How can they see with sequins in their eyes?

"During the past decades, the culture industries have multiplied media spectacles in novel spaces and sites, and spectacle itself is becoming one of the organizing principles of the economy, polity, society, and everyday life." -- Douglas Kellner, Media Culture and the Triumph of the Spectacle

   The media spectacle has become something of a ruetine in mainstream culture and as the hit broadway musical number proclaims, "Give 'em the old razzle dazzle/Razzle Dazzle 'em/Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it/And the reaction will be passionate/Give 'em the old hocus pocus/Bead and feather 'em/How can they see with sequins in their eyes?/What if your hinges all are rusting?/What if, in fact, you're just disgusting?/Razzle dazzle 'em/And they'll never catch wise!" Pumping something up to be much more garishly glamorous and epic than it actually is, often ends up fooling the audience into believing the hype and buying into all the publicity. The idea of the media spectacle is much the same, particularly in film. Somewhere along the line Hollywood discovered the merits of "razzle dazzle" in making a huge success out of something otherwise very simplistic and none-too exciting. Movies like Moulin Rouge a basic story about a tragically ending romance, Chicago a straightforward narrative about a pair of Chicagoan murderesses, the film adaption of The Great Gatsby where Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanon spend a little too much time frolicking and tossing colorful cloths in the air, Titanic in which the audience already knew the boat was destined to sink and yet shelled out money to hear writing like "You know me Rose, your know me!" and 300 where glossy pecks and slow-mode battle cries were among the more complicated plot elements. 

   While the allure of the media spectacle certainly finds its success in manipulating the draw of "extravagance" for the hum-drum lives of the hoi palloi, and works the influence of the most dominant of their six senses: sight, by cramming as much visual flourish in as possible, it does all of this not without damage. When the media turns to spectacle, newspapers use flashy headlines and newscasters clutching microphones with wide eyes and using copious adjectives to hype up the scene behind them, books like The DaVinci Code employ publicity programs and teasers to increase the prestige of a poorly written "tome," and Lady Gaga dons seran wrap and juggling rings while wearing an abicus like a wristwatch to sing a song wisely advising "just dance" and the country sits mesmerized. Yet, the spectacles as they multiply have an influence, when we think of love we can't help but strive for a Pretty in Pink romance, or at least settle for a When Harry Met Sally best friend turned lover (on that note, who wouldn't like to have an orgasm like Meg Ryan's diner table interpretation? "I'll have what she's having"). When we think of high school we imagine The Breakfast Club, when we anticipate the first day of college we remember the pilot episode of "Felicity," when it comes to our career of choice we have a movie for each. Perhaps if you are finishing up law school you are thinking about A Few Good Men, or The Firm. If you are going into journalism you have seen All the President's Men, The Paper, Nothing But the Truth, and Shattered Glass more times than you can shake a stick at. If you are a career-driven woman you are familiar with Baby Boom or Working Girl. What's sex like? We look to explanations in Sex and the City. What about giving birth? Knocked Up, Nine Months, and all those episodes in which Phoebe on "Friends" carried her brother's twins. Why is America so dissatisfied with our presidents once they get into office? Perhaps it is because our expectations of them are those impressed upon us by TV series "The West Wing" or film The American President. If only Martin Sheen or Michael Douglas could run our country... if only. These are simply media interpretations for everything and because of the spectacle of the media, that which the media produces to embellish upon what life is really like gets recycled back into society as the norm. A very misguided, unrealistic, disappointing, norm.

   Recently I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Here is a movie that would not have needed the help of the media spectacle at all. Alice in Wonderland bosts big-name actors like Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, a classically loved story by children and adults of all ages, a director who has developed quite a cult following no longer limited to the goth community, and a premier time when no other film would be as much competition, Avatar having been in theaters for weeks already. Yet, picked up by Disney, the spectacle began with Hot Topic, Kohls, and The Disney Store selling Alice movie merchandise hand over fist, film trailers and ads posted on every major (and minor) website including IMDB and Facebook, premier fliers posted on campuses, movie posters and teasers everywhere, and a multitude of cast interviews and promotional events popping up on YouTube. It seemed everywhere I went I was haunted by the mischievous cheshire cat grin. In this case, the problem was not so much the distortion of reality as a means to the spectacle's ends (that is the purpose behind Alice's adventures already) the problem was in the over-hype of a film that I feel may have faired better had a little more mystery been left to it. I had a hard time enjoying the film when I had heard every good line uttered by the characters already used in one of the many released teaser trailers, the added 3-D did nothing but distract from the already lush and vibrant mise-en-scene, and the actual uniqueness of the film was lost in its publicity. Unlike the U.K. released trailer, the U.S. trailer neglected to mention that this film was a continuation of the Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass stories and would take place after Alice had grown up, as one last return to Wonderland before entering adulthood. Instead, the U.S. media spectacle averted the attention of potential audience members away from this and focused on drawing out their Johnny Depp loyalties rather than focusing on this unique twist and extension to an otherwise young-child's tale turned coming-of-age. Here I feel the spectacle did great damages to what could have been a film of greater success by exploiting the film to death for the audience so that all was left was the contrast of Anne Hathaway's eyebrows to hair color to shock and amaze viewers in submission.