Escapism The Suspension of Disbelief are You a Fan?

Imagine the scene, you have had a particulailly hard day at the office, Your fed up cheesed off if you will, on the T.V. there are 2 movies to choose from, “Indiana Jones and the last crusade” or “The migration of King Penguins and their trials and tribulations” ummdifficult one! personally I would go for the Indiana film, I like wild life but i need to shake the bonds of reality from my mind occasionally.

A large proportion of the public have difficulty in accepting the concept of Indiana films as an example, another example could be “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” or “Rambo” movies, the particular film choice is not the issue its the gendre escapism.  To use a real life example my mother Mrs Banks a very clever lady as regards the English language, she can fly through cross words like she is taking dictation! her vocabulary is bound less.  She is 83 and as bright as a button.  Not too long ago my partner and me went to see the new “Star Trek” prequel, I thoroughly enjoyed it as did my partner.

I spoke to my mother on the phone later and her reaction to my movie choice was “Oh no you don’t believe all that space journey nonsense do you? we have only been to the moon!” I tried to explain that no i do not believe the movie is factual it was never meant to be!  She cannot and does not understand SCI-FI or movies like “James Bond” or “National Treasure” or “The Matrix”.

My mother is far from alone there are many viewers who must qualify what they view as true.  My mother is not lacking in imagination but she mentally switches off at outlandish plots or fantastic stunts.  Now I’m not saying there is a right or wrong viewpoint its personal choice.  Me I like to be taken on a journey taken out of myself if you like.  Day to day living can be arduous boring or down right cruel.  I like shiny star ships crisp uniforms, fazers firing, light sabres flashing! or James Bond chasing a bad guy across roof tops, swinging from a steel rope stored in his belt buckle! then that same day he’s in a casino with a gorgeous Russian agent intent on killing him.

Now writing SCI-FI or an adventure movie is not as easy as you may think I’ve tried.  You cannot just just think of a character and throw them on a planet far away or underground in cold War Russia.  Characterisation is all important, because you have chosen a totally fictional character does not mean a licence to give the character 7 arms or 5 legs or the ability to fly to the stars without a star ship.

Viewers or readers can imagine and accept futuristic hero’s or villains, however they must seem grounded or real in certain ways ill explain.  Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes and wears a hat you can buy in any store, He isn’t that crazy about flying either.  These little flaws or habits make the hero seem real, even though some of the stunts he does are unbelievable.  Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame wears glasses in his movies as he gets older [let alone the wigs, sorry bill].  In the movie “Unbreakable” staring “Bruce Willis” his super hero cant swim and nearly drowns in a swimming pool.  James Bond hangs onto a “Walther PPK” pistol that jams regularly landing him in trouble why? because its his favourite weapon, a very illogical and human thing to do.

I feel that’sthe art of escapism is that you can take the viewer or reader anywhere you want if you believe in the characters.  In “Star Trek” the crew can be fighting all sorts of alien bad guys and at the same time there is always a sub plot, someone is getting married or has a confidence problem or an unruly child, the writers cleverly hang on to the human side of their hero’s to ground you or key you into the characters.

How many times have you seen at the beginning of a movie the words “Based on a true story” this is to cater for people such as my mother, who don’t like pure fantasy or fiction.  Take the time to google some of the movies that claim to based on a true story, you will be surprised how little or minuscule the true part of the movie is!  Some are blatant out and out lies the words true story are just added to entice sceptics into their web. 

I write historical fiction short stories, I always say at the end of the story that ”this is a fictional story however the places or equipment are correct for the time period I’m writing about”.

For me its long live escapism may they continue to take me to a place or time far away from here just for a few hours.

Lord Banks