Al Pacino Wins Emmy Award for Movie on Euthanasia Advocate Jack Kevorkian

[colmcille1]

I’m glad that these two posters above me weighed in with their insights. It helps put things in perspective for someone like myself who happened not to see the ceremonies but someone who is also very much a film buff and a huge fan of Pacino as an actor.

I’m completely capable of separating the acting job, and the character played, from the actor as a person, from his beliefs, etc. And whether those beliefs do or do not accord with my own. (Sometimes they do, sometimes not. Never colors whether the actor has done a fine job, whether the film was artistically presented rather than a series of cheap gimmicks or gratuitious sex/violence, etc.)

Hi Elizabeth,
Again, you make a valuable point here.
If I may, I think that while several folks can see the movie business in it’s entirety, is it not also true that said movies can powerfully influence those susceptible to their overall “message”?
I recall reading a review of ‘Fight Club’ by a Sunday Times journalist. He made the point that this movie could influence youths with a leaning towards violence. This influence, he went on, was of no concern to the actors as they were doing their well-paid job. He was stating (far more articulately than yours truly!) that there was a gross irresponsibility at work here on the part of said actors and producers.
I know that this is a controversial area but is it non incumbent on Catholics everywhere to view mass popular media with the God-given insight He provides.
God Bless,
Colmcille.

 

[Newbie2]

I think you are assuming that to make a good movie or to do a good acting job that you have to actually like the person you are portraying. The director called JK his “friend” but he went on to say he’d never want him as his physician.

Steven Spielberg made a great film about the concentration camps and Ralph Fiennes was brilliant as a nazi, but I don’t think either one of them actually liked the subject that they were working on as professionals.

Nope, that’s not my assumption.

However, I am assuming that the actor has actually read the script and understands that they are helping make a film that champions a creepy murderer like JK as well as his misguided notions.

Now I haven’t seen the film, but I’d bet dollars to doughnuts the movie isn’t critical of JK in any way, shape or form. Anyone who has seen it can correct me if this isn’t the case.

 

[kildare]

I agree with Colmcille. I think it is incumbent of catholics to make a stand especially whne there is clearly an agenda behind the films. I remember being in Spain when the film Mar a dentro (the see inside came out) starring the viiciously anti-catholic Javoer Bardem and directed by the even more anti-catholic Alejandro Amenabar. The agenda of the film was to put euthanasia on the political table, and poignionatly Zapateros ( the presidential author of the worlds first gay marriage legisaltion and who yet reigns here in Spain) entire cabinent went to see the film.

But catholics stopped gladiatorial cames in Rome in 400AD, not by admiring the great talents of maximus the gladiator but by standing up and complaining so hard that they had to ban it. Euthanasia is now widly practiced and accepted in the Netherlands. These people, teh actors, the politicians and their philosophical mentors such as Peter Singer are wolves readying us lambs for the slaughter

 

[Holly3278]

My boyfriend who is unemployed volunteers as an actor at a local theater in various plays and such. In fact, his next play starts tomorrow. I don’t remember what the name of it is right now but that is not what I came here to post about anyway. He graduated from a two year university 2006 with an Associates Degree in Radio Broadcasting and an Associates Degree in Acting. He has wanted to actually get a job as an actor for some time now but unfortunately he has never had a paying job as one due to the fact that our area has very few opportunities for this kind of work. He really enjoys going to his rehearsals and then acting in the play although it can, at times, be physically exhausting for him. I guess it doesn’t help matters that he has two bad knees.

While he does enjoy his time acting, he does actually suffer from depression as I suspect a number of actors do. Despite the fact that he is on stage a few times a year and gets applause and attention at his plays, he does still get depressed and he still feels like he is worthless.

I guess my point in posting this is to show that although on the outside, an actor may appear to be cheerful and all, on the inside they can sometimes be in a state of emotional turmoil. It’s not as easy a job as some people seem to think it is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I personally think that many professional actors who we know as “stars” get paid too much. But then again, I also agree with another poster that sports “stars” definitely get paid too much. Actors, to me, contribute to people’s personalities and such. Many people have their lives transformed by a movie in some sort of way. Sometimes a movie can turn a person’s life around by giving them inspiration to change their lives. I believe The Passion of the Christ is a good example of this. From what I understand, there were more than a few conversions of former non-believers who went to see this movie. But a sports “star” really doesn’t seem to have the same value to me. I mean I am sure they can be inspirational and all that but I honestly doubt their ability cause someone to change their life in a drastic way. I do know that sports “stars” can be inspirational as when my boyfriend was in high school, he always wanted to be a professional wrestler. He greatly admired various wrestlers and aspired to be one some day. But then came an unfortunate accident in which he blew out both of his knees at the same time quite severely. He actually began to go in to shock due to the injury. He could have died if no one had been there to call an ambulance. Unfortunately, this shattered his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and so he pursued a different career in the entertainment industry, radio broadcasting or acting.

