After watching Idiocracy, I did some research as to the production and marketing of the film. Since it was made by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and Office Space, I was surprised that it had not received stronger marketing. I had seen the film on the shelves of Blockbuster but that is about it. I don't remember seeing any commercials or ads for the film and I don't even think it played in a theater near me.
It turns out that the film did not, in fact, receive any sort of marketing campaign. It was released in a few theaters in a handful of cities and that is it. There were no posters or commercials for most of the general public. In fact, the movie only grossed about half a million dollars which is less than most independent films. This seemed odd considering a notable cast and writer/director. Perhaps the reason the film got swept under the rug is because the studios do not appreciate such strong satire.
I can certainly understand why the studios, namely 20th Century Fox, wouldn't enjoy a movie which completely bashes consumerism, advertisements and corporations. But I never thought they would purposely squash a film's potential in order to keep the message from getting out. Are film studios really that afraid of humor that they will accept a profit loss in order to manage it.
Mike Judge isn't completely innocent though. He does suggest that the only news channel which plays in the future is Fox News, one of the only conservative news sources. So in that sense, he is biting the hand that feeds him. But it just doesn't settle well with me that a studio would try to completely eradicate a work of satire like Idiocracy. The movie, which wasn't even screen for critics, received mostly positive reviews from the critics which did report on it. Therefore a studio would rather produce mindless junk than a pretty critically acclaimed film which shows them in a bad light. That's a sad state of affairs.
Nevertheless, Idiocracy is a valuable tool for studying satire at the high school and college level so hopefully teachers will continue to show the movie because it is enjoyable and also educational.
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Judge often receives a cult following for his work...its audience is usually young, relatively hip, and intelligent folk--much like "Doonesbury" and "Pearls before Swine." Perhaps the commercial film industry, which tends to pander to the "average Joe" felt that average folk would be insulted since this film targets them. After all, they've made a mint on films like, Dude, Where's my Car and Harold and Kumar, and won't risk alienating their fan base.
ReplyDeleteIdiocracy does for human learning and intelligence, particularly Americans' anti-intellectual movement (present since early America up to now)what Office Space did for the work place in the 21st century. It takes a premise to the complete extreme position--something that theories of humor all try to account for.