Editor’s
note: We at Meridian became impressed with the work
that Dennis Agle and team have been doing in the wholesome,
uplifting part of the entertainment industry and asked
him to share with us some of his thoughts. You can
get to know Dennis and others he works with (as well
as see a number of film trailers) here: We
also encourage you to bring the Liken
the Scriptures products into
your family (we have them in our family and love them).
The entertainment industry
gets a lot of press for its role in furthering the decline
of civilization, if not leading the charge. The media
are associated so much with all that is wrong in modern
society that the term “good media” might strike many
as an oxymoron. I believe, however, that there is much
within the entertainment media that is uplifting and
good.
The trick, of course, is
finding it.
But before going further,
I must first make two disclosures. Disclosure One: I
love movies.
Some of my fondest early
memories involve piling into the station wagon as a
family to go to the large barn-like shack the next town
over in Hawaii that served as our local movie house.
In addition to the on-screen fare, audience members
were regularly treated to scintillating sideshows starring
large rodents traveling the exposed pipes overhead.
We learned to watch the movies with our mouths closed
and our feet up. Despite the less-than-opulent surroundings,
I was enchanted by how I could be whisked away on thrilling
adventures with amazing heroes for two magical hours.
Years later, when I was
a teenager in a small town in Utah, my father took a
second job at the local multiplex (multiplex was two
screens in those days), which had the primary benefit
of giving his seven children free access to all the
movies they could eat (a glutton, I saw “Star Wars”
17 times one summer).
Then, as a college student,
I studied “films” (what movies are called in college)
and screenwriting. Now, as an adult (and here comes
Disclosure Two), I work in a company devoted to producing
media.
So I probably won’t ever
be accused of being totally objective in my views on
media. On the other hand, my lifelong affection for
movies has made their steady decline in moral standards
over the years even more painful for me as I see my
family’s permissible entertainment options dwindle.
Indeed, the decline in uplifting media choices is the
primary reason I decided to join in the fray by allying
myself with others committed to producing uplifting
entertainment.
Shun Degrading Media
Whether we are producers
or consumers of media, I believe we all have obligations
to join in the fray. The first — and most important
— way we can do that is by shunning and speaking out
against degrading media; much has been said and written
about that. But I believe we have two other, somewhat
overlooked responsibilities when it comes to media.
As Saints, our obligation
toward media extends beyond merely avoiding the bad;
we have a responsibility to actively seek out that which
is good and, when we find it, help spread the word.
I believe that these responsibilities
are inherent in the final sentence of the final Article
of Faith: “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or
of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these
things” (Articles of Faith, 13).
Seek After Good Things
One of these obligations
is to seek after good things. “Seek” is an active word.
It means to try to obtain or locate. In other words,
it suggests an obligation to get up and go somewhere.
“When there is a good movie
in town, consider going to the theater as a family.
Your very patronage will give encouragement to those
who wish to produce this type of entertainment,” said
our prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley (“In Opposition to Evil,”
Ensign, Sept. 2004, 3). “In large measure, we get what
we ask for. The problem is that so many of us fail to
ask and, more frequently, fail to express gratitude
for that which is good.”
The principle of patronage
is a vital component of the entertainment industry cycle.
It is not necessary to be a large investor in a movie
or a benefactor of live theater to be a patron of the
arts. Merely going to the theater or picking up a DVD
at your local store is perhaps the ultimate way of providing
encouragement.
And, if you truly want
to make an impact, don’t wait for the movie to go to
the dollar theater; go on opening weekend. The owners
of the theater chains make many of their decisions about
whether to book a smaller movie based on opening weekend
performance. And it’s not just total box office dollars
they look at; the dollars per screen are also important.
That means a small movie opening on a few dozen screens
can get as much notice as a large budget feature opening
on a few thousand screens.
As Saints, we are encouraged
to live within our means, and when times are tight,
the entertainment dollar is typically among the first
things to be cut, and perhaps rightfully so. However,
when circumstances allow, let us vote for uplifting
entertainment with our pocketbooks.
A colleague of mine, Mike
Schaertl, wrote and directed a delightful short film
called The Christmas Mission, about a despondent
missionary who catches the spirit of Christmas. Mike
was once accosted in a mall by an enthusiastic woman
who told him that she loved the movie so much, she borrowed
it from a neighbor every year at Christmas time.
