Can ‘murderous savagery' be entertaining? Why dark films keep us captivated

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

Hello Mick LaSalle: What is the movie definition of entertainment? How can graphic, criminal, murderous savagery be 'entertaining'?
David Preuss, Castro Valley
Hello David Preuss: Murderous savagery can't be entertainment, but depicting it can be entertainment, by definition, if it proves to be entertaining. It's just that we don't usually use words like 'entertaining' for movies about grave subjects. Take the German film, ' Downfall,' about Adolf Hitler. It couldn't succeed if it weren't entertaining, not in the sense of being light and amusing, but in the sense of engaging our full interest.
Think of it this way: If you're making a movie about something truly horrible, like the Manson murders or the Holocaust, you don't get any points for virtue by making it boring. Likewise, it's no credit against you if you make it in a way that people want to watch it.
Obviously, while depicting serious events, you would be careful not to be tasteless. But even then, the requirement to be entertaining is self-enforcing: If you were to veer into crassness, your movie would probably cease to be entertaining at that precise moment.
Robert Freud Bastin, Petaluma
Parker Monroe, Oakland
I'd also add Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock, and John Williams and Steven Spielberg.
Also don't forget Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee, particularly for '25 th Hour.'
Hi Mick: Hardly a day goes by when my husband and I don't paraphrase the dialogue from the scene in ' Godfather Part II ' between Fredo and Michael. Our conversations go something like, 'I'm smart, not like everybody says.' We think we're hilarious. Do you have any movie scenes that you find yourself quoting often?
Karin Sanford, Santa Rosa
Hi Karin: Yes, that one.
For example, sometimes when I'm driving back to my house, my wife will start giving me helpful driving instructions when we're only about five blocks away. When that happens, I might go into the Fredo speech. The important thing is to pronounce smart as 'smott.' Also, try to keep the speech going, so it ends with '. . . not like everybody says, like dumb, I'm smott!'
Dear Mick: I disagree with your dismissal of Stanley Kubrick as too cold for choice as one of the greatest directors of all time. But your glib dismissal does hint at why your commentaries on movies and actors, while often quite stylish, are actually quite vapid, quite missing of any insight into the current human predicament.
Ramesh Gopalan, Fremont
Dear Ramesh: Thank you for saying that. Recently, I was luxuriating with some friends in my distinctly stylish way, and we were all trying to figure out why, for all my modish elan, I remained (quite) vapid and (quite) missing insight into the current human predicament.
I mean, it's one thing to be (quite) clueless about the human predicament generally, but far worse not to stay current about such matters. But here you've gone ahead and figured out my whole problem — I don't like the same movies that you do!
So, please, send me a list of movies that I should like, which will allow me to at least fake it, and make people believe I'm smart … not like everybody says, like dumb, but smart.