"It begins and ends with money. It's absurd in this day and age when we need so much money for education, health, for people, that a $100 million dollars can be spent on a film. It's obscene"
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“It begins and ends with money” is Turner stripping Hollywood of its romance and reducing it to the bluntest possible balance sheet. The line lands because it’s not a clever metaphor; it’s an accusation dressed as a shrug. She frames the film industry’s prestige - the awards, the artistry, the mythology of “movie magic” - as window dressing for a system that ultimately answers to capital.
The subtext is class anger, but also a kind of betrayed intimacy. Turner isn’t an outsider heckling the red carpet; she’s a veteran who benefited from the machine and still finds its numbers hard to justify. That insider status sharpens the critique: she’s calling “obscene” what many in the business treat as normal overhead. The word choice matters. “Absurd” suggests comedy, waste, a mismatch between means and ends. “Obscene” shifts it into moral territory: not merely inefficient spending, but spending that feels indecent when placed beside unmet public needs.
The context is a culture that constantly asks ordinary people to accept austerity - underfunded schools, healthcare rationed by insurance, social services stretched thin - while celebrating blockbuster budgets as a sign of ambition. Turner punctures that logic by making the comparison unavoidable. A $100 million film isn’t just “expensive”; it becomes a symbol of misaligned priorities, of a society comfortable with extravagance as long as it’s packaged as entertainment and profit.
Her intent isn’t to scold audiences for liking movies. It’s to name the quiet bargain: we tolerate excess because it’s fun, and because we’ve been trained to treat public good as optional but spectacle as inevitable.
The subtext is class anger, but also a kind of betrayed intimacy. Turner isn’t an outsider heckling the red carpet; she’s a veteran who benefited from the machine and still finds its numbers hard to justify. That insider status sharpens the critique: she’s calling “obscene” what many in the business treat as normal overhead. The word choice matters. “Absurd” suggests comedy, waste, a mismatch between means and ends. “Obscene” shifts it into moral territory: not merely inefficient spending, but spending that feels indecent when placed beside unmet public needs.
The context is a culture that constantly asks ordinary people to accept austerity - underfunded schools, healthcare rationed by insurance, social services stretched thin - while celebrating blockbuster budgets as a sign of ambition. Turner punctures that logic by making the comparison unavoidable. A $100 million film isn’t just “expensive”; it becomes a symbol of misaligned priorities, of a society comfortable with extravagance as long as it’s packaged as entertainment and profit.
Her intent isn’t to scold audiences for liking movies. It’s to name the quiet bargain: we tolerate excess because it’s fun, and because we’ve been trained to treat public good as optional but spectacle as inevitable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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