Dan A Brown Interview

Dan A Brown

I was fortunate to interview author Dan A Brown. Brown was born in Ohio and now living near Seattle, Washington, had a long and successful career in public service. Now retired and free to pursue his hobbies, he has chosen to write film reviews and other essays about the movies. This book is the culmination of all his years of film appreciation. He is also a musician and has published a book of poetry, “Love Flies,” available online through Outskirts Press.

In this book, the author invites you to join him in “peeling the orange” and sinking our teeth into the delicious fruit that is film, and while we’re savoring the taste, appreciate it at an even deeper level. Why are movies so popular? Why do we love them so much? Like a favorite fruit, they feed a craving we have that we can’t fully describe. This book investigates that mystery, and through a deeper understanding of the role movies play in our lives, we might learn a little about ourselves. So come join the adventure, and let’s see what untold stories lie ahead. Roll ‘em!

Deftly constructed at 298 pages, Movies: Why We Love ‘Em…And How They Change Us. The pervasive and sometimes
subtle influence of an American pastime on American culture is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the art/film & video category. With U.S. wholesale distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and pervasive online availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere, Movies: Why We Love ‘Em…And How They Change Us meets consumer demands.

Additionally, Movies: Why We Love ‘Em…And How They Change Us can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the
maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of ten or more from the Outskirts Press Direct bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore.

Automated Transcript of Dan A Brown Interview

Today, I’m happy to be here with Dan A Brown author of Movies: Why We Love ‘Em…And How They Change Us. Welcome Dan, I’m glad you are.

Thank you. I’m honored to be here.

Could you please tell us a little bit about your background and how you became interested in film as a subject for your book?

My, my formal background or the arts I I went through no problem. And then I landed a dog. Basically. I needed money in the public sector and public transportation. I just stuck with that for 40 years. So, because I was just doing a workaday job, I kept my mind occupied with other things, and I’ve always had a keen interest in film. I used to go a lot with my mom and my dad. And so that was kind of, there was always in my blood. And also I’ve had an ongoing interest in performing arts. I’ve never been a professional field, but I’ve always loved film and stuff like that. So I love watching movies and I, my approach was always, I’ve always been about the process of making films and, you know, not just from an entertainment standpoint, but you know, artistic standpoint and all the collaborative nature elements. I consider myself a writer published work almost all the owners that make us, so I’ve always looked at going from a critical standpoint, the adult.

Okay. Wow. That’s fantastic. And your chat broke the questions down by chapter. So in chapter one, you have a quote, basically, the end of the quote is put another way. Movies and television are a powerful drug. And on that question, I’d like to say since Sinema taps into a powerful human need and Hollywood is not making documentaries, could this affect how history is generally understood than The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), or were they printing the myth?

Yeah. I think that people tend to be influenced by their, by their popular and the storytelling aspect of it. People the people in general kind of latch onto that. I I’m reminded of like some dramatic films, non documentary films that I think has had an influence both such as Oh either the night dinner. No, I think I have nothing, I think that through, for the entertainment of acting and so forth, I think it’s probably helped change the perception of general populations for African-Americans

Yeah. A little more later, but I guess I was in this instance, I was talking about maybe like a historical films, like Custer and, and how we conflate maybe little big man or something like that is the true history of customers.

Okay. Yeah. That’s a hard thing. I think films that, and I, I think one of my favorites, the majestic duration of the movie you’re living in that environment and it creates sort of a mystique about that whole history and Apple culture. I’m not sure why movies or television are influential in that way, but it seems like people sit down and are entertained and are, are invited into a story and they, you know, they can live out the story through the people telling the story. I think that’s kind of a learning tool. I may not, even though movies, historical movies may not be the accurate in every aspect. I think that people from a majority of people come away or at least with the, for the elevated general sense they might even be inspired or in more general in general, it says it’s a true story. They tell that story as a whole, without people looking at it from a critical standpoint. Yes.

This is based on a true story. There were humans that lived here

By God, you know, extended that carries any value. You, I guess that that’s a good thing. Yeah.

Just get them interest. At least they know world war II happened or something.

Right. Exactly. I have a product that I have to deal with. Okay.

And having the devil with it today, myself here it’s bad day. All right. Let’s see, you said in chapter two, I pulled out the quote off of page 22. I submit that the primary difference that distinguishes today’s secular cultures from older mythological base cultures is the deification. And it’s a sub subconscious response more than a conscious one. In terms of the above quote, do you think people find heroes among actors, movie characters, the movies themselves are all of above?

