Sex, Drugs, and Boredom

Why we should take entertainment more seriously than we do.

The Avatar Audience

I almost never see newly released movies, because I'm cheap (let's wait for the DVD!) and hate battling crowds. But one of my daughters really wanted to see Avatar so I broke down and took her. By now I'm sure that it's virtually impossible to say anything original about the movie but I've got a new angle: I want to talk about the audience. Read More

Funny observation here. I

Funny observation here. I recently just saw Avatar and I was dying to blog about my take on the movie review, however, I'm pretty happy to see a blog available about the movie's poignancy but from a slightly askewed angle. Interesting because at times I see a group of men at the gym hovering over the ceiling television screens as they intently watch the game instead of doing what they came there to do - exercise! Moments like that I think to myself, "Instead of watching the game so passionately, why don't they become an athlete? They seem so passionate about the game and the players, yet all they do is sit behind a television screen and watch them in action." Moments like these I find the counter-productivity in being stuck behind television sets instead of actively engaging in the sport. So in that sense, I can relate to your observation of the movie watchers for Avatar. Funny though, because I did not notice any fat people sitting in the audience in the theater that I was watching the movie in. I live just on the outskirts of Los Angeles and since majority of the people here are extremely Hollywood and trendy, many takes initiatives to stay slim, even if they're not, most try. Perhaps in the part of town in which you live in, the demographic is more prone to people with obesity problems. It's a shame, how less people choose to take control over their lives and more people would rather remove themselves from life issues they can be solving/resolving. Thanks. By the way, I loved this movie! Avatar depicts a fantasy world, yes. However it was more than that, the meaning behind the story was about love and passion, fighting for what's right, and the good guys finally winning! Justice was well served in the seats of the theaters. At least it painted a great moral picture - Don't give up the fight!

Los Angeles and Oklahoma

You note that the audience in your region wasn't what I described, and I don't doubt it. I live in a region that has among the highest obesity rates in the country; the most recent winner of "The Biggest Loser" is from the town where the theater was located. But as you also note, the general point holds and can be observed in other contexts, such as the gym.

I'm interested in a question raised by your final sentences. Do people in fact act on the moral commitments they cheer in a movie? Or do they think something along the lines of, "That was inspiring! I'd like to see another movie like that" (without being moved to do anything in the real world). I think Melanie Green has studied this, but I don't remember the findings well enough to quote them here(nor do I have the studies with me).

Thanks for commenting.

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Peter Stromberg, Ph.D., is an Anthropologist and author of Caught in Play: How entertainment works on you.

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