QuoteProject
You're fighting a losing battle if you expect the people who own the studios to make moral choices.
Sydney Pollack
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Expecting moral choices from those in power can lead to disappointment.

Sydney Pollack's quote reflects a philosophical perspective on the nature of power and decision-making in the entertainment industry. It suggests that individuals or entities in control, such as studio owners, are often driven by profit and commercial interests rather than ethical considerations, leading to a futile effort for advocates who hope for moral integrity in their decisions.

Themes

MoralityPowerEntertainmentDecision MakingResponsibility

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about ethical filmmaking, this quote can illustrate the challenges faced by filmmakers.

More from Sydney Pollack

My strength is with actors. I think I'm good at working with them to get the best performances, at seeing what it is that they have and that the story needs.
Sydney PollackRead
And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.
Sydney PollackRead
If you have a career like mine, which is so identified with Hollywood, with big studios and stars, you wonder if maybe you shouldn't go off and do what the world thinks of as more personal films with lesser-known people. But I think I've fooled everybody. I've made personal films all along. I just made them in another form.
Sydney PollackRead
It's my job to motivate the audience to believe. I have to get them to suspend their judgment in favor of involvement.
Sydney PollackRead
You hope that the responsibility of making movies will fall into the hands of essentially moral people.
Sydney PollackRead
Making a movie is a network of decisions that keep multiplying as you go. You leave a trail of decisions behind you, and that's how you start to see the shape of what you've done. When you get far enough, you turn around and say, 'Ha, that's the movie.' It's only then that you find out if it's going to work or not.
Sydney PollackRead

Similar quotes

If anyone feels his sins, let him come at once, straight, direct, not merely to church, or to the sacrament, or to repentance, or to prayer, but to Christ Himself.
J. C. RyleRead
I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words
Alfred De VignyRead
It becomes still more difficult to find
Words at once true and kind,
Or not untrue and not unkind.
Philip LarkinRead
Without going outside, you may know the whole world, without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. Thus the sage knows without traveling; he sees without looking; he works without doing.
LaoziRead
I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.
Flannery O'ConnorRead
I have always said that often the religion you were born with becomes more important to you as you see the universality of truth.
Ram DassRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.