In just 7 episodes, Hollywood has managed to rewrite the past. Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series has totally divided the critics: we love or hate her. For many, it stayed on the surface and under the illusion of rewriting an era marked by glamour, but also by inequality.
Hollywood brings us back to that time when cinema shone and was the ultimate form of entertainment, invites us to travel to Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, in this city where dreams seemed made of celluloid and where stars were compared to deities.
- However.
- Far from this divine appearance.
- There were much darker stories.
- The series begins by presenting us with a very cruel.
- Ephemeral and unjust world to finally imagine what Oscar would look like today if the past could have been rewritten.
- Dreams.
- We can all imagine.
When we say that Hollywood is a reinterpretation, we mean that, in a real scenario, she writes a new story, in this sense the concept of palimpsest is probably the most appropriate, a palimpsest is nothing more than a manuscript that has been deleted. to be rewritten, although it retains some traces of the original.
In fact, any story based on real facts has some palimpsest, because, although it has a real background, it gives rise to fiction or imagination. In the case of Hollywood, it is clear that it intends to rewrite time; a time when a beautiful face and a projected image mattered more than the quality of the performance, so we’ve identified some well-known characters, like Rock Hudson and Vivien Leigh, but a lot of what we see is pure fiction.
Ryan Murphy fans know full well that the screenwriter is an absolute fan of those golden years in Hollywood and, in particular, actress Bette Davis. Without going too far, in 2017 he portrayed one of the most notorious fights in the Feud series. : Bette and Joan.
Perhaps that’s why some viewers and critics expected to see strong reviews from the era and the film industry. In Feud: Bette and Joan, Murphy recreated himself in the environments and his actresses, but pointed directly to the main culprits of this. enmity and harshly criticized the industry.
However, Hollywood is not like that; History can be rewritten in various ways, there can be many traces of reality or even reinvent everything from the beginning.
In that sense, for many, will Hollywood remind you of the recent Once Upon a Time?Quentin Tarantino’s Hollywood, not because he addresses a common era or problem?Although the industry is very present in both – but to start from something real and tragic. and then give it a fairytale ending.
Hollywood is nothing more than a fairy tale, although it has reviews; but it is a subtle critique that lies more in rereading than direct criticism, that is, criticism lies precisely in this change of the past, in this poetic justice that would forever change our present. audiences and critics in general tend to agree to be unanimous in editing and staging.
What if things had been different, and if homosexuality had not been a problem, and if the stars could live their lives without consequences, and if racism did not exist?
Perhaps, for today’s viewer, cinema is not that unattainable goal and the lives of the stars are not the absolute idealization. In the age of immediacy, we all know that our idols are not perfect and are increasingly encouraged to talk about their imperfections (whether they are physical, mental, etc. ) But in the 1950s, cinema was probably the largest form of entertainment and a place to recognize models.
Therefore, the stars were very exposed and were forced to hide their sexual orientation, for example, it is true that beauty standards continue to allow a very narrow deviation as deviation, but we are witnessing constant changes that confuse the patterns imposed. .
Thus, Hollywood recreates itself in a past where everything was hidden, where equal opportunities was nothing more than a dream that could not even be seen on celluloid.
The interesting thing is that we approach a young man who, like many others, feels that he may have a chance at the dream factory. This young man is Jack, a veteran whose wife is pregnant with twins; but far from idealizing it, we see how economic problems contrast with their dreams of being a big star.
Among the harpies, representatives who consider themselves owners of their clients and their lives, and women who live in the shadow of their husbands, the protagonists of the series must fight for a project that departs from the standards set by the industry.
This project is nothing more than Peg, later Meg, a film written by an African-American who, like Hollywood, is a palimpsest based on the true story of Peg Entwistle, a young woman who saw her career frustrated and committed suicide. throwing himself into the H vacuum of the iconic Hollywood sign.
That is, a project that represents a claim to industry standards, showing exactly the darker side of Hollywood. To all this, we must add the fact that the series has a black actress, Camille, who until now had been forced to perform. maid roles just because of the color of her skin.
Something that particularly reflects the series and that takes us directly and indirectly to E or Vento Levou and as black actors and actresses were forced to play the role of servants and also to play their roles in a ridiculous and cartoonish way.
Hollywood turns out to be a fairy tale, but it does poetic justice. Punish the evil of an era and rewrite a story by rewarding justice and equality. We see a Hudson Rock who manages to live her life without hiding, a black actress who receives an Oscar for a starring role and a woman who runs prestigious studios.
In addition, he puts the racial issue on the table, taking it to the maximum, because he introduces us to Raymond, a young filmmaker of Asian descent who nevertheless has few Asian traits, so unlike other Asian characters, Raymond enjoys a certain privilege.
Likewise, if we stop to think about the issue of prostitution, many times we will find ourselves faced with the situation in which, for the male characters who practice it, the issue is treated in a more comical or friendly tone, while in the case of women, there is a great tendency to drama.
In this sense, it may be frivolous for us to approach the issue of male prostitution in a very friendly way, but we must not forget that it departs from the tragic and the comic to present the problem openly. newspapers and claims that many stars have been victims of prostitution for the sole purpose of reaching the top.
Despite being a fairy tale, it does not refuse to criticize, like the one mentioned above about prostitution or the representatives of the actors, in that sense it is worth pointing out to a Jim Parsons who walks away from sheldon Cooper that we all know to show us. a man who, in addition to having a historical past, in contemporary terms, will remind us a lot of Harvey Weinstein.
And all these initial criticisms end up reminding us that only our struggle can change the future and the present. If in Hollywood in the 1950s a group of people had set out to promote a project like Meg, perhaps our present would have been very different.
We may love or hate the series, but the truth is that Hollywood, in your fantasy, ends up reminding us that the fight is not over, that much remains to be done, and that the demand for equality must be present: it is the only way for all of us to have the same opportunities.