The Media Zone

How the media make sense and nonsense of the world

Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. is Senior Editor of the Journal of Media Psychology and Emeritus Professor of Media Psychology at Cal State, Los Angeles. See full bio

May 27, 2008, Media

Comments on "What Sydney Pollack Told Me About Psychology"

What Sydney Pollack Told Me About Psychology

By Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on May 27, 2008 in The Media Zone

Sydney Pollack was saying it’s not enough to have God on your side. God should know something about filmmak Read More

Pass it on

Submitted by Damon on May 29, 2008 - 2:09pm.

This is an insightful bit of information helpful to filmmakers and film viewers alike. But more importantly I think this chunk of information sheds some light on how easy it is to pass the blame. Even the media itself uses the word "Hollywood" as a catchall for films and television, when they are a large part of the same system.

Again people, individuals, are needed to take account for the shape the world is taking. Artists,filmmakers, video game designers and even cartoonist have all used violence as a tool in their trade for both making a point and/or a buck. This is made possible by the individual having a desire to see some sort of violence. So how does one change the cycle?

Im not sure but I am glad i had a chance to hear some thoughts from a director who obviously was aware of his position in the process. Ill have to check out some of his work and see how he handled it.

pollack

Submitted by Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D. on May 31, 2008 - 6:45am.

He was a good, traditional filmmaker who worked well in any genre (e.g., Tootsie, Out of Africa, Three Days of the Condor) and had a masterful sense of what to do on both sides of the camera, and what to do with the camera as well. As for violence, Sydney Pollack was not averse to it but he was not a violence meister (like Scorsese) either. The key here, I think, is that it takes more talent to depict violence but not show it (think Hitchcock). This gets the audience emotions going, largely of the negative sort (fear, disgust, horror), but doesn't get the adrenalized excitement taking center stage which demands more and more, like heroin, to get the same level of excitement and leads to the term "gratuitous." In a word, creativity is the answer. Oh, yeah, and social sensibility too. Stuart