Saturday, November 21, 2009

JAMES CAMERON ON STAR WARS & SF

Tomorrow evening (Sunday), the venerable CBS news magazine program 60 Minutes is doing a story on James Cameron and his upcoming film, Avatar.

Decided, I did, to read up on James Cameron and pulled this off the 'quotes' section on his IMDB (Internet Movie Database) entry...

On Star Wars: "As much as I love Star Wars (1977) and as much as it's really revolutionized the imaging business, it went off the rails in the sense that science fiction, historically, was a science fiction of ideas. It was thematic fiction. It stopped being that and became pure eye candy and pure entertainment. And I miss that."

5 comments:

DonaldAR said...

Somebody needs to smack Cameron upside the head. He is a jackass - albeit a talented one. "When 'Avatar' is released in a few weeks, we should recall how director James Cameron tried to get L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan fired when he gave 'Titanic' a negative review, because Cameron said he was out of touch with what people like. This time around, it's hard to imagine Cameron -- just like audiences -- will care what any old critic has to say about his film. (Maybe Cameron will set his sights on negative tweeters this time.)" "Do Movie Critics Still Matter?" - Tom Rosten: www.moviefone.ca/2009/11/23/do-movie-critics-still-matter

DonaldAR said...

Oh, and Ridley Scott did a way better job on Alien. I'm just sayin'...

Barry Smight said...

Hey, you are right. Kenneth Turan is allowed to have his opinion -- sorry, James.

I know too much about the Titanic -- I read Walter Lord's "A Night To Remember" when I was eleven years old -- and I have too many problems with that film; even from a dramatic standpoint. It is so suffocating in its narrow-mindedness. Have you tried watching that film now?

I would love to speak with women who were 13 years old back in 1997 and wept openly while watching 'Titanic'... and did the same while listening to James Horner's one-note score. Bet you they have a hard time watching and listening now.

Please spare me from that dreadful 'Titanic' song. I'm just sayin'...

Greg Woods said...

Well I'm not aware of the full context of what Cameron was saying, but based on this quote, I think it's amusing he fails to see the irony that if it weren't for Star Wars, a lot of his own films wouldn't have been made.

Barry Smight said...

Absolutely, but his films have those "ideas" he speaks of.

I'll give the man credit, he makes block-buster films where, as you watch them, you have to do a little of the ol' "lateral thinking".

I do admire cameron.