WOKE: “alert to injustice in society, especially racism”.
I try not to use the word “woke” in any of my writing because it really limits the conversation and debate one might have with any of the social injustice stuff currently going on in the cultural zeitgeist. It’s better to elaborate and discern rather than just say this is “woke” or that is “woke.”
With that being said, Walter Hill has just used the word in describing the current trend in American movies.
The filmmaker is making the press rounds to support his latest film, “Dead For a Dollar,” but it’s an interview with Moviemaker Magazine that I’m bringing up here, particularly his thoughts on “woke” in American movies.
“But look, you’re giving me a chance to say this: this woke environment, politically correct environment, is a terrible thing. And it hurts. It is death to the arts and it’s death to creativity. There’s no question that there were injustices in the past. Nobody is arguing that point. But how you redress it is how you treat the future.”
Hill is an underrated filmmaker, having started around the same time as Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg in the ‘70s. Nevertheless he’s managed to direct quite a few strong films over the years: The Long Riders, 48 hrs, Southern Comfort, Streets of Fire, Hard Times, The Warriors and The Driver.
Hill is back this month with “Dead for a Dollar,” a solid B-movie western starring Christoph Waltz, Rachel Brosnahan and Willem Dafoe.
Now the question is whether Spidey can become the first movie to cross $1 billion domestically. With its legs having slowed down, and $63M in receipts still needed, I highly doubt it.