Our Culture of Spectacle

 In this week's discussion of Don't Look Up, I found myself thinking of another film that address the lengths modern day people will go through to capture a spectacle: Jordan Peele's Nope. While Don't Look Up addresses the spectacle of American politics, Nope addresses the idea of spectacle regarding fame. While these themes differ, there are some links between them. For those of you who haven't seen Nope, it is about a large flying saucer shaped alien terrorizing a brother and sister who are trying to capture a photo of it. One scene in particular shows a reporter from TMZ trying to snap a photo of the alien despite the warnings of danger from the protagonist. In short--the TMZ reporter is sucked up by the alien and dies trying to get "the shot." This reflects how American culture and the capitalistic society we live in forces people to abandon their own safety and morals in order to try to attain fame or wealth. We see this in politics as well, with many politicians or government workers saying they are trying to "make change from the inside" but eventually end up selling out to lobbyists.