There are not many people who can get away with saying that the film business has basically thrown away everyone except for teenage boys, but that’s exactly what Meryl Streep did last night on 60 Minutes.
She talked about what drew her to the part, “the opportunity to deal with the deep, buried discomfort that people still have, men and women, with women in leadership positions”, and the fact that she while might not admire Thatcher’s policies she admires the woman, “I am in awe of what she did. The policies you can argue with. But to sit in the hot seat, I can’t even imagine having that steadfastness.”
But she saved the best for last when talking about how the film business has sold out all of us but the young boys — the ones that play videogames.
That’s called the narrowing of the audience. The movie business has worked very assiduously to discourage you and other intelligent, discerning people from the theater, from the movie theater. They have worked hard to get rid of you, because you don’t go then and buy toys and games.
We might not buy toys and games but we do buy movie tickets. Too bad all these young boys playing games are now so obsessed with their games that they are no longer going to the movies. These movie guys have narrowed themselves out of an audience.