While Mike was gracious
and grateful for the compliment, I’m sure he couldn’t
help but want to say to the woman that if she truly
loved the movie, she ought to turn around and march
right over to her local LDS bookstore and purchase her
own copy. Nothing provides more encouragement — and
means — to producers of uplifting entertainment than
your patronage. This is not to say that we must set
aside our desire to be entertained in order to support
that which is uplifting. Uplifting entertainment should
be both parts — uplifting and entertaining.
Spread the Word
The other obligation implied,
at least as I read it, by the 13th Article
of Faith is the need to spread the word. When it references
things that are of “good report” or “praiseworthy,”
I believe it suggests that there needs to be someone
doing the good reporting or praising the thing that
is worthy.
In Hollywood, they call
it “buzz.” Elsewhere, it is simply called good word
of mouth. Usually, the smaller, good movies can’t compete
against the larger advertising budgets of Hollywood.
But good word of mouth trumps massive advertising budgets
anytime.
If a movie has good buzz,
chances are it will catch on and become profitable.
Conversely, no advertising budget, regardless of size,
can overcome bad buzz, particularly after the first
weekend, when word spreads at the water cooler about
what a waste of a $9.50 admission fee a particular movie
was.
I appreciate Kieth Merrill’s
recent Meridian Magazine article “Has
Hollywood Lost Its Heart?” calling attention to
little-known features that were screening at the Heartland
Film Festival. I look forward to hearing from him about
more. And if we watch these movies and find ourselves
agreeing with him, we should do our part by passing
the word along.
I also appreciate Meridian
Magazine’s reviewers’ efforts to seek out and praise
good things. I’ve noticed that it is a publication that
wastes precious little space taking witty stabs at movies,
an opportunity few other publications can resist. Instead,
I find its Arts
& Entertainment section is a good place
to discover entertainment options I should seek out
for my family.
Three “Good Reports”
As an advocate of spreading
the word, may I make three “good reports”?
Good report number one.
One of my favorite discoveries since moving recently
from California to Utah is a video store chain that
rents feature films that have had objectionable material
edited out. (The store I go to is called Clean Flicks,
although there are other similar services available,
including online stores, such as CleanFilms and Flick’s
Club.) This store has opened a whole new world of movies
to me and my family.
I recognize that in some
ways, as these stores buy movies to edit, they are patronizing
that which is, at least in its original form, not always
uplifting. On the other hand, I also believe that if
these stores became as busy as the large video chains
in my neighborhood, Hollywood just might sit up and
take notice of the demand for clean movies.
In any case, one thing
always strikes me as odd whenever I walk into my local
edited movie store: the owner behind the counter usually
looks as lonely as the Maytag repairman. “Business is
slow,” he says. “May need to take a second job.” Yet
I see a constant flow of traffic at our local large
video chain store. I don’t get it. The local edited
video store ought to be, in my opinion, the busiest
store in the state of Utah.
Good report number two.
If you want to know what exactly is going to be in that
movie you’re considering for this weekend, a service
called Screen It! Entertainment Reviews can be very
helpful. It rates, from none to extreme, the degree
of potentially offensive content in several categories,
such as profanity and violence. It’s a free service,
but includes a subscriber side with additional services.
It is available at www.screenit.com.
Finally, good report number
three. I saw my first movie at the Sundance Film Festival
this year. Mindful of its penchant for films that push
the envelope, I didn’t think I’d ever see a movie at
Sundance. But a colleague, Rod Santiano, was involved
in the production of a documentary that was accepted
into this year’s festival. It was about a fallen, aging
glam rock star who hit rock bottom and found salvation
through a copy of the Book of Mormon.
Few movies, including those
produced in the past few years by Utah-based production
companies, have portrayed members of the Church as fairly
and in as good a light as this movie. Indeed, it was
refreshing to see Latter-day Saints, in general, as
sincere, intelligent and compassionate beings, rather
than idiosyncratic simpletons with a fondness for gelatin
desserts. The movie is called New York Doll,
and is playing now in a small number of theaters. It’s
not for everyone; some may find its references to the
subject’s earlier lifestyle a put-off. But I found it
to be uplifting and, at the same time, a powerful testimony
about how the gospel can reach anyone who opens his
or her heart to it.
There you have it. Three
“good reports,” albeit from my (biased) point of view,
but I hope to do more here on the pages of Meridian
as time goes by. There is good stuff out there, if we’re
willing to dig for it. And with a little help from us
in the form of patronage and spreading the word (when
merited), there could be even more of it heading our
way. And that would be very good news, indeed.
