"People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies"
About this Quote
The subtext is that film isn’t neutral entertainment; it’s a high-volume delivery system for values. Freeman isn’t talking about secret propaganda so much as the accumulated drip of what gets normalized: who counts as heroic, who gets punished, what violence looks like, which communities exist only as plot devices. “Messages” is a deliberately plain word, almost naive, but that plainness is the point. It sidesteps academic debates about representation and goes straight to the everyday reality that stories teach people how to see.
Contextually, the comment fits a moment when movies were being asked to answer for their social consequences without losing their claim to artistic freedom. Coming from Freeman, whose persona has often been cast as authority (mentor, narrator, moral center), it carries an extra charge: he’s not just performing wisdom on screen; he’s asking the industry to earn it. It’s a call for intentionality, not censorship: if you’re going to shape the cultural imagination, at least admit you’re holding the pen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Freeman, Morgan. (2026, January 18). People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-need-to-start-to-think-about-the-messages-20586/
Chicago Style
Freeman, Morgan. "People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-need-to-start-to-think-about-the-messages-20586/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-need-to-start-to-think-about-the-messages-20586/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




