This is my 2nd post - woo hoo, anyho..
I thought the film was very good. I wrote an article to do with it some time ago, never thought about getting it online. Hang on..
k, if ya wanna read it here it is, if not, don't worry
The Million Dollar Hotel: Do you mind?
By Jo Whitby
It became clear to me, way before the release of the Million Dollar Hotel, that in some form or another the English press would have a problem with the film. The idea that a rock star, Bono in particular, could actually make a decent film scared the hell out of them and they immediately put up a barrier holding their prejudices in one hand and waving goodbye to any hopes of the film being successful with the other. The fact that the film was actually incredibly good didn?t seem to stop the hurtful and insulting reviews from pouring in prior to the films release.
Okay, so maybe some people didn?t like the film, everyone has a right to their own opinions. It was just a bit discouraging to find that a few reviewers thought it would be nice if they not only put the film down but also discriminated against people with mental health problems . Now, the bad reviews I can deal with, but it really took the biscuit when they started insulting my integrity??..
The Million Dollar Hotel is described as ?a disfunctional love story?.a fable about the power of love? which to my mind is only part of the meaning. Intentional or not, the MDH is an insight into the lives of people with mental health problems, the most truthful interpretation I?ve seen in a long time but a truth that the critics and the public do not want to subscribe to.
?It?s a shock? says Bono in a recent interview ?but in the late 80?s in America you could still starve. Reagan closed down a lot of these mental hospitals and hence some of the clientele at the MDH were in fact outpatients from mental hospitals. That?s when I discovered them in 1988?. The alarming thing is that the MDH is still being used as a ?hostel? for these people 10 to 12 years on. The mental health system is in the same state it was in 1988, a total mess.
There is a lot of prejudice around mental illness at the moment and the press are making it extremely difficult to combat. It?s a fact that one in four people will suffer from a form of mental illness in their lifetime, be it depression or schizophrenia, to name but a few. It is a serious illness and one that should not be mocked.
Let?s get back to the film. So what is it that?s made me hot under the collar? When critics use language like: ?Some of the most annoying outcast, misfits and nutters ever recorded on celluloid? and ?drooling clich?s of the irritating freak variety? not to mention words like ?nutter?, retard? and ?loon?. It?s words and phrases like these which makes it incredibly difficult for people with mental illness to gain any control over their lives. It?s disempowering and dispiriting.
We know that the film includes words such as ?retard? and ?freak? but what would be the point of a film about the lives of people with mental illness if you didn?t include the prejudices. The MDH deals with this head on, perhaps that is what the critics don't like. Having seen people with various forms of the illness myself the portrayal of the characters in the film are very true to life. Especially characters like Tom Tom (played by Jeremy Davies) and Eloise (played by Milla Jovovich). I couldn?t believe how well these parts were acted and yet the film still came under attack from the press.
Perhaps the film would have been better received in a local art house, who knows. What we do know is that although the film was not a success in terms of profit it did open a lot of peoples minds, it made them think.
So in the end Bono and Wim Wenders did achieve something after all.
There we go.
Jo