Shoot the messenger: Hollywood calls Western Union again - message movies

Reason, May, 2002 by Tim Cavanaugh

Hollywood dilettantes are a particularly ill-chosen group of spokespeople for uninsured families, oppressed minorities, and other huddled masses; the reliance on statistics and abstracts, rather than drama, to deliver messages maybe an indication of just how far, in shared-experience terms, Tinseltown is from the people for whom it speaks. As a result, the message movie is not only back but simpler and more didactic than ever. The only question is whether audiences will be slow enough to follow along.

Tim Cavanaugh (tim@simpleton.com) writes for Agence France-Presse, Salon, and The Washington Post.