industry itself has been contributing to this process for years by targeting its films more narrowly, especially to younger viewers. In effect, the conservative impulse of our politics that has promoted the individual rather than the community has helped undermine movies’ communitarian appeal.”

“But it is much more difficult to survive a change in consciousness than a change in taste or technology, and that is what the movies face now — a challenge to the basic psychological satisfactions that the movies have traditionally provided.”