In this week's readings, King (2005) looks at the similarities and differences between real life spectacles and Hollywood and expresses his concern that real events have been altered by the media to be more fictionlike and cinematic. "Elements of similarity between the real and fictional spectacles seemed to have caused a great discomfort for reasons that are not hard to understand. The Hollywood versions offer enjoyable fantasies of destruction - enjoyable precisely because they can be safely induldged in the arena of fantasy"(p49)
I can agree that sometimes real life events such as the example given (September 11th) can be similar in the way they are projected in fictional movies. However, I think most people are capable of distinguishing real life events from a Hollywood movie. Many movies are inspired by, and try to replicate reallife events so if done well, obviously they are going to share some similarites. Hollywood is not to blame if people feel uncomfortable because cinema is too similar to the real events, they should probably be praised in that they were able to create a text that is so realistic.
References:
King, G., 2005, ‘”Just Like a Movie”?: 9/11 and Hollywood Spectacle’ in The Spectacle of the Real: from Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond, ed. Geoff King, Intellect Books, Bristol, pp. 47-57.
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