Depressing

If it's depressing than no wonder 3 people were watching it. It's a crappy movie.

Define 'crappy movie'. A movie without a story and special effects is a good movie then. According to all stupid people.

"UnterstützerInnen" -> °closes tab immediately°

wie wahr :)

A ‘crappy movie’ movie is a movie which is based on your most primitive emotions. Making someone feel bad and depressed about a subject is primitive. A good movie should be constructive and show you that there is hope. If a movie is to change the world it must change you.

Using this definition then most Hollywood movies are automatically crap, as they mostly are using your most primitive emotions, like your reaction to attractive women/men, simple fear gut reactions and the like. Most HW movies are positive, but I don't think they can be seen as constructive just because they leave you without a depressing feeling. Isn't it great that the hero gets the girl in the end? Charming, but hardly constructive. A depressing movie can indeed change you, as you only get depressed about a subject if you somehow see truth behind it. I do not judge the Road to Guantanamo movie, as I haven't seen it, but I would rather watch any half-decent independent movie instead of an HW blockbuster, because they usually handle more intricate subjects and do not use standardized solutions for a mass-market audience. A film can change you if you feel inclined to think about the subject afterwards. But if you already feel good anyway, you have little incentive to do so. A film that leaves you with a certain uneasiness means that your brain has to process some things, and only through this processing can you really change, and thus stating that only movies that leave you in a good mode can change the world, feels a bit awkward to me. But yes, sometimes just seeing "boy gets chick 2000" can be a fine experience for those evening where you're smashed to the ground already anyway, or have a nice girl beside you while watching...

Let's generalize for the sake of this discussion and make a definition: a good movie is a movie that makes you a better person in the long run.
If you feel depressed and later on have only negative emotions about America after watching Road to Guantanamo, well something is wrong here. If a blockbuster makes you happy because guy A got chick B and you feel more motivated because of it to work in your life then it's great.

I agree that if the movie repeatedly states "America is bad", that it would be too simple a point of view and just plain anti-propaganda to ride on the wave of current anti-america sentiment. While the latter surely has made the production and distribution of this movie possible, Guantanamo surely is a hell of a place to be in, and if a movie shows a part of reality that sadly is that way, and simply shows people what kind of things are happening in there, people become better educated and can incoprorate it into their world-view.

That the world isn't all bad should be straight forward, but it isn't all candy either, like "guy gets chick anyway" often wants you to believe in the end. This works for maybe one evening, but the next day, if you do not already have a satisfying relationship, do you really believe that watching a simple minded romantic movie will change your life and teach you how to get a girl?

A reason why such films still have such a wide audience is that people are NOT satisfied with their love life, the same reason why many housewives read romantic novels like those of Rosamunde Pilcher in the hundreds and still can't get enough of them. Those films are usually made to show you some kind of ideal, and not how the world really works, and so it can lessen a pain for a short while, just like antidepressants can do, but is that a solution?

Reducing symptoms is not equal to curing the disease. So as your definition includes "in the long run", how does that fit together? Guantanamo scandals can indeed change your view of the world, which in this case would become a bit more negative. In the long run it doesn't help to stick your head into the sand, but to go outwards and try to understand the world as good as you can. I agree though that it would be great if a film could teach you how to live your life, but sadly there is no simple solution, just many facets. So watching films that really show facets of different lives on a more down to earth level can indeed be a gain in personality, but only potentially, if somehow you feel connected to the experiences perpetrated by the creators.

It is like a key to a poem which you either have or do not have at that time. To come to an end: bad emotions aren't necessarily bad, good emotions aren't necessarily good. It depends on so many things that stating such a simple thesis seems very ignorant. I don't know how old you are, and I don't care about discussing this further, as this all is quite straight forward anyway. Just felt obliged to put a little bit more balanced reasoning into this discussion.

And: when I watched Moore's films, it also felt like anti-propaganda to me, but hey, he has good points and he has educated me a bit more, though you always have to remain critical about what you gobble up, as most information through such media channels is subjectively colored. Only solution: stop watching movies and starting reading good books, those can change your life even more... salut

"Only solution: stop watching movies and starting reading good books, those can change your life even more"

Agreed.

Books are a much bettr channel for educating yourself because you spend several hours in front of a book and usually you must THINK about what you read. Movies produce mainly emotions.