Diary: Americans just want passive, thought-free entertainment

Yesterday I was in my local video rental store, browsing the newer releases. I decided to rent Letters From Iwo Jima. I appreciate movies that explore the human aspects of war in a thought-provoking manner, and this one was reputed to do that. After watching it, I think it lived up to that reputation, and it lived up to all the awards it has received. But it also taught me something else. As I was checking out at the video store, a conversation with the store clerk confirmed what I already knew: Most Americans don't like movies that make you think. In fact, apparently most Americans don't even want to bother reading subtitles. As he was ringing up my movie rental order, the video store clerk advised me that the movie was in Japanese with English subtitles. I assured him that it wasn't a problem, and I went on to say that many of my favorite movies are in foreign languages with subtitles. The clerk said that I'm "a few steps ahead" of most of his customers. He told me he had learned the hard way that it's always good to warn the customer when a movie has subtitles. A large percentage of people apparently change their minds when they hear that. And, when they aren't warned in advance, they return the movie in anger and complain about the subtitles. Then, thinking of the various foreign-language films I've known and loved, a thought occurred to me: A person who would be annoyed by subtitles is probably a person who wouldn't really appreciate the messages that these films set out to portray. Most Americans want to just sit back and be entertained. They don't want to sit up and be invited to think. And I believe that this attitude could at least partly explain why this country is in such a mess. -----