Author | Cheerilee does not drive
A European and American film and television enthusiast who often forgets to check in and order takeout
In 2019, Quentin Tarantino made Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood . It is called a love letter to the movie, but romantic confession still can't hide the countless dark things behind the feasting Hollywood. It is said that Hollywood is the place where dreams are made. Quentin single-handedly built a Hollywood of his own. Now, it's Ryan Murphy's turn with Netflix's Hollywood ( 2020 ) .
LGBTQ in Hollywood
Suddenly remembered a few years ago saw a little event: LGBTQ occupation of Hollywood. It can't help but feel a bit grandstanding, but if placed in Hollywood a few decades ago, it may be a historical event that will cause a sensation. For a long time after World War II, homosexuality was not allowed in the legal sense. As the center of the entire American entertainment industry, Hollywood has implemented an absolute sexual orientation cultural cleansing. All homosexuality-related scripts and characters were removed from Hollywood, and homosexuality was considered immoral. During that time, gay identity became a major obstacle to working and living in the City of Angels. Even popular entertainers (like Rock Hudson on the show) or powerful industry leaders have to hide their sexuality.
Although Earl, the gas station owner in the show, is not a real person in history, the pimped Golden Tip Gasoline does exist. The role of Earl can be found in Scotty Bowers, a famous pimp in the golden age of Hollywood. Scott at that time offered the severely repressed LGBTQ community an opportunity to unleash itself. His client list is almost a Hollywood Who's Who, including Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn...even the boss of the FBI his regulars. Scott is best known for helping his best friend George Cukor throw pool parties.
If you're interested in this history (or if you're interested in the "notorious" pimp), check out his autobiography, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars . If you don't have time to read, the 2018 Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary "Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood" also features Scott as the protagonist, revealing the inside story of this history.
dream land
As far as the "Hollywood" story itself is concerned, the entire play is so beautiful that it gives the illusion of being illusory. Black actresses who want to enter the circle desperately, Asian "movies" who have been formatted, black gay screenwriters... These series of protagonists are extremely politically correct. Their entire lives belong to Hollywood. From love to sex, and even death, they are nothing more than pawns in the plethora of Hollywood consumer goods. Remember the question "Do you wanna go to dreamland" at the gas station? This secret phrase is not just an invitation to the people in the play, it is a direct invitation to the audience: Are you willing to step into the dreamland created by "Hollywood"?
This seemingly serious gas station is actually a transit station where "car owners" can take off their disguise behind the scenes. In this "Dreamland," the glossy Hollywood celebrities don't need to maintain their hard-hitting, traditional women, and happy American family images they've worked so hard to achieve on the big screen. The only "fly in the ointment" is that this "Dreamland" can only exist in the shadowy corner behind the shining halo of Hollywood. At the end of the whole play, they, who were successfully accepted by the mainstream of Hollywood, returned to this gas station hidden in the dark corner of Hollywood and made a movie for their "Dreamland" .
"Hollywood"
To sum it up in just one sentence, "Hollywood" is the story of how an outsider turned into an insider.
When you see that this group of people made "Meg" and won the Oscars, won the best director, the best picture, the first black best actress, the first black best screenwriter, the first black When the film is the best female supporting actress of Asian descent, and the film is still a female director, you suddenly feel that Oscar in this parallel world is like a house game. These wanderers, who have been excluded from Hollywood for many years, have so easily won the right to speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, Archie Coleman and Rock Hudson even dared to come out publicly at the Oscars, bringing Hollywood's affirmative action process forward by decades.
The film tells us, in a righteously happy ending, that as long as you are brave enough and have a passion for movies, you can be Hollywood's Chosen Son. If this kind of smug idealism insists on reshaping history, it is really an insult to these four words.
Therefore, "Hollywood" describes for us a history that is completely opposite to reality and cannot be achieved even now. This ideal country-style narrative is full of fairy-tale tenderness, but when you savour this fairy tale, there is still the Hollywood power rules that have been followed for decades - sexual resources can be directly exchanged for opportunities as currency; Individuals with talent but lack of capital can still only struggle; female leaders in male-dominated industries can only "see the wind" to express their stance in support of women... All of the above make what should have been a cynical critical plot It became a happy fat house water that ran away. It exploits people's fantasies, but does not give a basic self-consistent behavioral logic.
In fact, "Dreamland" at the end of the whole play is not "Hollywood"'s satire of Hollywood. This carnival, which has been indulged in its own fantasy from beginning to end, can only end in the beautiful reverie of Hollywood insiders.
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