THE GREAT DIVIDE

Kauffman, Stanley (2005) The great divide THE NEW REPUBLIC, 2/7, 22-23.

Over the years, most movies are not shown in theaters in the great red part of the United States. Those heavily promoted on television and on the internet will make it to Bismarck, South Dakota and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Only very large cities will show independent films and related. If the script has too few well known stars and the script is not attractive to a red stater in one shape or form or another, then it doesn’t make the cut.

A good example is THE HUMAN STAIN. Roger Ebert gave it 3 ½ stars and ROLLLING STONE awarded 3 stars. A Phillip Roth novel made into a movie, it is about a New England professor who is bi-racial and passes for a white secularized Jew.

He makes an unintended racist remark in class and finds himself in trouble. He didn’t intend to make the remark and he himself is black in the eyes of whites. Thus, the story is filled with complexities.

As Kauffman notes that is not red state material. Further, it may not have done very well in blue states, but it has finally hit the DVD market. With stars like Nicole Kidman, Sir Anthony Perkins, and Ed Harris, you would think that it would warrant a screen in Des Moines.

The movie theater business is about making money. If you don’t make money, you go out of business. So, you hit gold if you have the big movie in half your screens in a large cinemaplex and there are crowds in every showing. THE HUMAN STAIN with over 100 reviews in major newspapers and magazines was not shown in Cedar Rapids. The last two cities are in purple Iowa where the west is conservative and the east is moderate to progressive.

The exceptions are university towns, but that does not always apply either. Kauffman introduces us to this less well know division in the movie business. You see the review, you miss the show, and you rent the DVD. If not, it will be on a movie cable station one day.
Or, it might be shown early in the morning. Welcome to the cinema!