What Do You Think Of Hollywood's Mostly Negative Portrayal Of Rural And Small Town America ?

[IdahoMormon]

Originally Posted by bethany12

I recently saw a trailer for Did You Hear About the Morgans? and it made me sick. Same stereotypes mentioned on this thread. Hollywood is the same as Washington. Run by people who don't have a clue.

Saw that movie. Loved it.

They went both ways on that one. Portrayed the small town as quaint and cute, but played up a lot of the city stereotypes as well. NYC people couldn't sleep because it was too quiet. Had to download sirens and subway sounds to play at night. Complained that they couldn't jog because the air was too clean. The scene with the night sky was priceless. "What is it?" But that one is actually true. Some people from NYC have never seen stars. And MOST of them have never seen the sky the way it looks outside Cody, Wyoming.

There was the "everybody carries a gun" stereotype that was probably overdone, but was put to good use.

Of course anyone who has actually milked a cow more than twice would laugh at how Clay did it in the movie. It certainly doesn't sound like that in real life. I don't think they were after authenticity here. But people who have actually milked a cow are getting scarcer and scarcer.

[muman]

Originally Posted by marmac

sure a lot of liberals that believed most single males on farms are gay

( they based that on watching Brokeback Mountain)

Many conservatives believe the stereotype that no cowboys or rural types are gay. You know, they're all tough, real men with guns n stuff. Stereotypes go both ways.

[marmac]

Kinda hard to rope cattle if you have a limp wrist.

[MontanaGuy]

What Do You Think Of Hollywood's Mostly Negative Portrayal Of Rural And Small Town America ?

I didn't read this entire thread but I have some thoughts on the subject. I'm one of those people who came from a small town but I don't agree with the concept that Hollywood intentionally is targeting rural areas and small towns to ridicule them. In fact if you take a look at violent films you'll see that places like New York City, Los Angeles and other big cities are primarily where those stories take place. There have been countless movies about the Mafia, hitmen, serial killers, etc. where the action takes place in Brooklyn or some tough neighborhood in LA. The OP mentioned a number of films that took place in remote areas and many of them are horror movies. That only makes sense from the writer's perspective because some spooky place out in the middle of nowhere is the perfect place for some group of young people, tourists, or whatever to run into some local crazies. That storyline just wouldn't work if they were lost in some suburban location because it just wouldn't be scary.

[muman]

Originally Posted by marmac

Kinda hard to rope cattle if you have a limp wrist.

haha! You may be surprised at how many of 'em get it done!