Are Independent Films on the Uprise?

The movie industry is like any other business: they follow the money. Because of this, the American people have been pummeled with high budget movie and high budget movie, which astound our senses as well as anything might be expected to. The problem with these movies is most often the weak storyline, which is mostly due to a huge lack of depth. Movies about aliens and explosions are great, but what do we really feel like we learned as we walk out of those theaters? The answer, it would seem is not much and apparently this has bothered enough people for the academy awards to choose a low budget independent film for Movie of the Year.

The Hurt Locker is a low budget film about the war in Iraq written by Mark Baol, a freelance journalist who had spent time in Iraq. This film brings to the table everything that those fantastical 3-D spectaculars seem to leave out: reality. It would seem that reality is something that interests people on a much deeper level than aliens, which is something to be happy about. The Hurt Locker is just the most recent example of a huge genre of films that tend to be less popular to the masses, but are certainly worth noting. These films are generally called Independent because big producers will not fund them and they have to find other means to create their vision. As I said at the beginning of this article, there is an obvious reason that big producers cannot afford to budget these small, often unpopular movies: they don't make money.

Some people would take this as a sort of insult against the movie making industry, but on the contrary it is only logical to choose movies that make money and not to choose ones that don't. The industry is only making a wise decision by not choosing a movie such as The Hurt Locker when films like Avatar can make literally billions of dollars. And we wouldn't be thinking about these things at all if Avatar had won the awards, as expected. But instead, the underdog came out ahead because the people who did see it, saw something important in the film.

Though it is highly unlikely, it will be interesting to see if this decision will make any change in future movies. Will screenwriters take up a decisively more Independent feel? It has been shown that movies such as Juno and Superbad can reach large audiences despite their very independent feel. As each new generation of movie goers comes of age, it will be interesting to see if there is a shift of movie demand. Like any market, the movie market responds to demand--just as Organic Milk has appeared because of shopper demand, perhaps "organic movies" will too. There is something worthwhile in the metaphor; are movies today too fake? Maybe viewers are more interested in learning from the film that they are watching rather than becoming free of reality through it. It depends a great deal of one's individual perception of the role that films play.

Only time will tell if the choice of The Hurt Locker will have any real effect. For now, it is just satisfying to know that there is a certain standard that some movie critics still stand by. It is good to think that a great movie, no matter the level of special effects or budget, can still shine through. Some people may say that the movie industry has all but stopped the creative aspect of films, but innovative directors and writers still live and work on, confident that their works will be appreciated by some, if only a small percentage of viewers.