Are we allowed to Romanticize anything anymore?

[KazeAizen]

So I was just watching one of Nostalgia Critic's latest videos. He is doing Disneycember and this year is focusing on the live action films. The one I just finished watching it that of Davy Crocket. In his review/summary he says repeatedly that it is a romanticized version of the historical figure. It got me to thinking. Are we allowed to romanticize anything anymore. More specifically in live action. We live in a world of cynicism, PC, etc...and when it looks like something is being "romanticized" I see so much backlash. Of course that won't stop to the film from being good or earning a buck. Django Unchained and Captain America I think fit this boat. Both good films in my opinion and both made a ton of money but both also received backlash. Django was called racist and disrespectful to that moment in history while Captain America was accused of "sucking America's dick for 2 hours." Pardon the language. With Captain America I have to ask though. What were they expecting from a super hero movie with the name of the country he is from as his super hero name?

I would put Inglorious Bastards in this list but let's face it. Even if it was 70 years ago now most of the world still hates the likes of Hitler and his Nazis. Modern Germany even censored the swastika on Bastards because it is illegal there or something (Any German readers out there please correct me if I am wrong about this). So that particular film seemed to get away from the backlash because of its period in history and what type of film it was. Anyway back on point. The main thing I am asking would be can Hollywood romanticize anything anymore without fear of backlash? Of course I'm not saying they should romanticize everything. We need our 12 Years a Slave's but do we need to get rid of our Django's because people don't like how things are portrayed? If I recall even The Patriot caught some of this with audiences in the UK but I still think its a good movie even if the villains are misrepresented. So my fellow escapist compatriots I want to hear your thought's.

 

[EternallyBored]

I don't think all your examples were criticized for romanticizing their settings, the criticism against Captain America was more about people seeing rampant blind nationalism rather than the movie romanticizing WW II or anything like that. Even with the other examples, sure they got some criticism, but I think the vast majority of viewers overlooked those criticisms. There weren't even really any boycotts or anything, it mostly just seemed to be movie critics venting about their particular pet topics.

As for romanticizing itself, it depends on the context. I don't see many people complaining about it when the setting being idealized is something like Sherlock Holmes or other period dramas. The issues crop up when the romanticizing turns into whitewashing historical conflicts or events. Most notably, Hollywood's love affair with the South during slavery, and the Wild West and American Indians.

It's not a bad thing to do, a fluffy romance story taking place in the 1000 AD era probably can get away with making medieval European life a lot less dirty than it actually was. It's when the history of the era gets ignored in more dramatic pieces, and then the producers advertise it as realistic, or push the "based on a true story" moniker, that people start to get nit-picky. Hollywood seems to want to have its cake and eat it to, they want to be able to take whatever liberties with history they desire, then still try to sell us on its historical accuracy at times. Sometimes this works, but others it tends to strain the viewers suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.

 

[Dark Knifer]

I think it's mainly just people clutching for straws to criticise. The examples you made were clearly allowed since they exist. But every work of fiction has to exaggerate in some way just by the nature of it being fiction, both good and bad.

For example, the show game of thrones likes to get gritty with the death and drama but for all the sex in that show not one mention of STD's to my knowledge, where if it was based on reality you'd think that would be different. Or maybe the books say something about that and they leave it out of the show or I just forgot.

But yeah, despite whining, romanticism certainly isn't going away as long as fiction is around.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Yes, you are allowed to romanticize things. The modern trend of intense cynicism will hardly hold forever. The endless gritty takes on old fairy tales, for example, are just an example of a cycle you can observe across recorded history. Those very fairy tells generally started out grim and brutal, eventually became romanticized, and now people think themselves clever by sliding back to grim. Fundamentally, though, it is a simple problem of idealism and in our current age idealism is in relatively short supply.

In short - fiction is often nothing more than a reflection of the times but certain themes have lasted through peace and war and plagues and tyrants no worse for wear. The pendulum always swings back eventually.

 

[Tanis]

As long as it isn't being sold as factual, I don't think it matters.

It's when a movie CLAIMS to be 'based on facts', but it's 9 times out of 10 not, that I take an issue with it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Has Romanticising things been banned by the UN or your own government?

If not, you're allowed to do it. People are allowed to condemn you for romanticising things.

 

[Amaror]

Modern Germany even censored the swastika on Bastards because it is illegal there or something (Any German readers out there please correct me if I am wrong about this).

Nope wrong. Well part of at least. While it IS illegal to display any nazi symbolry in Germany, inglorious basterds or any other movie for that matter were in fact NOT censored. The symbol is still displayed hapilly in the german version, because art gets a free pass. It is however censored, when it would be displayed in a videogame for example, because videogames are not considered art. So if anyone asks again why we want games to be considered art, there's one valid answer.

PS: But just that you don't get the wrong idea: While it is technically illegal to display nazi symbolry, it is not particullary heavily enforced. We don't have police investigating grafitti or something.

 

[mrhappy1489]

I agree with EternallyBored, I don't think that there has been a backlash or anything towards romanticizing certain eras, I think it's just when they try to blur the lines of history to make one side more sympathetic than it was. I have issue with things that paint the Confederate States as these ultra-racists whose only reason for seceding was so they didn't have to give up there blacks. Don't get me wrong, I don't support the confederacy in anyway, shape or form and I think that the Civil War was, if nothing else, a crucial step towards the long term goal of racial equality, I just think that painting them as these ridiculous villains is just incredibly stupid. I'm not entirely familiar with it, mostly due to me not being a US native, but from what I understand there were a variety of socio-economic reasons why many people in the south rejected the idea of abandoning slavery and saw it as another push for North dominance in the Early United States. I won't delve any deeper, considering this is just an example, but I think it highlights my point well enough, in that romanticizing is all well and good, just don't take it to the extreme and feed ridiculously false information.

