Life The Film: How Entertainment Conquered Reality By Neal Gabler

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Neal Gabler, in his book Life the Movie: How Entertainment conquered Reality, insinuates that the entertainment industry has the ability to control society, and are capable of bringing about its collapse. He quotes 19th century film critics, who believed entertainment could “overturn all morality,” and “dissolve the ties of our social order.” These assertions vastly miscalculate the power of entertainment and portray the entertainment industry as a grand puppet master, bending society to their will. These claims are based on the assumption that the media controls society, but the truth is, society controls the media. This simple truth is the reason why entertainment can not ruin society. When individuals or groups demonize the media, and blame entertainment …show more content…

This trend can be most recently be heard from the more eccentric of the alt-right political movement. They point to the faceless Hollywood elite or the mainstream media, calling them a corrupting force, brainwashing the masses, failing to take into account that the producers and showrunners are people too. The entertainment industry is just that, an industry, run by people, who want to make money. This description fits every other business since the dawn of man. The producers look for what the public wants, creates a product, and if the people enjoy it they pay for it and more like it. If the project falls flat at the box office, it fails and serves as a warning to future producers. Look at the incredibly controversial movie Cannibal Holocaust. This movie fulfills Gabler's criteria as the worst of entertainment, it was grotesque,

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