American Confidence

I've been thinking about screwball comedy, particularly that of Preston Sturges and Howard Hawks, from the 1940s and thinking how shitty our entire society has become. The relationships between men and woman from that period were so...smart. Today, the romantic comedies are incredibly weak. I guess I shouldn't be too harsh, because there is Sex in the City and Seinfeld, etc, which are essentially serving what the screwball comedies were doing back in the day - smart talk between men and women.

But I think there is something else going on, particularly in the depiction of women in film, that priviledges body over mind. In these old comedies, there wasn't a need for a sex scene because the two characters were "getting off," practically orgasming in their interactions, the quick back and forth rhythms are sexier than the lustful half naked scenes of two "hot" stars.

I think all of this (and much more) is rooted in an extraordinary loss of confidence. During and post WWII, America rightfully saw itself as the most legitimate, powerful, and righteous nation on the planet. We were proud. Granted, there were still awful internal injustices - Jim Crow, Japanese internment, etc., but there was a verve with which our society could attack this problems, a swagger, and can-do attitude, and a little bit of ironic edge about the whole thing - a sense of fun. Today, our critiques of internal injustices of the past amount to a gigantic pity session, bemoaning injustice and using grievance as a tool to find sympathy and in some cases, claims of resitituion. Past generations of Americans would told us to quit whining and go live in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, or Maoist China if we were so damn unhappy. And then they'd make some clever comment, grab a drink and go dancing. Today, someone would be offended and go home pouting.

This lack of confidence manifests itself in several ways. The first is intense overreaction and overcompensation, and it is typically masculine. There would be an interesting thesis or dissertation written about how the Iraq war is an attempt by the American male to restore a sense of confidence and masculinity. And we see this manifest in almost a glee with which we spurned the UN and the French and German pussies...the attitude which says, well, fuck those guys. I, myself, fall within this camp, so I know a little bit about it.

But another way this lack of confidence manifests itself is the flip side, politically speaking, when people cannot even muster up the moral courage to say why Iran shouldn't have a nuclear bomb. Can you see the bumbling, shaking, idiot saying, "well, if I were an Iranian or an Arab, I would think differently....no, I can't say for sure whether Iran should be able to have a nuke. I mean, who are we to say what others can and can't do?" Are you fucking kidding me? If you don't trust yourself enough to know the difference between say, the US having nukes, Israel having nukes, France and England having nukes, versus, Iran's mullah theocracy haing nukes...well, I don't even know what to say.

We're so goddamn wary. We're warned of self-righteousness and this vague idea espoused in Europe and the Middle East about American "arrogance," and we're so scared of overstepping our bounds and telling people what to do, we're wary of having power.

And we should use power responsibly and telling people what to do isn't our job or our place and arrogance is ugly and self-righteousness is a turn-off. But we SHOULD NOT be afraid of telling people what we think and acting upon what we think is right. Because there are things that are right and that doesn't make us self-righteous. We shouldn't be arrogant, but we shouldn't be afraid of doing what's right and saying what we think is right because we fear others will interpet it as arrogance. We're entitled to opinions and entitled to exercise power how we see fit. That is why we shouldn't financially support Hamas - because we don't agree with their ideology. Because they are wrong and we are right. If that's arrogance, then so be it. But since when did having an position, rooted in our sense of justice and fairness, and acting upon that position amount to arrogance. Isn't that righteousness and isn't that what we ought to be doing?

And how does this all tie back into romantic comedy? This may be a stretch, but I'll try it anyway...watching two hot people brings along certain pleasures...that first shot in Mr. and Mrs. Smith is like - goddamn, these two people are HOT. But that shit doesn't last, we all know that, and the movie is nothing special. And we go to these movies with the idea that we can no longer see ourselves as romantic comedy leads. Let me explain that more. Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant are both good looking, but not AMAZING. They are smart, and in watching them, it makes you want to be smart and makes you think, I can have that type of banter, I can have interactions like that, that could be me. I could play that game! It's just a bunch of fun, I think. But in watching Brad and Angelina, there isn't a sense that I could be like that. How many people - even good looking ones - feel like they could sleep with every single person they meet? Hardly any. But that is true for Brad and Angelina. And so it becomes an issue of how different our lives are from those characters lives we are watching, and the pleasure is actually derived from how physically different we are, as maschistic as it sounds.

The ironic thing is that even Brad and Angelina don't appear to me to be as confident or as in love as Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell or any of the couples in Sturges' movies. I don't know, maybe they even loved each other better back then.

Well, this entry didn't make a whole lot of sense, but hey, that's what blogging is for, right?