The Dumbing Down of America

I was talking to some friends earlier in the week about the increasing sophistication of certain mainstream Hollywood movies. Movies like Babel, Little Miss. Sunshine etc. are a definite departure from the American Pie cliche. Part of this could be due to Americans growing appreciation of cinema as an art form, or as my more cynical, often international, friends suggest, the fact that Hollywood generates the majority of its revenues overseas where audiences crave a more substantive product. So imagine my surprise after a year of great movies, 300 has just broken the March box office records with its use of blood, gore, violence, CGI, and use of Muslims as the big bad.