1 July 1999

I started today's column late, and there is little news as Hollywood clears out for the long weekend. So, here are a bunch of ROTDs. There will be Friday and Weekend columns and the next new Hot Button will appear on Tuesday, July 6.

READERS OF THE DAY: JT: "The biggest problem with Hollywood movies, and why so many of them are terrible, is because of the screenplays behind them. I'm not talking about the screenplay that the original writer sells, but the actual shooting script. You know, that version of the script that has been nicely polished by every exec in the room, two lead actors, the director, 12 other writers, some intern, and the pizza delivery guy. As soon as screenwriters gain the respect they deserve, the quality of films hitting theaters will improve. These executives are too pig-headed to realize that the writer and director are of equal importance. You won't hear about a director being replaced half way through production, but it isn't a rare occasion for a script to have the views of 5 different writers (The General's Daughter had 6 and you could tell). When you have too many people changing a script, it loses its voice and that's why there are so many poor movies -- they lack vision. Look at some of the best movies of the 1990's...I guarantee you that most of them won't have more than 2 writers.

Also, if you continue your discussion about director's changing their films after test screenings, you might want to mention Steven Spielberg and what happened with E.T. In HIS movie, E.T. actually dies at the end (making it much more realistic and dramatic). However, test audiences fell in love with E.T. and didn't want him to die, so the ending was changed. The question is, do you think this really helped the box office success of the film, or did it simply take away a Best Picture Oscar from Spielberg?"

From Courtney (not Love): "Of course life isn't fair!! If life was fair every woman would have a figure like Cindy Crawford (pre-pregnancy), every guy would look like Matthew McConnaughey or Antonio Sabato Jr., and we'd all have bank accounts like Bill Gates or Ross Perot. That's not even touching on the fact that women still (on average) make considerably less than a man for the same job, and that, generally, we're expected to work harder and longer than men. I thank you for allowing me to rant."

From D.S.: "Hi there, just wanted to ask if you saw Jeff Greenfield as the guest critic with Roger Ebert this past weekend and if you had any thoughts? I thought it was interesting because I don't think Greenfield has reviewed somewhere before (if he did I missed it), and he seemed to be there because they are old friends, but he turned out to be the best sparring partner of all the guest critics I have seen. In fact, Roger seemed a little shocked. I don't know if it is just Greenfield's style or he felt comfortable enough with his friend to let loose a fairly stinging "I thought we were supposed to see the same movie" when reviewing Summer of Sam. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this time Roger had a guest who was his intellectual equal, and it showed. It looked like he was searching for some type of rebuttal when Greenfield said that Hollywood had used the first amendment like a drunken diplomat, but didn't really come up with one."

DAVID NOTE: I didn't see it, and I really regret it because I love Greenfield. He and Ted Koppel are the two people I most trust in the news business. Thanks for the thoughts.

DL expresses a popular concern about The General's Daughter: "Just saw The General's Daughter, it was a love hate affair, liked the leads, being in the Army I'm biased, but the content was interesting as well. But...I need to talk with someone who was involved in that movie. It doesn't bother me how the Army was portrayed, Jane Doe public believes that's the way it is, frightening, but of no consequence. Here's the problem, Hollywood has lots of cash, they could have spent $1000 to hire someone who had at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Army. I'm not asking much. I would like to let them know how me and my compatriots feel. Maybe even offer a little consulting, for a modest fee, before they look stupid to the vets and currently serving soldiers in the country. (I think that's over 20% of the population)"

And from Free To Be BE: "First off, in your response to the ROTD, you should have mentioned perhaps the greatest test screening story in Hollywood's "hallowed" past -- the Magnificent Ambersons debacle. Furthermore, it's true that many directors -- good ones -- rely on test screenings for their films. I'm prone to support Barry Sonnenfeld's opinions about where the laughs are. Test screeenings are particularly important for comedies -- the Farrelly Bros. mention on their Dumb & Dumber DVD commentary that they start off with a 3 hour film and test screen like bandits. Even the ever secretive Stanley Kubrick, even though he did not do any test screenings, was more than willing to cut his films after their opening weekends (as he did with The Shining and 2001, for example.) Test screenings can be important. For some films. It's important for a studio to sometimes be able to have the courage sometimes to go with a certain director or film without feeling the need to test it with audiences. I can't imagine what an early test screening of The Thin Red Line would have looked like, had Fox done them. But for every good example like that, I suppose there's a Meet Joe Black. In the end, the issue is trust. If the purpose of a test screening is to just tell a bunch of lemming-like suits what to think, well, then, that's stupid. But if the filmmakers are going in there with a specific plan, looking for specific things -- like, say, "where the jokes are" -- I'm all for it. I realize sometimes that these two phenomena come hand in hand, but what are you gonna do?

Oh, and I think that telling people they were going to see The Matrix one week before its premiere and then showing them The Wild Wild West was one of the dumbest things any major studio has done in years."

E ME: Thank you all for your valuable input. Maybe some of you who don't often write will take a minute between barbecues to let me know what you think about WWW, South Park and life itself. Come on, you can't eat ANOTHER burger!