After we watched the clip of Reverend Billy in class, I decided that seeing his movie "What Would Jesus Buy?" might be interesting. So I... did that. Going into it, I was expecting a highly religious spin but was pleasantly surprised not to be overwhelmed with religiousity and fundamentalist viewpoints being shoved down my throat. Instead, this film focused heavily on the intense debt that the US has gotten itself into. It punctuated all of the information it presented with 'on-the-street' style interviews of Americans saying things like "I know I'm going broke, but I can't help it! It's Christmas (giggles)" or "If all my friends have it, it's not like I'm not going to buy it" or "Christmas is about getting presents." It was scary to see how people's mentality about spending money was so skewed by the fact they were celebrating a holiday and the movie noted that bankruptcy spiked after the holiday season. In this country, it seems that we want to celebrate and party and forget about the consequences - which is where credit cards come in. The movie talked about the huge credit card debt in the nation that is only getting deeper and deeper. Additionally, now that we're in the holiday season, stores are offering their own personal credit cards that can give you an extra percent off if you open an account. Basically, in the interest of "saving money," people are immersing themselves deeper into a culture that emphasized spending now and paying later. Terrifying.
This film certainly got its point across but had a decided lack of counter-points. It's hard to justify the debt we get into at Christmas, to be sure, but the film came across as somewhat lopsided in its presentation of information. Nevertheless, it was interesting and eye-opening and certainly worth seeing.
Comments (1)
I really like Reverend Billy's work insofar as it subverts mainstream media messages that encourage Americans to engage in wanton consumerism during the holiday season. Although Reverend Billy's message, by using creative turn of phrase to subvert corporate messaging, is essentially culture jamming, I think that his work takes the idea to a new level. In this way, instead of changing billboards or even disseminating false messages like the yes men, the Rev. directly targets retailers by going into stores and singing songs that challenge conventional consumerist wisdom. The idea of seeing someone face to face in a store is very different and far more persuasive than a more subtle turn of phrase, as it is far more noticeable. Well maybe not, I mean it takes a while for most people to catch onto the message but the singing really draws people in and helps to decontextualize and disrupt the highly engineered atmospherics that Rushkoff talks about in Coercion.
Posted by Maxwell Tracy | December 11, 2007 1:46 AM
Posted on December 11, 2007 01:46