DANIEL GLENDENING in Perpetuum
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you send a Katniss, which they did, hence another round of Hunger Games. She’ll look heroic, she’ll social order) and simultaneously there alongside the Gotham PD, counter to my own political and social views The Hunger Games was produced by Color Force, a small inde- perform badassly, and nothing will change, which it didn’t, which is why even though she won the first (thus is the power of storytelling). And, maybe more tellingly, I can find myself there inWorld War But those crowds of people, now past recognition pendent production house founded by Nina Jacobson, in co- movie there was a second movie.”3 operation with Lions Gate Entertainment. in PERPETUUM Z: one of the mob of hungry flesh-eaters, stripped of humanity and surging over the walls of order and maybe past life itself, afflicted with a terrible in a flood of chaos. disease and a terrible hunger, that swarm over the From 1998-2006 Jacobson worked at Disney Stu- was standing towards the back of the crowd, stage right. There was an aisle down the middle of the audience walls of Jerusalem in World War Z, climbing en masse “The sleight of hand of such movies is that it presents an entirely different society (full totalitarianism) dios, developing scripts and overseeing film pro- and all of the girls were on the other side of the aisle, and all the boys were on my side of the aisle and we over the stone parapets — they are the masses: the duction. In June of 2006, Jacobson was I This is the most accurate identification: I, an audience member, a viewer, am not to in the context of TODAY, in the context of narcissism as expected, as ok, so meaningless acts become PARTIAL LIST OF FILMS SUPPORTED BY US Man of Steel. Directed by Zack Snyder. Burbank, CA: were all dressed up as nicely as we could and no one was happy to be there standing in the sun and mud. I was “There’s a storm coming...You and tired, the poor, the homeless huddled masses. exciting and meaningful acts are obscured. Huh, Mags fired, losing her position as Walt Disney GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013.* your friends had better batten identify with the leading man, the ex-military man called in for one last job, or with Motion Pictures Group President, receiv- there when she volunteered — you were too, right? We were there when they called out Prim’s name and there down the hatches, because when the scientists struggling to find a cure or with the rag-tag groups of people who have The zombie is not, here, a They are coming for us, we realize: they are fighting their way blew herself up with poisoned gas. Ah well, she was old. ing notice of her termination from studio Act of Valor. Directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Pearl Harbor. Directed by Michael Bay. Burbank, CA: was this wave of sadness because she was so young, and then some flash of confusion and Katniss stepped out Waugh. West Hollywood, CA: Relativity Media, Buena Vista Pictures, 2001.‡ it hits, you’re all going to wonder somehow survived. I am a zombie: a mindless consumer, eating whatever I can find, manifestation or represen- towards something better, fighting to take what we have. Chairman Dick Cook. Jacobson was, and 2012.* of the crowd and not many people knew her before, but afterwards everyone everywhere knew her. how you ever tation of the animalistic in is, well respected around Hollywood, and her firing The Perfect Storm surging forward, growing and threatening the falsely imposed order of the military- But in totalitarianism, there are no individual acts — that’s . Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. She’s right, of course. The thought you us, but a depiction of what we, even in an “economic came as something of a surprise, coming just as Disney’s Pi- Air Force One. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Culver Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2000.‡ the whole point of the totalitarian structure, that’s what it wants, what it wants you to become. Your storm hits and Gotham City could live so entertainment complex. Basically, I am a nobody: a face in a crowd of consumers with downturn,” what we who sit at the top of the world rates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was smashing records. City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 1997.‡ I was there also when she won. I was there when the fighting started in the Districts, when we held our fingers becomes a terrorist strong- 4 Race to Space. Directed by Sean McNamara. Manhat- large and leave no agency or effect on the system other than annoyance. think of those beneath us: those who work endless acts appear personal and individualized but conform beautifully, they are no threat.” Following her dismissal from Disney, Jacobson founded Color hold and everyone is left to Force, beginning work on projects by the end of that same year.1 Apollo 13. Directed by Ron Howard. Universal City, tan Beach, CA: Brookwell McNamara Entertain- up in salute, and when we flipped over the tables and spilled the grain into the dirt and started bashing in the so little for the shifts in factories assembling consumer electronics ment, 2001.