Hidden Messages in Movies?

By AnneMarie Murdock

The corporate mainstream media seldom stray into territory that might cause discomfort to those who hold political and economic power, including those who own the media or advertise in it. Michael Parenti, Monopoly Media Manipulation

My daughter and I spent an afternoon at the movies a few weeks ago watching “The Island”.  Exiting the theater we glanced at one another before beginning our usual review-the-movie conversation.   When I paused, she exclaimed: “Wow, what a ride!”  Indeed it was.

Images burned in my mind: blood and fluid exploding across the floor as men in white scrubs slashed with glinting steel at artificial yet unmistakable wombs which expelled their writhing adult sized fetuses. My ears echoed with screams of I want to live!” from a cloned black man being reeled across the hospital floor from two fish hooks fired into his back, while evil scientists waited to “harvest” his body of parts needed by his DNA donor. My body still vibrated from the final explosions as fiery judgment was passed down by the childlike clones.  

I looked at my daughter and replied: “Give me my Aquafina, I need some Puma shoes and a Reebok sweat suit so I can run far, far away from those horrifying images. That movie ought to be pretty effective at inspiring fear in people who do not understand the reality of stem cell research and its relationship to cloning and abortion. Of course the six pack of Bud they buy on the way home from the movie might stop their trembling, and if all else fails they can disappear into their X-Box when they get back to the refuge of their television.”  

Her reaction stopped my outburst. The smile slowly faded and was replaced by sadness tinged with anger. She burst into tears; her eyes accusing me of being a sad, cynical, bitter old woman. It was just a movie why couldn’t I sit there and enjoy it?

I felt a moment of grief over her disappointment and reconsidered my position. Unconscious escape into dreamy entertainment feels good. But the truth is: movies shape our cultural and individual consciousness. They influence our buying habits and help determine what new and recycled products will be the next trendy thing. As a responsible consumer of media (and a parent!) I need to be conscious of what I am agreeing to take in. The price of living in a society that values free speech is an inherent responsibility to be educated and awake.

The late Joseph Campbell recognized movie makers as modern myth tellers. Myths speak to our sub-conscious, bridging the gap between knowledge and experience of ideas that may be difficult to grasp or just plain scary. A well-told story, especially one that can be heard, seen, and felt, allows us the comfort of illusion’s veil while opening us up to new information about reality or our experience of it. 

We are experiencing an age of unprecedented leaps in scientific knowledge. The world is changing faster than we can create myths to ease our fear and merge knowledge with spiritual understanding. Perhaps this is one reason that movie producers can barely keep up with demand and why we are beginning to see movies with a wider variety of themes and a resurgence of independent and documentary films. Some, like the producers of documentaries such as What the Bleep Do We Know?! use story-telling to present information in a light-hearted, entertaining way that make ideas more accessible. 

Other producers utilize the power of sensual story-telling to covertly sell ideology and advertise products through “branded entertainment”.

Corporations are willing to pay hefty sums to place their products and logos in movies and other media, which the Association of National Advertisers says “integrate products into an appropriate context.” The ANA reports that sixty-three percent of marketers they surveyed had participated in this type of advertising in 2004. 

In the movie The Island, for example, director Michael Bay, who ironically enough started out making commercials with a group called Propaganda Films, recoups his costs on spectacular, dramatic scenes by selling logo space throughout the film to Aquafina, Puma, Xbox, Reebok and Budweiser. 

Unlike subliminal messages, which are flashed in milliseconds on screen and are 1) illegal and 2) not effective for advertising or relaying complicated messages; contextual messages effectively capitalize on the mind’s tendency to accept information presented in the comfort of a story format. In agreeing to ‘enjoy the movie’ you also agree to take in messages designed to be picked up by your sub-conscious that may encourage you, me, and other consumers to buy products and change our minds about how show up in the world. 

The current political party which now controls all branches of the federal government is sincerely interested in using propaganda to manipulate the masses, and to distract them from the damage they are wreaking on our culture, our world and our future. It is not hard to imagine that an administration capable of secretly hiring its own bogus White House ‘reporter’ to give itself favorable coverage, would find ways to encourage movie makers to produce media that supports their position.   

In December of 2002, only two months after the attacks on 9/11, The Washington Monthly reported that “White House advisor Karl Rove met with several dozen Hollywood chieftains to discuss how the entertainment industry might aid the war effort. In May of 2004, Sen. Lautenberg ( Dem. NJ) called for hearings on “a number of corporate conglomerates censor(ing) material recently based on political content."  Disney, one of only five media mega-conglomerates which largely control what we see, hear, and read, was pressured by conservative politicians not to release Michael Moore’s politically scathing film Fahrenheit 911. 

Most recently, in a bizarre flurry of press releases, conservative officials endorsed the apparent conservative messages that penguins had to share with us in March of the Penguins, while conveniently ignoring their ‘liberal’ tendencies, such as tolerance and inclusion of same sex couples. Silo and Roy, for example, two male, chinstrap penguins in a six year relationship at the Central Park Zoo, recently raised a chick together.

This summer, themes promoting war and nationalism, anti-abortion, traditional marriage, discouraging stem-cell research, and touting sexual abstinence appear in several of the big movies such as: War of the Worlds, The Island, The Wedding Crashers, and TheForty Year Old Virgin. These movies reflect conservative points of view on issues closest to the hearts of the fundamentalist Christian base that helped elect these officials.

Reinforcing nationalism and the idea that the ‘enemy’ is less than human, is this year’s War of the Worlds, which includes a scene of Cruise’s rebellious, misunderstood teenage son marching into an impossible battle despite his father’s attempts to prevent him. The son makes it back to his mother’s house without a scratch, even more quickly than Tom himself. The message? Join the military and enjoy patriotism, adventure, and immortality.

Meanwhile Murderball, a story about highly competitive wheel-chair bound basketball players, gives well-timed encouragement to the 14,500 (and increasing daily) men and women who will return from Iraq with serious disabilities. Message: You can still kick ass from a wheel chair.