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One should never preach in fiction. It is the weakest form of story telling.
It stops the momentum and dramatic tension of the plot and characters. It turns active readers/viewers into passive listeners of whatever ideology is being taught.
Watch Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ and you’ll know what I mean. Not only is it poorly realized and directed, but it makes sure to stop from time to time to preach, especially in the last episode where one of the main characters lectures world leaders for a good five straight minutes of screen time.
It was horrible, not because of what was said, but because how poorly it was written.
Preaching = Bad Fiction. Always.
Good writers can weave greater beliefs into their tales and still make quality fiction. The Lord of the Rings was an expression of the Catholic faith, while the His Dark Materials (Golden Compass) was an attack on the Catholic Church.
When The Passion of the Christ came out, a lot of Christian believers began to make films. I was involved in the independent film community at the time and watched many of these movies. Most of them were bad films because their beliefs were more important than the story. Theme was replaced by ideology. Motives were subservient to predefined expectations of the community making their films.
The message preceded the story. It didn’t grow out of interactions between characters, the twists of the plot, or the imagery drawn from theme, but was layered over it prior to the story’s creation.
The message poisoned the tale before it even existed.
I’m seeing the exact same mistake happening in tv and films today. Except, the ideology being preached isn’t Christianity this time, but “wokeness.”
Wokeness has become Hollywood’s religion of the day and they preach it as often as possible. They have a checklist of characters, genders, sexual identities, and they must meet these expectations, whether it makes sense to the plot or not.
Preaching = Bad Fiction.
Remaking films with different casts for no apparent reason other than to check items off the list is not a good reason to tell a story.
To me, remaking Ghostbusters with an all female cast doesn’t empower women. It says Hollywood can’t come up with a good female driven story.
Or at least, not very often.
If you want to see an excellent example of female empowerment in a fantastical story, watch the first season of Marvel’s Agent Carter. She kicks ass, but isn’t a “secret ninja.” She uses her brains, looks, fortitude, unshakeable principles and, on occasion, an effective right hook, to overcome misogyny, bias, obstacles and the villains.
You can tell any story that expresses any belief system, real or imaginary, and do it in a way that is clever, touching, exciting, romantic, suspenseful and thrilling.
As long as you keep preaching out of it.
I’m finding Hollywood’s lazy sermons as irksome as those poorly written Christian films that flooded the indy market over a decade ago.
The difference for me, however, is the writers in Hollywood aren’t full time pastors and part time filmmakers. Hollywood tells stories for a living. The fact that they insist on preaching when they know it’s the weakest choice makes me wonder why they’re inserting their sermons into the stories in the first place.
It’s not to tell a more compelling story.
It doesn’t make me a believer. It makes me more skeptical.
And makes me look elsewhere for quality storytelling.