June
30Down Town
I wasn’t in Saigon before its fall or in Berlin before the Nazi clampdown, but I wonder if those cities were gripped by a similar sense of helplessness that afflicts Hollywood this week.As the SAG negotiations wind down, jobs are fast disappearing and the Hollywood economy grinds to a halt. SAG’s officialdom suggests that talks will continue after Thursday’s deadline, but a de facto strike has already begun and neither side shows any signs of backing off.
With millions of folks already losing their homes nationwide, and with the impact of the writers strike still being felt in Hollywood, the impasse seems all the more ominous. And no one has an answer.
Meanwhile SAG’s leaders, having painted themselves into a corner, are waiting for the tallies of the AFTRA vote. The widespread expectation is that AFTRA members will ratify the contract that their leaders negotiated, but if the margin is narrow, SAG’s position may stiffen. An overwhelming vote favoring the contract, on the other hand, would clearly shake SAG’s confidence.
So what if SAG decides to take a hard line? The impact on the town, psychologically and economically, would be devastating. Any strike would be a long one. TV shows would shut down and film production, except for a few independent “waiver movies”, would also be halted.
As one former CEO put it, “that option is unthinkable.” Maybe unthinkable -- but maybe inevitable.
This week, the lemmings are running out of running space. And it’s a long way down.
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Peter Bart's essay is pretty brief, Bismarck, yet people have mistakenly focused on the lead and ignored the points he makes after it. Peter Bart is a brilliant writer, but I guess you can criticize the quality of his writing all you want. Yet that's not what people did. They have politicized it to the extent of misinterpreting it, and that's what I'm finding so absurd. I guess it's possible that you did understand Peter Bart's comparison, but I'm not so sure. In response to your post, I have this to say: No, I doubt that Bart wonders all that seriously "if those cities were gripped by a similar sense of helplessness." He was merely trying to say (obviously) that the strike will be very, very bad. If he had compared the strike to the Titanic, the Hindenburg, the Black Plague, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1852, the Tri-State tornado of 1925, the influenza epidemic of 1918, an erupting volcano, the smallpox epidemic of 1649 or Godzilla destroying Tokyo his point would have been exactly the same. The strike is real scary. Not precisely as scary as those things one could compare it to, but it's scary enough to justify a dramatic comparison. And that's all he meant. That's it. No, Peter Bart is not an idiot. Yes, it was a comparison. No, again I don't think he meant it all that seriously. And I surely doubt that he will take the critics who have posted here very seriously either.
Posted by: Careful reader | 7/7/2008 10:17:10 PM
Careful Reader, if Bart *seriously* "wonder[s] if those cities were gripped by a similar sense of helplessness that afflicts Hollywood" then he truly is an idiot. And I'm being generous about that. We understand that he wasn't *directly* comparing the potential SAG strike to Hitler's Anschluss, but it was a comparison nonetheless. I expect this type of writing from a seventh-grade essay, not from Hollywood's hometown paper.
Posted by: bismarck | 7/7/2008 10:50:01 AM
Peter Bart''s point couldn''t be any more clear. "I wonder if those cities were gripped by a similar sense of helplessness . . ." He said "similar", he''s obviously not saying these occurrences are exactly the same. But he actually had the nerve to assume no would be stupid enough to think he was somehow comparing the historical significance of these events. His overall analysis is pretty astute. Yet he made the mistake of respecting his readers enough to believe they would understand it.
Of course, it would have been offensive if it actually had said anywhere that the SAG negotiations are as serious as the other events the lead compares them to. Peter Bart is a writer. He''s making a point. And he has every right to do it the way he has done here. He in no way disrespected the fall of Saigon or World War II. But misreading his essay the way people here have done is just as wrong.
Posted by: Careful reader | 7/4/2008 12:09:43 AM
I'm looking forward to Peter's piece on Hollywood's elite checking the gums and buttocks of prospective assistants up on the auction block, then breeding up the ones with large breasts from the Midwest.
Posted by: Kunta Kinte | 7/2/2008 12:15:03 PM
This is the best part of Peter Bart getting a blog -- we get to read his completely out-of-touch rants without benefit of any editorial supervision whatsoever. Sure, he's editor-in-chief and could always write pretty much what he wants, but this provides such a direct, immediate window into his addled brain. Really, I couldn't ask for more. This will be a daily stop for me from now on.
Posted by: Eric | 7/2/2008 10:29:18 AM
We get it, Strepsi. It was just a truly pathetic comparison on Bart's part.
Posted by: bismarck | 7/1/2008 5:15:13 PM
*Moderator Deleted Comment*
I though that the comments couldn't get more away from the topic, but I was just proven wrong.
It's the "feeling of helplessness" that the blog is trying to convey.
Posted by: Strepsi | 7/1/2008 4:55:43 PM
Remember, "Burt" has been in the film industry for a long time. I, too, have been in the film industry a long time, please allow me to translate: When he mentions the fall of Saigon, he means the last fifteen minutes of Cimino's "DEER HUNTER." And when he mentions Berlin before the Nazis cracked down, he means the second half of Fosse's "CABARET."
See? No actual history, no offense intended. Return to your daily lives.
Posted by: Thomas | 7/1/2008 2:36:34 PM
Burt, you're a moron. When Scarlett Johansson's memoirs are published in 15 years, you'll see that not being able to star in Woody Allen's latest se#ual frustration piece is exactly on par with starving, hiding in an attic, and being stripped, raped, and gassed to death with your family and friends. Get a freakin' clue, man. People just don't realize how much actors suffer when they can't work their 2 - 4 months out of the year.
Posted by: Raymond | 7/1/2008 10:27:33 AM
Let me tell you a little something about this here Internet thing...you see, when you type words into the electronic box, it allows people across the world to read what you wrote. For instance, you just compared the tribulations of an artless, money-grubbing, hack industry to two of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. You're a buffoon, and now everybody knows it.
Posted by: Burt | 7/1/2008 9:59:44 AM
If the option of a prolonged strike is "nthinkable", maybe AMPTP could "think" about giving some ground.
They seem to be a long way from starving.
Posted by: LPB | 7/1/2008 7:21:41 AM
Actually, missing one season of "One Tree Hill" is worse than the Holocaust, so in all seriousness, Martin Periberger, I want an apology from you please.
Posted by: nick | 7/1/2008 1:24:08 AM
The analogies to Berlin and Saigon are misplaced and call for an apology to those affected by the events starting WW II or the fall of Saigon.
Posted by: Martin Perlberger | 6/30/2008 10:30:43 PM