“Spider-Man”, “Art”, and Christmas

I recently read a discussion about SPIDER MAN: NO WAY HOME in the “is it `art’? Category.

To answer that question, we first have to define terms.

“Craft” is skill.

“Art” is skill plus `Self’ expression. Deep emotion. Attempts to reveal the deep inner being, Harlan’s “burning core.”

COMMERCIAL art is “art” that communicates emotion to an audience willing to exchange money for it.

“Successful” Commercial art would be such art that makes back what it cost to produce, promote, and distribute it, plus enough extra to allow the artist to create their next work in relative comfort.

You may define these things differently. Lord knows MFA programs do. And that’s fine: I only have to justify and explain my position: you can decide if any of this is useful. Three Gates, right?

So: to NO WAY HOME. When you have hundreds of people working together to create something, it is perfectly reasonable to ask if that is possibly art. If a conductor manages a 300 person orchestra, is it “art” if many of them are just “phoning it in?” I suggest…yes, if the conductor is expressing his inner self, with the musicians as living instruments.

To that degree, I think everyone who brought their “A-game”, really FELT the emotions, while making SPIDER-MAN were artists, and any team leader who felt emotion while managing his people was an artist, and the composer, writers, and director, and the executive…