 

[lacktheknack]

Romanticizing something is like using makeup.

You'll always get dissenters about it, but screw them, it makes the subject look prettier for public presentation, which is always valuable. However, if you use it on an open wound, then you're going to be in for a bad time.

 

[Gorrath]

Has Romanticising things been banned by the UN or your own government?

If not, you're allowed to do it. People are allowed to condemn you for romanticising things.

I believe he is commenting on the backlash that romanticizing things tends to get these days. He isn't asking if it's illegal. I also believe he knows that people are allowed to condemn things that are romanticized, he is wondering why people are so hell bent on finding fault with it.

OT: I think it has to do with the times. When people feel insecure and taken advantage of, romanticized media ends up feeling really fake. We are currently in an age of cynicism brought about by negative public opinion of various establishments. Romanticized media ends up looking like someone is trying to pull the wool back over their eyes again, and that breeds resentment. People will embrace the overly cynical and mistrust their fellow man all for justifiable reasons. I heard a statistic quoted the other day that 2/3 of Americans no longer trust each other. The anti-romantic sentiment will pass when people feel secure again.

 

[Madman123456]

There are plenty things being romanticized and products which do that are being sold rather well in some cases. Criticism of that or indeed anything will always be around which is a good thing because most criticism contains information.
Someone might say that you may have to expect a certain american felating in something like captain america and then proceed to tell you that if you're looking for that you wont be disappointed.
You could say that GTA V is romanticizing crime in a way but then again, what is to be expected from that game?
It does what it says on the tin.
If the tin says "Captain America" i expect a certain amount of 'MERICA attitude. If a critic says that this movie is basically a 2 hour blowjob for the USA i'd take it as "this does exactly what it says on the label, go watch it if you like that!".

Romanticizing will rub me the wrong way if the product promises me a "true story". "Based on a true story" will have me expecting a true story that has been mangled and processed so much that it is hardly recognizable.
If a critic says that this story romanticizes this and that and (s)he didn't like it because of that then i would most likely agree.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

as non American i actually liked Captain America and, without launching into a full review, i don't think it actually was "sucking America's dick for 2 hours."

i have noticed many people have an aversion to watching it because that's what they think it is however...

Wait, do people really think that? I specifically recall the first hour or so of that film was people saying Captain America sucked and no-one liked him. It showed how ridiculous and demoralizing having a man dressed in stars and stripes in the middle of a world war was for frontline infantrymen. Then it had him save the day using nothing but his own sheer determination and cemented that it is not the stripes that make a man but the man that makes the stripes.

Then in Avengers, he's like "isn't it a little dumb to be Captain America" and Coulson is like "the suit stands for hope and we could all use a little hope right now"

YEAH THOSE PEOPLE ARE DUMMIES

 

[Something Amyss]

We must hang out on different Internets. Pretty much everything I saw lauded Captain America because it was a romanticized view of the past. It wasn't dark, it wasn't gritty, it was just fun.

Especially given the era. I mean, this is about a war where a genocidal fuck actually was attempting to wipe out an entire people. they downplayed that, and played up Hydra and their super-science and Red Skull and it was fine.

Then again, I also don't get the movie being called American fellatio comes from (other than it probably being a stark minority). Hell, Steve grows tired of the empty symbolism of his role, doesn't he?

I believe he is commenting on the backlash that romanticizing things tends to get these days.

I think thal's pointing out how inane and overly dramatic it is to go on about it as such. People railing against the cynics seem to make this out to be a level at which it's actually barred, even though the movies and books will still be made. It would be like people saying "are we allowed to make any action movies anymore?" Because people criticised the Star Wars prequels.

Wait, do people really think that?

I bet like, six people believe that. And it got blown out of proportion because people needed a strawman to attack. It then became portrayed as a big mainstream opinion.

Most of the criticism I see is of the nature of the film, it only existing to tie in to avengers, it being poorly done, or it being hokey. All fair criticisms (which I disagree with), and all of them are unrelated to the American Blowjob being alleged.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I don't see how people could think Captain America was "sucking America's dick for two hours". Maybe it would have been if they had him curb-stomping Nazis and punching out Hitler, all while delivering patriotic one-liners. It was mostly about Cap being too weak to fight and then reluctantly helping in the only lame and humiliating way he was allowed for the first hour. Then the second hour was him and his spec ops fighting HYDRA, who weren't even Nazis at that point.

It was a story about the little guy who just wanted to do his part.

 

[Casual Shinji]

We must hang out on different Internets. Pretty much everything I saw lauded Captain America because it was a romanticized view of the past. It wasn't dark, it wasn't gritty, it was just fun.

Especially given the era. I mean, this is about a war where a genocidal fuck actually was attempting to wipe out an entire people. they downplayed that, and played up Hydra and their super-science and Red Skull and it was fine.

Yeah, but didn't he actually fight, like, Nazis in the comic?

I think the reason they went with Hydra was because they felt uncomfortable romantizing the Nazis as villains a la Indiana Jones. And as you said, it's a war where the main bad guy was a genocidal fuck, yet the movie goes 'Oh but this guy right here was way worse. Really!' It felt like the Nazi B-team being played up as the real threat.