Does Hollywood Have an Obligation?

We've read some pretty gruesome accounts of people's lives in American Studies. Chris McCandless starved to death in Into The Wild. Fredrick Douglass and his comrades were beaten mercilessly in his autobiography. I though about what moments over this last year I was challenged the same way I was challenged with these books. After some brief thinking, I couldn't think of any.

I think this could have been one of the most boring years for movies in my whole life. There were exactly two movies I enjoyed in theaters: "The Comedy", and "Beasts of the Southern Wild", both independent films. Every other movie I saw was incredibly boring for the same reason: they were all too nice. All of the tension in this year's movies seemed forced, like in the "historical thriller" movie Argo, where despite all of the seemingly stressful situations, the protagonists succeed without a single scratch on them. Abrasiveness has been weeded out of Blockbuster movies, apparently because it doesn't sell. Movies have become amusement park rides, as oppose to works of art that challenge the viewer.

After I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild with my family my mom said she didn't like the movie because "the dad was so mean to the daughter". For anybody who has seen the movie, the relation between the father and daughter is an incredibly complex and emotional one, which  represents the path to adulthood of the daughter. It's the roughest and hardest to understand moments of our histories that shape us the most, and historians need to understand this to understand America. The horrible moments in America's history should be taught as a lesson so that we can mature as a country. Here is a trailer for the movie:

I think the softness Hollywood is applying to its movies is similar to how some textbooks overly simplify and glorify the USA's history. "Oh, during World War 2 we lent a helping hand to the powers of good and wiped out those darn Nazis!" Well, we also created the most feared weapon in history and used it on two separate Japanese cities, causing unprecedented death and destruction. Is that scene going to be put in Michael Bay's sequel to Pearl Harbor? In the past, Cowboy vs. Indians movies were all the rage. To my knowledge, none of them showed the displaced natives along the Trail of Tears. Aren't these moments in history key to understanding how America became what it is today?

Do you think Hollywood has gotten too loose with making their stories compelling? Is it the duty of Hollywood to show truth and meaning in their movies, or should people have to look elsewhere for compelling stories?