The director behind the summer blockbuster “Twisters” pushed back against criticism that the tornado flick does not address climate change, in a new interview.
“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like (it) is putting forward any message,” director Lee Isaac Chung told CNN. “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.”
The film out this week is a follow-up to the 1996 hit film “Twister” about storm chasers, starring Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton.
While the new movie doesn’t explicitly send a message about climate change, Chung said there is a scene where a local farmer complains about storms and floods becoming more frequent and driving up the price of wheat.
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Director Lee Isaac Chung said he didn’t want to preach a climate change message in his new film, “Twisters.” (Getty Images)
“I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground … we don’t shy away from saying that things are changing,” the director explained.
“I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message, because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about,” he added. “I think it should be a reflection of the world.”
Chung’s comments about avoiding a hard-hitting climate message in the film were criticized in some media reports.
“It would have made sense if ‘Twisters’ — a film about storm chasers studying a spate of unusually powerful and destructive tornadoes — worked climate change into its story,” The Verge’s Charles Pulliam-Moore contested.
“[W]hen you consider how scientists have found that the conditions that create tornado-producing storms are more likely in a warming world, ‘Twisters’’ avoidance of the phrase ‘climate change’ feels like shying away and then some,” his report continued.
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JULY 11: Glen Powell attends the premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Twisters” on July 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
A writer for The Hollywood Reporter also argued that data showing that tornado patterns are changing could’ve been worked into the film.
“But to hear director Lee Isaac Chung tell it, even such a throwaway reference would be like beating red state moviegoers over the head with a DVD copy of ‘An Inconvenient Truth,'” THR’s James Hibberd wrote.
“Twisters” star Glen Powell has also rejected the idea that the move should send a political message.
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“First and foremost, because if you’re telling people what to think, you’re not allowing them to feel. You can’t put people into that heightened state if they’re thinking, ‘Hmm, do I or do I not agree with this message?’” he recently told The Telegraph.
“Of course, you might want to have conversations about those other things later,” Powell added, “but that’s not what our movie is about. It’s man and woman versus nature; finding out who we really are in the face of the storm.”
Progressive groups have pushed for Hollywood to insert more messages about climate change into entertainment. A recent study suggested movies and television shows should incorporate at least one line about climate change into the dialogue to acknowledge “climate change is our reality.”