The Dot.Com Cinema - movie Web sites - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 2000 by Christopher Sharrett

ANYONE PERUSING MOVIE ADS would notice at the bottom, along with blurbs hawking paperback tie-ins and soundtrack albums, the picture's site on the World Wide Web, complete with a "keyword" to put you in touch with the monopolistic Internet "provider" to guide you. Dot.com Web pages are obligatory for every commodity from soda to jeans, and have a special role in selling the new film industry. The movie Web ads have a lot to say not only about the complexion of the current cinema, but also about the changing role of the Internet.

It seems fairly obvious that there isn't a great deal of talk these days about the Internet as "information superhighway" as the focus of cyberspace shifts very much to marketing. Movie Web pages tend to make the point. Most contain aptly named "Flash" graphics and hi-tech sound effects that grab the viewer in a style in keeping with the hysterical aesthetics of current movie editing and special effects. The sites feature all sorts of gimmicks that primarily draw the Web suffer to tie-in products and other commodities offered by the media corporation sponsoring the film. Sites also offer rather lackluster interviews with directors and actors that take forever to download and which appear in more complete form on the DVD or even VHS releases once the picture has completed its box office run. The interviews appear to be designed to give sites some degree of legitimacy, but that is quickly eroded by the sales pitch gimmickry. Some of these sites represent all too well the degraded nature of the commercial entertainment industry.

Take the website for "The Cell," the recent serial killer film that is one in a line of many "The Silence of the Lambs" knockoffs. The movie is directed by rock video and television commercial producer Tarsem Singh and, not surprisingly, is hyped for its high-fashion "look" that bowdlerizes many of the great modernist art movements from Expressionism to Dada to Surrealism, cheapening and regurgitating them with Vogue-style allure. "The Cell" also plays off what can only be termed "serial killer chic," making the sexual psychopath into a fascinating movie monster replacing Dracula and Frankenstein in postmodern popular cinema. The movie's website taps into all the above. As you open the site, you are greeted by ominous rumblings, an image of a screaming woman trapped behind glass, and a series of flashing, jumbled titles that are meant to be watched rather than read (a common feature of postmodern advertising typescript), as everything dissolves to the movie's main page and its bizarre images of bodies suspended from wires and distorted images of a tormented face.

From there, you have the choice of navigating through "Ego," "Superego," and "Id," each link taking you to a subdivision of the site. "Ego" is merely a marketing tool designed to sell the movie. "Superego" connects you to the filmmakers' interviews and production notes. The "Id" section links you to a group of files on serial killers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and other psychopathic criminals, none of whom has any relevance to this film, but who now enjoy folkloric status thanks to popular culture. These real-life serial murderers are able to give a certain emotional excitement to horrific media spectacles just by the mention of their names. Drifting through these sites, viewers get the impression that they are not supposed to study them so much as absorb them, thereby picking up the marketing vibe developed by the film's publicity people.

Some sites are downright obnoxious, such as the new Web page setting up the re-release of "The Exorcist," the 1973 horror film reissued with a souped up Dolby soundtrack and extra scenes that the filmmakers thought were too much for the sensibilities of the 1970s audience. The website opens up with the shrieks of Linda Blair, who had the misfortune to play one of the least sympathetic monster roles in the history of the genre. Her voice on the web soundscape screams out "Make it stop!" (my sentiment exactly), while her alter ego, the Devil (or rather the voice of actress Mercedes McCambridge), growls warnings as exorcist Max Von Sydow recites the Lord's Prayer. Fortunately for my sanity, the website toolbar contains a "Be Silent" button; without it I would have been tempted to crash my computer. As might be expected, the site clues us in to all the new gore and other sundry thrills in the upcoming "special edition," along with posters, the new soundtrack album, and souvenir books for sale. One might note that "The Exorcist" celebrated an anniversary not too long ago, replete with new video releases, souvenir books, celebratory magazine articles, ad nauseum, so is this trip really necessary?

To be sure, some of the movie websites are both fun and informative. The site for director Michael Mann's "The Insider," one of the few truly important pictures of 1999, contains interviews with its subject, Big Tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, as well as CBS producer Lowell Bergman. You can also get the Vanity Fair article that inspired the film, plus comments by the cast and Mann. Some of this material takes forever to download, and the DVD contains more extended commentary. Still, sites such as these don't insult one's intelligence and actually offer an insight or two on the picture's background, production, and cultural context.