Coming out of the '60s and the Vietnam War in America, it was commonplace for people to make films that had relevance to them. And since the '70s, cinema has gone almost entirely in the direction of spectacle and escapism and superhero films.
Don't get me wrong: I'm a sucker for weddings. I'll get misty-eyed watching the union of two perfect strangers. But in some cases - and I need to stress some cases - I feel like we're getting blindsided by the spectacle of it all.
More and more, we're used to taking things in through the eyes rather than through the ears, and opera is more of a spectacle.
Usually, you see this play as a guy who can't make up his mind, but our version is more of a revenge thriller than a man who is pontificating what he should do next. I've never seen a 'Hamlet' this big, this exciting, with this many cast members; it's quite a spectacle.
A forest of these trees is a spectacle too much for one man to see.
Don't be part of the spectacle; be truthful about what you care about and speak from the heart.
Event cinema is what it is, and I understand why it's successful. It started with things like 'Jaws,' which are extraordinary movies. But what we've lost are great character films which are beautifully directed and had great movie stars in them. Films that were about something rather than about spectacle.
Each culture has its own form of staged combat, evolved from its particular method of street fighting and cleaned up for presentation as a spectacle, e.g. savate, Cornish wrestling, karate, kung-fu.
I'm aware that the World Cup is probably the greatest spectacle in the world of sport, and that's despite the referees that have been found to have fixed games specifically.
I like the idea that cinema is a spectacle.
