One popular school of film criticism believes in appraising films through a Marxist lens, judging each by how well the auteur identifies with the struggle of the working class. More fun by far is my own school of Thatcherite film criticism...
The Thatcherite critic simply views the actions of the protagonist through the eyes of a mildly autistic management consultant. It is not an approach likely to make you many friends in the pub afterwards - indeed there are people who have barely spoken to me since I pointed out that Betty Blue's suicide was the result of the couple's naive assumption that the catchment area of a small French provincial town could possibly be sufficient to sustain a high-end piano shop. "They should have diversified" I explained, helpfully.
As you can imagine, the Thatcherite critic in me was not a great fan of Field of Dreams either. This film seemed to rely on the fanciful assumption that a baseball diamond in the middle of an obscure field could somehow mature into a viable business.
But this film also annoyed me in other ways by giving rise to a phrase which became a catchphrase of the internet era: "If you build it, they will come." Along with "content is king" and "TV didn't kill cinema" it became one of the mantras trotted out at every conference, the idea being that if you said it enough it might somehow become more true.
The general learning from the last ten years is that "If you build it, they might come - but they'll probably start playing football instead." For, when you look at the great digital successes, people rarely use a new technology for the purpose the builder intended.
SMS was intended for engineers as a signalling device. Flickr was originally a gambling company. Facebook was intended for universities. Youtube was originally intended to enhance eBay. eBay (though this may be mythical) began as an aid to Pez collectors.
Which leads me to my next question. What will people end up using Joost for? I have no doubt the technology is important - but I don't see the need to watch mainsteam TV on my laptop as I have a device already that is already fit for this purpose - called, by amazing coincidence, a TV.
Suggestions please.....
