I am going to admit something that most other film fans will find both shocking and revolting. After telling you all this I fully expect the Film Buffs Club to recall my badge and revoke my membership. What I am about to say might destroy any inkling of credibility I might have gained over the last few weeks from my readership (all three of you, thank you!). It’s hard for me to say, the words can barely be typed on this keyboard as I sit here, but, okay, here it goes: I like Michael Bay films, yes even Pearl Harbor. There, I said it, and dammit it feels good to get it off my chest! I know, I know, I can hear you now, “But D_Davis, I’ve seen your movie collection, read your essays, and talked with you, you seem to like cool cinema! How can this be?” Well, if you will allow me the courtesy, I will explain in detail why I not only like Michael Bay as a filmmaker, but also why I think he is a master-craftsman at what he does.
Film is first and foremost a visual media. Yes there are other aspects to films, but the visuals have to be the number one component - why the heck else would there be such an enfaces on huge screens at the multiplexes, The Cinerama Theatre’s, and huge projection HD sets for the home enthusiasts? The reason for this is the visuals. Imagine this: you have to pick to watch films for the rest of your life without sight or without sound - which would you choose? Would you choose to only hear movies for the rest of your life, or would you choose to see them? Seeing a film constitutes about 75% of the total package while the sound, the music and the vocal acting if done right compliments the visual aspects and creates the rest of the total film. Ultimately, a test to see whether or not a film is visually successful or not is to watch the film with the sound off. If you can still follow the narrative, still feel the emotion, and still get all the drama, conflict and excitement, then a film is structured properly and the director and writer followed the golden rule of all fiction: NEVER tell what you can SHOW!
Michael Bay follows this golden rule to a “T” and he always puts his money on the screen. Bay’s films are designed first and foremost to be visually exciting often times to the expense of non-visual story telling: his films ALWAYS show and rarely do they just tell. Films like The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys, and Pearl Harbor are undeniably visual masterpieces. Every shot, every pose, every angle and every set piece is filmed with one thing in mind: to make it look as cool and expensive as possible. When you hear of a movie having a budget of over one hundred million dollars, you want to see a film that looks freaking great, and with Bay’s work you do.
Take for instance the first part of the attack scene in the much maligned Pearl Harbor. Yes, the love-triangle narrative was clichéd and well, lame, and the drama lacked the impact of say Saving Private Ryan. However, if you are watching a Bay film for dramatic narrative, you are most definitely going to be disappointed. When the first bomb drops on the unsuspecting U.S. Soldiers on the base of Pearl Harbor, we see the excitement from the bomb’s eye view. The spectacular shot takes us from the cargo bay of a Japanese Zero, down through the air into a deck of a ship, through the hull and into the water as we witness every last detail of destruction. Then for the next 45 minutes we witness pure cinematic kinetic energy and some of the most beautiful explosions ever filmed. The same can be said for any number of action sequences in any of Bay’s films. He knows why people go to his films, and gives the audience what they want.
Michael Bay knows what kind of movies he makes: the typical expensive popcorn fare. He knows his films are 100% pure unadulterated eye-candy and never tries to make them anything more – much to his credit. His films are honest with themselves and with the audience. He makes action films, the bigger the budget the better, and he puts every last penny of the budget on the screen for all to witness. If anything, it is the typical audience member or critic who is to blame for not liking Bay’s films. Bay is honest in what he does and does not try to mask his films with twist endings, or overly complex narratives. If critics and audiences would finally get this, they could accept Bay’s films for what they are: pure entertainment.
I once saw a double feature of Deep Impact and Armageddon in Los Angeles. I was excited to see some mass carnage and destruction on the huge screen at the Cinerama. Deep Impact was first and I was sorely disappointed. In this film it took almost two hours for ANYTHING to get destroyed or blow up. They tried to inject human drama and illicit sympathy for the characters from the audience. Okay, first of all I could care less who lives or dies, who is in love with who or what have you. I paid my twelve bucks to see some giant asteroid destroy the living crap out of the planet Earth. Needless to say DI sucked. Next came Bay’s film. Within five minutes, during a scene showing a prehistoric Earth, an entire continent explodes and then the opening title sequence explodes! Next we are treated to the semi-destruction of New York city and then things just keep getting more outrageous from there. There was more excitement, more explosions and more money thrown at the screen in the first thirty minutes of Armageddon than in the entire running time of Deep Impact .
You see, Armageddon was an honest film: Bay knew the reason why people paid to see an asteroid film. The audience wanted to see the damn asteroid and how much destruction it could harness. Well, in Bay’s film half of the entire movie takes place on the asteroid: he successfully turned a geological mass into the ultimate screen villain and had a darn good time doing it. He also new his audience: everyone was cheering, laughing, jeering at the cheese, and having a rollicking time watching the fun on screen. Michael Bay’s films are honest, they are fun, they don’t try to be anything but eye candy and they deliver each and every time on this promise.
I know Bay’s films lack depth, lack character development and they are some of the most over-the-top cheese and testosterone filled extravaganzas ever seen. But he knows this as well, and he sets out to make these kinds of films. His films DO pass my ultimate film test and they DO follow the golden rule of fiction. Like William Faulkner said, if an author spends time describing a shot gun hanging on a wall, at some point during the story that shot gun better be used. For Bay the entire film is a shotgun pointed straight out of the camera at the screen. He also ever tells what he can gleefully show with millions of dollars, sparks, slow motion and explosions. He is a master craftsmen and no one makes better-looking films today. So sue me, take away my Film Buffs membership card, and toss me out into the cinematic gutter of popcorn entertainment. Just don’t take away my big budget action films that aim to please, and don’t make Michael Bay stop doing what only he can do. And after all is said and done, maybe it’s you who needs to lighten up, turn off your brain, pop some popcorn and watch Bad Boys II - if your not careful, you just end up having a good time, and your Citizen Kane or your Bergman films will always be there to watch again.
