Word: laughter
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Unfortunately, the positive pitches run the risk of being so bland as to go nearly unnoticed among all the teary dramatics and canned laughter of commercial television. Despite some lively visual effects, the Carter ads have been almost too successful in portraying the President as the quiet, calm, hard-working-and uninspiring -man that he is. Reagan is shown more often simply as what the TV experts term "a talking head"-just Ronnie in an easy chair, making his simple points in his smooth, soothing voice. The aim of the ads, says Reagan Aide Stuart Spencer, is to emphasize Reagan...
Walker's point was not that life will be any easier, nor will there be so much laughter, but that the presidential contest is developing into a choice between distinctly different men and policies. "The issues will be ventilated," he claims. "It will be a good debate." He was looking beyond the current fuss over the TV debates, of course, and talking about the sort of struggle that is fun in the world of power. While a lot of Americans gaze with a certain despondency on the candidates, they continue to watch, mesmerized by the political drama...
...sharing the pain and expectation. Suddenly the young mother shrieks, throws back her head; there is a ripping sound and her abdomen bursts; blood spatters everywhere, pouring from her mouth as she manages to die; and a little humanoid pops up and snarls into the camera. Blackout. Music. Wild laughter and shrieks in the Orson Welles Cinema. Thunderous applause...
...scenes in other movies where everything comes out all right. But joke or no joke, how can anyone dissociate him/herself from the all-too-real pain? How can anyone with the slightest parental urge--or human decency--laugh at a delivery that ends in bloody death? And, given that laughter is a complex entity and could signal distress as well as pleasure, why was the reaction to the movie overwhelmingly, ecstatically favorable...
...most part, human beings were destroyed. The audience appreciated this and enjoyed the turkey shoot, indulging its most aggressive fantasies without the accompanying guilt. This attitude, however, has spread to living characters, often innocent victims (though usually reduced to zombies by one-dimensional scripts), and the laughter is--well, immoral...