I think it’s primarily through, through identifying with a particular persona. You know, I think, I think we all fantasize about a heroic aspect work. And if we see somebody acting values that we, you know, deep in our soul, it helps us to sort of find the hero in ourselves. I wish I were that, you know, that’s a pretty powerful attraction. I think that all of us like to think that we’re capable of. And so I think we kind of like

Emulate them a little bit. Okay. Okay. This is based on the book. And I’m just going to ask you straight out star Wars or star Trek and why

That’s actually kind of like, because star Wars is the fairy tale. I think we have a hunger for fairytales in our secular world, you know? And because it, as it involves things like technology, things like that, that today, like flashing traditional fairy tales into a instead of, and I think that’s, that’s raw star Trek. On the other hand, I think there’s a genuine moral fable. I think there’s, there’s, there’s a genuine kind of effort on them, on the makers of star Trek to ask about you know, everything about what it is. And I think that my attraction to star Trek is we’re wired to think or rethink our view of the world. Yeah. Yeah. So we’ve learned a lot of lessons from stories, little phrases that pop up in Parker and they’re, and they’re almost like like you stopped stable, moral at the end.

Okay. let’s see. Let’s see. I have a couple of questions related to chapter three. Could you look at significant events in us history, such depression, world war II, nine 11 and how they change the movie industry change?

Yeah. A little hard to alkalize that pause effect relationship, or I think that when the society goes through a major change like that, the movie industry picked up on that. And part of the create stories that are reflective that usually comes to kind of the wave comes, it comes out in movies after we’ve gone through that, like movies about the great depression. You didn’t really find movies that were dealing with that issue while, while it was happening. It was kind of like after the fact I was, I made some notes there, examples.

I was thinking, you know, like how you, we came out of the great depression and w w well, more one great depression and right into world war II. And that kind of launched the whole film war movement.

Yeah. Maybe like The Grapes of Wrath (1940), whatever that was the great depression, but it’s trying to all relatable story about, you know, average people with crew versus there until the human spirit, even example, post world war two movies, that there’s a lot of, a lot of movies in the fifties that, that emphasize the heroin. Because we, as a culture, we sort of proud of, and I think a lot of motion picture industry, fictionalized, those like drawing a blank. There was one movie probably, sorry about that. I’m in, I’m in my closet amnesia.

I understand. That was like like maybe like paternity and stuff. Yeah.

And all of that movie. Yeah. Right. There’s another one. Yeah. So kind of a lie, a lot of times movies or a look back through, and we’ve just gone through because they build those stories. People are more receptive. They’re not, they’re, they’re less of a dramatic story on film. Okay.

Reminds me, you know, like a historians, they have to get about 50 years away from something.

Right. Yeah. And of course, perception changes like yeah. When we emerged from the great depression and we were in world war two, and then when we got to the fifties, now we see quite a lot of turmoil. And and we were sort of stealing that, that final thing will only administer that by Gosper Paul there’s a lot of patriotic pro-America type films empathize, conquering adversity, but we had to go through it. First aspect is talked about things like that.

Okay. Yeah. I guess, I guess I’m making an assumption here. I know that the movies really came into their own in the late twenties and thirties and became a consumer thing. And I was kinda curious why if you had any thoughts about why those universal monster movies were so popular so early.

Yeah. I think, well, first of all, I think people always have an interest in, and the fringe, you know, like the bizarre, the nightmare thing by putting our nightmares up in front of us on the screen and having a, our nightmare through those characters, I was like, you know, reflecting back on the whole thing about visualization right there in front of you. So I think that’s sort of, and maybe the fact, the time period in which they came along, they were kind of a metaphor for, or again, prices and uncertainty and fear. Right. And so like the mommy buys itself.

All right. Who was the generation that had a similar reference frame for a book like catcher in the rye, which was widely read generationally, have movies taking on the role and giving each generation or sub generation of movie that they share culturally and kind of express the world in terms

I was trying to replace baubles kind of a primary.

Right. I noticed that a certain always when I was an archeologist,

Right.

Well, they were always younger than me, but they would like have they not reality bites, but one of those kids movies that they all like one group would have that. Yeah. I saw that when I was in high school

And they would all come

In, but then the, as they got younger, it’d be a different movie, you know?

Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. People’s development like the hero song from the 1970s and any folks’ memories were big, big. I also think that culture, because moving forward, you know, in your book, you have to create the image of movies and more cynical terms, most intellectual agent having said that you want to make this big movies. I love movies. I also watched her, how many people stayed back? I think people moved away from literature a little.

I have to admit, I love audio books, you know, I’m just,

Yeah, because I started my own places, audiobooks.

Okay. Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Could you please give a couple of examples of movies or characters that have put you push this out on social media in terms of broader cultural understanding, and you already talked about Sidney party, a guest who’s coming today

Also like darker in Philadelphia that came along with crossing a threshold of understanding of people and the whole, the whole community, and the public mindset that, Oh, no. I think that those therapists, they were all, you know, and there are other, other movies about social issues that then a broader view, like

You said, the heat of the night or In the Heat of the Night (1967) earlier.

Yeah. It was hard to be hard to or whatever those visual, just because I say that in films that create prompt characters, lumped in with human beings as human beings, they’re more relatable.

Right.

Precious (2009).

I haven’t seen the, I mean, I know what it is, but I haven’t seen it.

Yeah. Yeah. The main character is black being obese, and all the struggles that she goes through around that. And she emerged as a complete person. And not just that you might react to, are they movies often? And I think there’s something about, well, their documentaries, many great documentaries that are very instructive, but I think people come away with the, I think the picture will move for their people are characters like will get emotional education about a real social issue more so than by watching the documentary.

Yeah. Or build the character a little deeper.

Yeah. Right, right. Because it’s one step removed.

That’s an interesting concept because, you know, you’re a Zen and I was thinking of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” are you watching something from inside the car or on the motorcycle within the event?

Well,

I’m not a film critic and I never pretended to V1. My podcast role is to remind people of good films from the past that they may have never seen or that they w they need to see again. So what do you think the role of podcasters is concerning bail is there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of film podcasters out there.

Well, first of all, I think it’s become more and more, are more if you’re a dominant form of indication, people in the busy lives that we need, people may not have time to sit down and become fully on board and all, or as a podcast, you can sort of integrate into other things. And also the live conversation. You feel like your power station, ultimately a good thing in other ways, other avenues or things that are conversations and conversations that people are having.

Let’s see this chapter steaks someone reminded me what it is, show business. What do you think the Sony hack by North Korea over the film, the interview 2014 and the makers of that terrible red Dawn, 2012 first, the North Korean and attempt to appease the movie market. Is that hurting the quality of film?

I don’t know. I’m, I’m not sure. I have a direct question from, first of all, I’m not really familiar with North Korea. But the politicalization was always kind of a danger the first in the back, not the German and the, the CDL filmmaker. Right, right, right. I mean, that was a really cool propaganda product to think that we’re a little bit more in like our fat point today and less stuff, but there are several ways in which, in which the films can be ideas in the back of my mind. And maybe it’s a danger that works there because of film as an experience television for that matter. I think we’re less vulnerable to that. I mean, it might’ve been, you know, earlier times, but underneath, I think people are always subliminally influenced by things that they say, and they’re not necessarily cautious of that mix.

Perfect sense. Would you say that traditional Hollywood would, would be very conservative and it would take a spirited independent to make movies that would push the edge kind of more back on that culture, pushing,

Talking about major studios and the major productions. I mean, obviously a lot of the hollow is geared towards giving the people what they want for entertainments that are not necessarily that interested in provoking thought or more likes desires than a famous, I think that’s less the case now than it was earlier forties or yeah, I think that mainstream Hollywood movies more predictable and inculcated, but I think that’s very different now. And I think strangely enough, I think, I think the, the kind of new war has played, but once that became public, I think as the Oscars kind of reflect the way that the building industry, because more and more, more important to that challenge. So I think there’s more of a balance in the filmmaker that bled into,

I recently Mystery in Mexico (1948), which was directed by Robert Wise, and the bad guy pointed to the gun directly at the screen and fired several times immediately realize this was an homage to the great train robbery, 19 authority. Do you think that I’m understanding like film history like that and what’s going on the events depicted makes it a more enjoyable experience?

