Simon Pegg Gives a State of the Union Speech About Geek Culture
Simon Pegg has become a staple of geek culture with genre films such as Shaun of the Dead, Paul, and the Star Trek franchise, just to name a few. He has openly talked about his love of Star Wars, horror films, sci-fi, and comics. But he also has some interesting things to say about geek culture and the movies that are being made today.
During an interview with Radio Times, Pegg expressed his frustrations over these things, but later clarifies and goes into depth about his feelings on the matter on his personal website. Let's start out with a couple of statements that he made in the interview:
"Obviously I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science fiction and genre cinema. But part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we’ve been infantilized by our own taste. Now we’re essentially all consuming very childish things—comic books, superheroes... Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously.
"Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie and Clyde, and The French Connection—gritty, amoral art movies. Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed."
I understand what he's saying here, and it has been interesting to see how entertainment has evolved over the years. I love the films from the '70s, and I wish we would see more of those kinds of films today. The only problem is those kinds of film don't make money anymore, so studios aren't willing to take the risk.
Pegg even teased the idea at one point that he might "retire from geekdom," and said that he’s become the face of a movement, of a generation, of a subculture, and it sounds like something he doesn’t want. He also talks about doing things other than the genre films that have defined his career. This would allow him to do some "serious acting."
Now before you think that Pegg has turned on his fans, he gave a lengthy explanation of why he said what he said that makes a lot more sense. When everyone started turning what he said into a controversy, he had to explain himself. In the explanation, he made three main points:
I love Science Fiction and fantasy and do not think it’s all childish.
I do not think it is all generated by dominant forces as a direct means of control…much.
I am still a nerd and proud.
The whole piece is too lengthy to post here, so please head on over to his site to read it in its entirety. Here's a brief excerpt from it for you to read through:
"I guess what I meant was, the more spectacle becomes the driving creative priority, the less thoughtful or challenging the films can become. The spectacle of Mad Max is underpinned not only multiple layers of plot and character but also by an almost lost cinematic sense of ‘how did they do that?’ The best thing art can do is make you think, make you re-evaluate the opinions you thought were yours. It’s interesting to see how a cerebral film maker like Christopher Nolan, took on Batman and made it something more adult, more challenging, chasing Frank Miller’s peerless Dark Knight into a slightly less murky world of questionable morality and violence. But even these films are ultimately driven by market forces and somebody somewhere will want to soften the edges, so that toys and lunch boxes can be sold. In that respect, Bruce Wayne’s fascistic vigilantism was never really held to account, however interesting Nolan doubtless found that idea. Did he have an abiding love of Batman or was it a means of making his kind of movie on the mainstream stage?
"Fantasy in all its forms is probably the most potent of social metaphors and as such can be complex and poetic. No one could ever accuse Game of Thrones of being childish. George RR Martin clearly saw the swords and sorcery genre as a fertile means to express his musings on ambition, power and lust. Perhaps it milieu makes it more commercial though, would a straight up historical drama have lasted so long? Maybe Game of Thrones wouldn’t have been made at all ten years ago. A world without Game of Thrones?! if Baudrillard had predicted that, I probably would have dropped out of university and become a cobbler**.
"The point of all this is just to get my position clear. I’m not out of the fold, my passions and preoccupations remain. Sometimes it’s good to look at the state of the union and make sure we’re getting the best we can get. On one hand it’s a wonderful thing, having what used to be fringe concerns, suddenly ruling the mainstream but at the same time, these concerns have also been monetised and marketed and the things that made them precious to us, aren’t always the primary concern (right, Star Trek OST fans?)"
Pegg makes some great points, and it gives us and the rest of the entertainment industry something to think about. Pegg is one of my favorite actors. I love the films the guy makes, and he's always represented our culture with the upmost respect.