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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe 1% has their way with Hollywood's "Water for Elephants"
I just watched the film version of "Water for Elephants", which is a story about life in a Depression-era train-bound circus, among other things. One change made from the book version had me almost stopping the movie at the very beginning.
In the book, the protagonist is going to college. His parents are immigrants and are killed, and they have a big nest egg of money saved in the local bank. However, the bank is mismanaged and is wiped out by the stock market crash, and because there is no FDIC and no deposit insurance, all of their money is wiped out when the bank goes down. The main character is left with nothing, no house, no money, no degree. He runs away and inadvertently joins a circus and hilarity ensues.
It struck me at the time I read the book how horrible it was for all of your savings to be wiped out because of some moronic bank managers, speculation, and fraud, and how glad I was that people today are (slightly) cushioned from that by at least having the FDIC.
BUT . . . in the movie version, an avuncular man from the bank sits our lead character down and explains that his parents were terribly irresponsible with their money. They accepted "eggs and chickens" for their services, instead of money, as a kindness to their clients in the time of the Depression. He shakes his head at these people, their irresponsibility, and advises the hero that "the Depression is going to last a long time" and only those people who are ruthless are going to survive it.
This burned me up on so many levels. First, it completely whitewashed the fact that the parents were scrupulous with their money - but it was the deregulated BANKS fault for losing it, with no safety net. Second, it blamed the parents for accepting bartering items. Presumably, it would have been better for them to hold out and demand money from their clients, (and not helped them, of course), and then gone out and bought eggs and chickens with their cash instead. I'm not sure why this was superior. Third, accepting payment in kind is a very smart strategy in an environment where there is no money around. Is all of commerce supposed to stop just because the rich are hording the currency?
Finally, I wonder who was leaning on the screenwriter to change that line in the script? Because it really changed the tone of the circumstances of the lead character, from a victim of the banks to a victim of his parents' "irresponsibility". Even in "liberal Hollywood" there must be people watching out so that the banks don't even get blamed for the Great Depression and the terrible destruction it wrought.
yellerpup
(12,253 posts)And they will cut the heart out of any script, change the meaning, the thrust, etc., etc., unto infinity. I understand your frustration because now that it's in the can, it won't ever change. They could, but they won't.
blm
(113,052 posts)and there is an actual group that meets formally to discuss their plans to bring more of the 'town' along. You do know that GHWBush's CIA used 'concert tours' to get into countries they normally couldn't. Think.... Elvis Presley. Think.... Singing Angels. Think.... Up With People.
Think of the production folks behind those concert tours. It was no accident that Jerry Weintraub became a longtime 'friend' of Poppy Bush's.
monmouth
(21,078 posts)Ineeda
(3,626 posts)"hilarity ensues"? This is hardly a funny book or movie.
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)Capitalocracy
(4,307 posts)Even without reading the book or seeing the movie.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Like its just inconceivable and wrong that anyone goes into debt to receive an education.
I too thought that the changes made to that scene were bullshit and definitely made up by the 1% who don't have a clue what it's like for the rest of us.
(but I really did like the movie anyway after that)
Capitalocracy
(4,307 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)screwed a lot of people in the depression? Unless we are re-writing history, a la Orwell.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)The elites are trying very hard to erase the progress made during the late 19th/mid-20th century...whether it's through "austerity" or literally erasing murals about the labor movement, they want us to forget about the New Deal, the labor/civil rights/women's movements, etc.
Unfortunately, they've been incredibly successful at it, too.
Our ignorance is their strength.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)We should all cry for the poor misunderstood bloodsuckers....
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)applegrove
(118,642 posts)started to teach students that their competition was not just their competition. It was also their customers, government, etc. So corporations are at war with everyone. They sell bad mortgages and blame people, when banks used to have a role in making sure mortgages made sense. Then they blame the customers. Just sick.
cyglet
(529 posts)maybe they don't want to be sued by the banksters.
Mumble
(201 posts)...and the best part of the book was the half when the main character was in the nursing home. I was upset they cut almost all of that out.