What is being Sold to Us?

In today's popular culture and mass media, there is always something being sold to us, whether it's an actual product or a specific idea. Hard Day's Night was made in 1964, and allows viewers to take a peek into the "everyday lives" of The Beatles. The most prominent idea being sold to us in this film is this idea of "cool."  The film is trying to show that The Beatles are "real" people and that they won't follow certain fads just because someone says they should. The film is encouraging a sense of rebellion and individualism by standing up to society's idea of "cool", but ironically, it is simultaneously selling us the idea of "anti-cool." Anti-cool is the new cool because The Beatles are doing it.

In class we also looked at the film The Doors, made in 1991. Jim Morrison is seen as very poetic. In once scene he quotes, " When the doors of perception are cleansed, things will appear as they really are." Drugs are heavily referenced in this movie, and maybe for Morrison that was his way of "cleansing the doors of perception." But what exactly has made these so-called doors unclean? I believe that Morrison is referring to society's ideals and morals about how to act and how to live. Morrison was passionate and indulging in a care-free, hippie lifestyle.  The film portrays how this way of living ultimately led to  Morrison's downfall, which one can argue is the film's way of sending a warning. Yes you can go against the current, but are the consequences worth the risk?