Where have all the social message movies gone? As I plumb
through the films of 25 years ago I continually come up against movies that
speak to the socio-historical context of the time. Many of these movies have an
agenda. Maybe it’s a lack of hindsight, but I don’t see the same type of issues
movies coming from the studios nowadays. More than likely the answer is to be
found in the fact that the message movies have always been few and far between,
but they are more likely to stand the test of time and be remembered years
later.
Jonathan Kaplan’s Project
X deals with the issue of animal welfare in the context of the military
industrial complex at the tail end of the Cold War. It’s a real do-gooder of a
movie that wants to portray the government and especially the military as cold
and unsparing as you move further up the chain of command. The top officers and
bureaucrats are viewed as calculating and rather inhuman while the enlisted
men, serving as surrogates for the average viewer, are compassionate while they
follow orders.