 

[colmcille1]

My boyfriend who is unemployed volunteers as an actor at a local theater in various plays and such. In fact, his next play starts tomorrow. I don’t remember what the name of it is right now but that is not what I came here to post about anyway. He graduated from a two year university 2006 with an Associates Degree in Radio Broadcasting and an Associates Degree in Acting. He has wanted to actually get a job as an actor for some time now but unfortunately he has never had a paying job as one due to the fact that our area has very few opportunities for this kind of work. He really enjoys going to his rehearsals and then acting in the play although it can, at times, be physically exhausting for him. I guess it doesn’t help matters that he has two bad knees.

While he does enjoy his time acting, he does actually suffer from depression as I suspect a number of actors do. Despite the fact that he is on stage a few times a year and gets applause and attention at his plays, he does still get depressed and he still feels like he is worthless.

I guess my point in posting this is to show that although on the outside, an actor may appear to be cheerful and all, on the inside they can sometimes be in a state of emotional turmoil. It’s not as easy a job as some people seem to think it is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I personally think that many professional actors who we know as “stars” get paid too much. But then again, I also agree with another poster that sports “stars” definitely get paid too much. Actors, to me, contribute to people’s personalities and such. Many people have their lives transformed by a movie in some sort of way. Sometimes a movie can turn a person’s life around by giving them inspiration to change their lives. I believe The Passion of the Christ is a good example of this. From what I understand, there were more than a few conversions of former non-believers who went to see this movie. But a sports “star” really doesn’t seem to have the same value to me. I mean I am sure they can be inspirational and all that but I honestly doubt their ability cause someone to change their life in a drastic way. I do know that sports “stars” can be inspirational as when my boyfriend was in high school, he always wanted to be a professional wrestler. He greatly admired various wrestlers and aspired to be one some day. But then came an unfortunate accident in which he blew out both of his knees at the same time quite severely. He actually began to go in to shock due to the injury. He could have died if no one had been there to call an ambulance. Unfortunately, this shattered his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and so he pursued a different career in the entertainment industry, radio broadcasting or acting.

Hi Holly,
Your post is very touching. I had thought of contacting via PM; but decided against it as I never know how folks would react to such a message so I respect their equal (name removed by moderator)ut here as meriting a forum response.
I was once a professional actor. I enjoyed the life overall. I empathise with your boyfriend’s struggle with depression.
From my perspective now, I am enjoying enormously re-discovering my Faith.
I know I never could “do” this re-discovery while working as an actor because, as kildare pointed out above, I see my past career through the lens of my current re-discovered Faith.
To give you a concrete example: if I was still an actor AND I had my Faith, I know that I would not audition for a play or movie which acted against said Faith.(I recall trying to get a break in a soap opera. I’m thankful I didn’t as said programmes encourage no end of lazy thinking.) Indeed, I would do my level best to seek out work which proclaimed the greatness of Christ. I understand this would alienate me from alot of possible engagements but, in my book, we cannot call ourselves true Catholics unless we challenge ourselves to challenge this world.
I view my past as part of my search.
Having said all that, I want to extend the true hand of friendship to you both and I pray that your boyfriend has a happy and prosperous career.
God Bless,
Colmcille.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

Hi all,
First, it does not surprise me that hollywood rewards this type of movie. They are attracted to stories they arrogantly deem to be folk-heroic and package them cleverly to maximise profits. (The same actor spoke at an Oscar Wilde seminar in Dublin some years back thus ticking his box with the gay lobbyists.)
Second, as an ex-professional actor (gave it up as I realised the ego is not everything) I can state that actors enjoy the limelight and the hard work that puts them under it. In order to survive and succeed in what is a notoriously fickle business, it is imperative to cultivate an enormous ego.
All actors, those who are mega-rich and those perched all the way down the steep financial scale are bound by the bohemian sensibility of the profession’s history. They hire themselves out, so to speak, and, sometimes, their loyalty to a certain message in a play or movie is secondary to their bank balance.
Those actors who are conscientiously discerning in their take-up of employment are invariably attracted to the aforementioned “folk-heroic” shtick because it appeals to their bohemian instinct as outsiders, rebels, eccentrics.
I feel that we, as Catholics, should always look upon hollywood as nothing more or less than it’s oft-trumpeted byline: showbusiness.
God Bless,
Colmcille.

Spot on.

Tied in to that is the fact that many actors DID grow up as outcasts and eccentrics. Acting gaven them a way out of their loneliness and social pariah status.

Off the top of my head I remember Tobey Maguire was totally homeless just five years before he came to critcal attention in his first.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Hi Elizabeth,

I know that this is a controversial area but is it not incumbent on Catholics everywhere to view mass popular media with the God-given insight He provides.
God Bless,
Colmcille.

Yes, it is incumbent. You’ll get no argument from me on that.
(I corrected the typo)

 

[colmcille1]

Yes, it is incumbent. You’ll get no argument from me on that.
(I corrected the typo)

Hi Elizabeth,
Not only are you a debater par excellence but you are an eagle-eyed proofreader as well!!
God Bless,
Colmcille.