Sure. Anytime, anytime, you know, filmmakers do something out of the ordinary or that people are not normally accustomed to well, basic and immediate, I think that’s a little gimmick like that. It makes them more effective as part of the story. Like they feel like they’re under the breath. So like living in the story more

Fantastic. We talked about this a little bit. I think archeology humans are predisposed or at least a million years to sit in the dark and stare at fires at this far. You know, they’re told tales are told norms are expressed and fears are faced. Like we were talking about with the Marshall movie. You think film has replaced the fire from modern humans. Does a filmmaker have a great responsibility with how they use their medium tapping into this?

I guess there are two elements to that. First of all, I, I firmly believe that become the main venue for modern. I think that was where that reinforced the film now modern, very that people can pass their Ramos.

Yeah. I was trying to think of a movie where I came out and, you know, like, Oh, that was deep. You know what? I can’t, I can’t pull it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There, there there’s no fathers, they mean to cut you off. No, no, that’s fine.

Maybe like you said, a while ago, Lawrence, you nothing to those kinds of movies.

Yeah. Of a lot of people to look into the world of, or how people eat and how’s that kind of a metaphor for a while.

The film industry has tried for more than a century, keep customers returning with 3d sense around moving chairs, smell miss water. Do you think, do you think the film industry will be able to recover after the virus here and or will they need something new? And I’ll just say, I personally looking for the return of the drive in theater.

Yeah. I don’t think that’s going to don’t move us forward. I think it’s, it’s hard to say. I think it’ll take a while, but I don’t think the experience of always with dealer and your experiences in that environment is a widespread I think that’s something that offered people and I think it’s doing television in that way. I mean, television can accomplish the same thing in the more intimate setting, which has its advantages, but there’s something about sitting in a theater, in a seat, in a theater, all sides is different than I think it captures your audience more way. You kind of forget about your environment around you in the moment, or will, will out to the movies, I think will pencil revive on. And I think it made practice traffic because of the whole idea of getting out of the house. It’s just having them able to be that all that will be something, but we’ll push that. That’d be nice to get away clock downs.

It’s been going on too long, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. It’s hard so long that it’s hard to remember. It’s hard to kind of grasp onto what that experience was like. And I think people are going to be going to get away from, or now we’re all feeling a sense of loss of the interaction with other people right.

Soon we hope. All right, let’s see here. Let’s see. I’ve often wondered and as we spoke about earlier, if our values and norms will be an agreed-upon narrative, and that does not necessarily reflect the actual event, I watched Patton (1970) last week and realized it’s a total propaganda piece. It’s a great movie, but it was the model of the American warrior we wanted. That’s what we wanted. I also think that Tarantino films that merged historical events with an alternate universe, you know, I was thinking about that. And again, could this have a harmful effect on poorly educated masses of people? But that we talked about it a little bit already, so it’s,

That’s an interesting thought. I think parents Dino is kind of a unique case for reserves. So stylized that I would like to think that it’s good, but I think he has this sort of a quirky West Valley that almost brings out real reality, even more stars emphasize certain parts of life as it is. And I don’t, I hope that people would wouldn’t necessarily so that they can from real life experience. I think Terentino’s Preston are validated so that we can look at it.

All right. Well let’s see. What have I forgotten to ask you?

Well, what we’ve been talking about I don’t, I don’t consider myself an expert. I just think that I have gone into the world of film as a, as an ultimate reality from following this fantasy film or interested in like, right, are you filming? What got you started in that walking you? And that, that fantasy day often gets short of that. So I starting my own porn or at least kind of mapping it out for myself. And I think that’s awesome, but I kind of wish I had more means of exposure, film. I like writing reviews of films. I’d like to have how to go about that. I was thinking about creating a book. I would just need reviews. What kind of reaction we get from that, from that society. So I guess I’m looking at some validation as some validation, or I would love to be more false about that movie and you can learn a lot from one another and that would be something that would, I would never retire those kinds of things.

People get your book and where can they find you on social media?

Well, I don’t really, most of the media world too much. All I have is like email. And as far as the, the book, I mean, it’s, it’s available online in Barnes and noble and Amazon and other venues, but I’ll press my publisher. They have a, they have a a marketing and media arm and this little woman that is sort of my marketing representative. And she’s now it’s connecting you with those kinds of courses. So so I know that if you go to Barnes noble or Amazon site,

I’ll put some links in the podcast when it goes live. So, Oh yeah, no, no problem. Well, Dan, it was really great talking to you. I enjoyed reading your book. Appreciate you sending me that copy. And I look forward to talking to you again.

All right. Likewise.