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The USC film school revolution

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So I was watching "Milius" last night, about director and screenwriter John Milius. It has the whole USC 1970s crew in it: Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola. 

So my wife, doing homework in the same room, looks over at me and asks:

"So, this documentary is about a bunch of privileged white dudes who got jobs making millions for major corporations and spent the next couple decades telling each other what rebels they were?"

Admittedly my wife is finishing her master's thesis on colonialism and revolution, so she talks like that a lot, but it did kinda take the wind out of my sails.

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No offence intended, but that statement is kinda dumb. They didn't make money for big corporations. They made their own studios/corporations and made money for themselves.

And their success had little to do with them being white and coming from middle-class families. It can mostly be attributed to their talent. I find it a bit funny that such moralisation comes from a person who studies, what I consider, privileged ("useless") studies.

真実

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They were rebels for a time. The time period can be argued, but the death of the New Hollywood movement that emerged in the mid-60's (sparked by the French New Wave and the declines of studio fare with changing audiences) really commenced with the rise of commercialism in the 80's.

Few still have some of that mentality. Even fewer have made a picture worth a damn since.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
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TheBoost said:

So my wife, doing homework in the same room, looks over at me and asks:

"So, this documentary is about a bunch of privileged white dudes who got jobs making millions for major corporations and spent the next couple decades telling each other what rebels they were?"

 *sigh*  tell your wife I said that not every white person is privileged and not every single thing a white person accomplished is because of being privileged.  Also tell I said that being a rebel doesn't mean you can't make money. 

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imperialscum said:

No offence intended, but that statement is kinda dumb.

 I love when people say something and then immediately invalidate it before they can finish the sentence.

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TV's Frink said:

imperialscum said:

No offence intended, but that statement is kinda dumb.

 I love when people say something and then immediately invalidate it before they can finish the sentence.

I was just stating the truth. Some people may be offended by the truth. Therefore I clarified that my sole intention was to rely the truth. I did not intend to offend anyone.

真実

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imperialscum said:

TV's Frink said:

imperialscum said:

No offence intended, but that statement is kinda dumb.

 I love when people say something and then immediately invalidate it before they can finish the sentence.

I was just stating the truth. Some people may be offended by the truth. Therefore I clarified that my sole intention was to rely the truth.

 No offense intended, but failing to proofread your posts is kind of dumb.

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TV's Frink said:

 No offense intended, but failing to proofread your posts is kind of dumb.

I agree. However I do not proofread my posts. However if I did, I would succeed of course.

真実

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Warbler said:

TheBoost said:

So my wife, doing homework in the same room, looks over at me and asks:

"So, this documentary is about a bunch of privileged white dudes who got jobs making millions for major corporations and spent the next couple decades telling each other what rebels they were?"

 *sigh*  tell your wife I said that not every white person is privileged and not every single thing a white person accomplished is because of being privileged.  Also tell I said that being a rebel doesn't mean you can't make money. 

 Well, well-off men at a prestigious school spending lots of money to make impressive student films in an exclusive and cutting edge program, then succeeding and hiring all their old buddies from their expensive college years... ... that is kinda a text-book definition of privilege. 

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imperialscum said:

And their success had little to do with them being white and coming from middle-class families. It can mostly be attributed to their talent. I find it a bit funny that such moralisation comes from a person who studies, what I consider, privileged ("useless") studies.

 My wife would argue that's racist bullshit from some asshole whose people probably haven't been murdered and forcibly erased for 400 years. 

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By coincidence, 'Milius' has just started screening on UK TV as of 10pm. Amazing doc, tune in if you can.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Ryan McAvoy said:

By coincidence, 'Milius' has just started screening on UK TV as of 10pm. Amazing doc, tune in if you can.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I found Milius to be almost comical, not the badass he so desperately craved people to see him as. 

I'd like to read the original 10 page monologue from Jaws.

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TheBoost said:

imperialscum said:

And their success had little to do with them being white and coming from middle-class families. It can mostly be attributed to their talent. I find it a bit funny that such moralisation comes from a person who studies, what I consider, privileged ("useless") studies.

 My wife would argue that's racist bullshit from some asshole whose people probably haven't been murdered and forcibly erased for 400 years. 

Well no offence again, but from what information you provided your wife sounds like a racist to me.

真実

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"not the badass he so desperately craved people to see him as."

Yeah, Millus can come off as a war-crazy nutjob.  You can see it even as far back as in Hearts of Darkness, that documentary from the 90s about Apocalypse Now.  He interpreted the film in a completely different way than everyone else... which explains, of course, why Coppola refused to use his ending.

I have no real thoughts on your original post other than silent agreement.  Sure, they broke from the Hollywood narrative, but not the oft-neglected story that precedes it of them as a bunch of white males coming from relatively affluent backgrounds. 

Socioeconomic privilege is relevant to everything, even the arts.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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TheBoost said:

imperialscum said:

And their success had little to do with them being white and coming from middle-class families. It can mostly be attributed to their talent. I find it a bit funny that such moralisation comes from a person who studies, what I consider, privileged ("useless") studies.

 My wife would argue that's racist bullshit from some asshole whose people probably haven't been murdered and forcibly erased for 400 years. 

I don't see how imperialscum's comment was racist. I also don't understand the argument that simply because a person isn't of a race that has a history of being oppressed then his opinions are completely invalid. 

As for imperialscum's statement that history is a "useless" field of study I definitely have to disagree, but I'm a bit biased because I happen to study history :p

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

As for imperialscum's statement that history is a "useless" field of study I definitely have to disagree, but I'm a bit biased because I happen to study history :p

I did not say history itself is useless, after all I loved it when I was young. It is just that, from a perspective of an engineer, studying it at university is useless. Well you have to forgive me, I am scientist/engineer. :)

真実