Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Join Me At The Barricades's avatar

I have a good friend who used to be a dialogue, editor for major motion pictures and TV shows. He won, and or was nominated for Oscars and Emmys. He always had work for many years until things started changing. So much work was being outsourced to countries where production costs were less. Because fewer jobs were happening here, the work that was being produced here came at a very high cost to the workers. My friend said the stress was so bad in the editing suites that he knew many editors, who committed suicide because they couldn’t deal with the time crunch that was expected if you wanted to still work in Hollywood . My friend finally cashed in his union pension, and he actually sold his Oscar and Emmy statues and moved out of state. He does construction now, and earns a tiny fraction of what he used to. But he’s never been as stress-free and happy. Our form of vulture capitalism has been eating people alive for a long time. The idea of losing another industry , such an important American industry, to other countries is heart breaking! We have allowed corporations unfettered decision, making that has very literally killed our economy, and destroyed the middle class all on the altar of corporate profit. Because most of our politicians are bought and paid for, and do the bidding of these corporations, the rest of us are getting screwed. Just like 85% of Americans support universal background checks but can’t get it, this is another issue where the right in the left would absolutely support keeping manufacturing in the United States as opposed to outsourcing it. I recently participated in a three hour exercise where half the people in the room were Republicans and half were Democrats . (The organization that put this on is called Braver Angels). The bottom line was that most of the people in the room agreed that the military should be audited. It’s never been audited and we think, both Democrats and Republicans, that it’s high time. The people want to know the reason behind things like the $600 hammers. It seems to me that if a large group of Republicans and Democrats showed up at their senators local office and demanded that this issue be dealt with so that we don’t lose another American industry, the politicians would sit up and take notice. It isn’t often that the right and left work together to do some thing they both want. This seems like something that could actually get some traction. I hope so. I would hate to lose the movie industry.

Expand full comment
Anne Whitney's avatar

The laws need changing but Hollywood also needs to produce a better product. I rarely watch anything made in America because fake tits,teeth and blonde hair spouting inane dialogue don’t do it for me. I do like documentaries and watch a lot of British made series. America tried to remake Broadchurch and it was unwatchable.The original was riveting. Two of the best actors of our time in lead roles. Great dialogue, direction and stunning cinematography. There is talent on this continent but it seems the brainless and boring wins out. I cancelled cable tv years ago.

Expand full comment
29 more comments...

No posts