The Incredibles?

[Sean]

OK. I'm kind of slightly to the left of most people in the USA. As in, I think that garbagemen should probably be paid more than CEOs, because there are almost certainly more people who want to run a business than who want to clean up garbage, and if we all had a free choice probably most of us would not choose taking out the garbage, and the only justification for differential compensation that I can see is in order to give incentives to do undesirable but socially necessary work.

But let's not talk about that. I avoided The Incredibles because reviews suggested that it was one more cleverly disguised piece of right-wing capitalist propaganda. Now Vincent says it isn't! Help me out: will this movie offend my inflexible ideological preconceptions, or will the Commissars of Correctness in Thought sanction my viewing of it?

[Andy Kitkowski]

But let's not talk about that. I avoided The Incredibles because reviews suggested that it was one more cleverly disguised piece of right-wing capitalist propaganda.

Huh?  Didn't see any of that in there.  In fact, the main hero ends up working for a typical, opressive white-and-steel white collar faceless, heartless, and bordering-on-illegal working practices insurance company... and ends up breaking it from within by helping people through the faceless bureaucracy.

So I didn't see any right-wing or nationalistic "USA ROCKS!!!!!!!11!" or any messages like that.

In fact, it's the first US-made animed movie that I've seen in a long, long time that wasn't a total disappointment (the other was that space one with Matt Damon and Bill Pullman).

[Shreyas Sampat]

If you're going in there looking for something to be pissed about, I'm sure you will find it. That's what having politics is about; finding stuff to be pissed about.

It helps, when watching movies, to suppress one's radical political leanings and just enjoy the story!

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Sean, whoever wrote that was a dingbat.

Best,
Ron

[TonyLB]

Sean, I think you're going to need to connect the dots on what you expected of the movie, and why a bit more before I can tell you whether the Incredibles meets or defies your expectations.  I don't know which reviews you read, or what you took away from them.

[Keith Senkowski]

OK. I'm kind of slightly to the left of most people in the USA. As in, I think that garbagemen should probably be paid more than CEOs, because there are almost certainly more people who want to run a business than who want to clean up garbage, and if we all had a free choice probably most of us would not choose taking out the garbage, and the only justification for differential compensation that I can see is in order to give incentives to do undesirable but socially necessary work.

But let's not talk about that. I avoided The Incredibles because reviews suggested that it was one more cleverly disguised piece of right-wing capitalist propaganda. Now Vincent says it isn't! Help me out: will this movie offend my inflexible ideological preconceptions, or will the Commissars of Correctness in Thought sanction my viewing of it?

Garbage men by me make a good buck...

But what the fuck?  Incredibles being propaganda?  For who?  Superheroes?  People read all sorts of nonsense into all sorts of shit.  It was an enjoyable movie.  It was clever and funny, though a little slow to start...

[Matt Wilson]

I didn't notice anything like that. And I would.

[lumpley]

The trick to understanding The Incredibles is to understand that it's not about some families, it's about your family. Everyone in the audience, they're looking up at the screen seeing their own family there.

Here's a second-hand quote I gacked from somewhere:

"The movie salutes Superman," Dr. Brottman adds. "Not the 'superman' in comic books but the one [despots] believe in. Its idea seems to be that even in a democracy some people are 'more equal' than others, and the rest of us shouldn't be so presumptuous as to get in their way."

There is no "the rest of us." Every family is the Incredibles. That should be obvious to anyone with a family.

So yeah, in the flick there's the exceptional and the mediocre, and the exceptional triumph over the mediocre. That's fine; it's not saying that that's how the world is. It's saying that your family - thus everyone's family - can triumph over mediocrity.

If conservatives embrace that sentiment, great! That just shows that conservatives are people same as everybody.

-Vincent

[Vaxalon]

Da lump has it right.  Go see it!  It's a great movie, especially if you have kids to take it to.

[quozl]

The Incredibles is mindless fun.  It has great visuals with great action and humor but as for givining you something to think about, it has the message of a 30-second commerical.

[lumpley]

The Incredibles is mindless fun.  It has great visuals with great action and humor but as for givining you something to think about, it has the message of a 30-second commerical.

Wrong! Sorry but wrong. It's as smart a movie as I've seen in a long time. Do you have kids?

-Vincent

[lumpley]

Oh and Lord I hope you read that Jonathan as kind of light and bantery and open, the way I'd say it in person, not as it looks.

-Vincent

[Ben Lehman]

The Incredibles is a superhero movie.  Superheroes are, by definition, Nietzchean (or however you spell his name).  If you consider that right-wing, then yes, the movie has that.

Do you read any superhero comic, ever?  The Incredibles is *much less* propoganda than that.

Also, it is the awesome.

yrs--
--Ben

[Sean]

Nietzsche's actual political philosophy, boiled down to a catch phrase or two, is that aesthetics trumps everything else where principles of social organization are concerned. The 'overman' is not Superman or Hitler, but what humanity might make of itself now that God is dead and we have to choose our values for ourselves, without any sort of divine warrant.

That's not a recognizable form of leftism, but it's not really a right-wing view either. Though it can easily lead to fascist forms of social organization, in the name of whatever higher aesthetic principles one is aiming for.

Nietzsche's critique of the Nazis, had he lived to see them, would have been similar to his critique of the anti-semites of his own day: they were boring. Not evil, just boring and crude.

I don't share Nietsche's views as I understand them.

No doubt, since I am on the left, I must be dour and humorless, and must therefore have been entirely serious about avoiding all forms of entertainment that conflict with my politics.

All this comes off as snarky - don't mean to snark at you, Ben. Thanks for the information on the film, everyone. Here's a question: why would a reviewer even think the film was right-wing propaganda, since I was misled? Is it just the superheroes thing as a bare fact? Or are there other weird background bits, like the government driving superheroes out of business through regulation or something?

[lumpley]

Oh yeah, litigation does force the superheroes underground. Also the supervillain says that after he's had his fun he's going to give to everyone the technology he has for being super, so no one will be super anymore.

-Vincent