‡ hide in their homes in fear as CA: Universal Pictures, 1995.‡ polices’ masks with stones and broken lumber. for pennies a day. their money — and power — is rest of us.” When I say, in relation to The Hunger Games, that we, as an audience, are “allowed” to There is no individual: there is only the crowd. There is only the total mass of the governed body, and a few In 1995, while working at Disney, Jacobson and film director Armageddon. Directed by Michael Bay. Burbank, CA: The Right Stuff. Directed by Philip Kaufman. Bur- stripped away. Alternatively, standing over them all, as icons. This is why, maybe, I identify. Often, in my daily life, I feel like an outsider; as Bruce Cohen founded Out There, an organization dedicat- Buena Vista Pictures, 1998.*‡ bank, CA: Warner Bros., 1983.‡ witness representations of social rebellion in the form of popular cinema, I mean just that: “al- The masses. She gave us a figurehead: someone to look up to, to focus on. She became, somehow, a hero — a real hero, a one could align with Bane lowed.” There is a long history of collusion between the United States Military, Pentagon and CIA if I somehow don’t belong to any of the social groups that someone else, some other outsider, might identify ed to helping “‘gay and lesbian organizations get support Rules of Engagement. Directed by William Friedkin. — a terrorist, sure, but also from gay Hollywood.’ Members of ‘Out Bat*21. Directed by Peter Markle. Culver City, CA: Tri- popular hero, a folk hero — a hero for the people, of the people, who wouldn’t compromise her idealism for any- me with. I feel isolated from my peer community, forever circling the periphery of some The Hunger Games Star Pictures, 1988.‡ Hollywood, CA: Paramount Pictures, 2000.† perhaps a leader of a popu- and the entertainment industry, including film, television and videogame production. Each branch of the There’ met once a month to launch po- one and who would fight for the people within a broken and oppressive system. lar uprising, or, at least, a fig- United States Armed Services, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, has some form of “Entertainment un-identifiable thing. Does, then, my identification with the disenfranchised masses as BUDGET: $78,000,000 litical initiatives and to discuss the sta- Battle Cry. Directed by Raoul Walsh. Burbank, CA: Sands of Iwo Jima. Directed by Allan Dwan. Holly- urehead: a face to represent represented by these films: the zombie horde, the rioters, the everyman flinging stones US OPENING WEEKEND GROSS: $152, 535, 747 tus of civil rights for gays and lesbians.”2 Warner Bros., 1955.† wood, CA: Republic Pictures, 1949.† the working man, the work- Liaison” office, dedicated to working with entertainment producers on approved projects. These agencies It’s a story I feel like I’ve been told before, but it doesn’t matter, because this time it’s real. We, the oppressed, be- against a rushing tide of dress blues — does this identification correspond to some in- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Speed 2: Cruise Control. Directed by Jan de Bont. Los ing woman. A masked visage offer their services and personnel, at the taxpayers’ expense, to, in the words of the U.S. Air Force Office of Generally speaking, it seems that Jacobson Battle: Los Angeles. Directed by Jonathan Liebes- BUDGET: $130,000,000 man. Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 2011.*† Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox, 1997.* gan to rise against our oppressors. The military police were already there, of course, waiting to squash whatever that’s willing to take a forced Public Affairs, “ensure that projects highlighting the missions and members of the Air Force are plausible stinctive desire to belong? It may be a manifestation of that wish to be a part of a group, is motivated, in part, by progressive politics, fight we could begin, but still —. We could feel it. Something was building and the fires were beginning to burn. occupation of the Gotham to feel connected and supported — to look to my left and right and feel at one with those US OPENING WEEKEND GROSS: $161,125,000 though she acknowledges the influence of Battleship. Directed by Peter Berg. Universal City, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Directed by Leonard Stock Exchange trading floor and realistic,” and “to project and protect the image of the United States Air Force within the global enter- 1 capital/Capitol.