Beautiful Art from a Box Office Bomb

With my family in downtown Salt Lake City
during our 16-day trip to the Beehive State.

My family and I recently spent 16 days vacationing in Utah, the state where I was born and mostly raised. The primary purpose of our trip was to visit family and friends—nearly 100 of them—some of whom we had not seen for three years (or more) because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the course of our trip we traversed a significant chunk of the Beehive State (over 2,000 miles in our rental car)—from my hometown of Monticello in the southeast to the original State Capitol of Fillmore in the center of the state, and then on up to Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber Counties in the north.  

Because of the distance and gas prices involved, we decided to fly instead of drive to Salt Lake from South Florida. This gave us all an opportunity to do something extra fun: watch movies on the airplane!

On our flights to Utah, I enjoyed watching a couple of classic movies (Funny Face and Roman Holiday) starring my 1950s-60s Hollywood crush, Audrey Hepburn. As expected, she was elegant and lovely in both films. Her romantic interests in these movies included dancing legend Fred Astaire (Funny Face) and the ever-dapper and handsome Gregory Peck (Roman Holiday). My mother raised me on the old musicals and movie classics from her own youth in the 1950s and 60s. For this and other reasons, I enjoy—to this day—watching cinema that was produced before I was born.  

On our trip home, I watched a modern cinematic take on a late nineteenth century classic stage play: Cyrano de Bergerac: an 1897 theatrical script written by the French playwright, Edmond Rostand (1868-1918). The 2021 movie, entitled just "Cyrano," featured Hollywood A-lister Peter Dinklage starring in the titular role.

What a marvelous work of art! 

This particular cinematic production was also something of a family affair, as it featured Director Joe Wright's wife (Haley Bennett) playing the lead female role of Roxanne, Dinklage's wife (Erica Schmidt) creatively doctoring Rostand's original play script to author the original screenplay, and identical twin brothers—Aaron and Bryce Dessner—composing the original music for what turned out to be a clever quasi-musical.

I am not an overtly emotional person, and I rarely cry. Despite this fact, I openly confess squeezing a crocodile tear or two out of both my eyes during the closing scene of this tender and raw feast of emotions. All-in-all, I found the storyline gripping; the music moving; and the pathos powerful.

In short—I highly recommend you see it!  

What surprised me, however, was when I learned its earnings at the box-office. After watching the show, I looked up this bit of information—convinced it must have been rather successful. To my surprise, it was a BOX OFFICE BOMB! Working on a production budget of $30 million US dollars, it only managed to haul in about $6.5 million from show-goers.

How could this be?  

Cultural Literacy involves a broad, general knowledge
and understanding of the key components of both the
past and present of one's culture. 

I think a major reason for this is a growing lack of "Cultural Literacy" among rising generations. Too many young people today know a lot about modern gizmos, tech gadgets, fashion, and social media, but very little about history, literature, philosophy, and art.

Truth be told, one of the biggest problems with Cyrano's lack of success at the box office is the simple fact that not enough people recognize at a glance what "CYRANO" actually means. Anyone who does comprehend the meaning and depth behind this one word in Western Culture would likely have taken at least a marginal interest in a new cinematic take on an old theatrical and film classic.

Click HERE to buy THIS BOOK.

At Freedom Focused, we place a premium on the value of "Cultural Literacy." In fact, it is so important to us that one of the opening chapters (chapter 4) of the SAL Textbook, Volume I, is dedicated to cultural literacy and its importance to our Agents as well as all truly educated people. In the SAL Textbook, Volume I, we define Cultural Literacy as follows: 

"Being educated, literate, and conversant in key knowledge points spanning a variety of relevant topics within a given culture (e.g., language, literature, history, philosophy, theology, and religion, math, science, figurative language, entertainment, popular culture, etc.)" (p. 40). 

Cultural Literacy is a term made famous by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil.  Click HERE to buy their landmark book on the subject, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

As I reflected further on this box office dilemma, it dawned on me that this was not the first masterpiece I had seen just this year that had flopped with popular audiences.  

Another recent movie that impressed me as much (if not more so) than Cyrano was Steven Spielberg's 2021 recreation of the classic musical, West Side Story. Operating on a much bigger budget ($100 million) Spielberg's newest take on the 1957 Broadway hit was absolutely masterful in just about every way possible. In short, it was theatrical art at its very best. 

Yet, like Cyrano, it also failed to recoup its operating budget, clearing only 76 million at the box office. 

In both cases, I felt sad that so many people failed to see these marvelously moving films, and chalked it up to our culture's increasing tendency to overlook experiences and other things of great value for the simple reason that they are not easy or popular.

One of the long-term goals I have for Freedom Focused is to influence a greater embrace of the kind of quality art and pedagogy on display in these two magnificent films. Whether it comes in the form of cinema, dance, education, literature, music, painting, sculpture, theater, or something else entirely, we at FREEDOM FOCUSED greatly value anything that is, to quote the Good Book: virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy. In other words, we enthusiastically value, actively advocate for, and proactively support anything that enriches the mind, gladdens the heart, and uplifts the spirit.  

Whatever their imperfections, Cyrano and West Side Story are worth watching—not only for the immense quality of the art displayed therein, but even more importantly, for the LIFE LESSONS they teach and allow audience members to reflect upon.  

So...

     What are you waiting for?  

Whose prepared to watch a Double Feature TONIGHT?

   

—Dr. JJ

July 13, 2022

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 274th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 103rd consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.  

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 273 FF Blog Articles.  

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