In my opinion, be it ever so humble, there hasn't been a really good movie made since
the 1960's. Even if the ticket prices were reasonable, and popcorn was free,
nearly every movie produced these days is a complete waste of time — or
worse. Most of the movies made in the last ten years have been nothing more or less
than leftist propaganda films, and unfortunately today's poorly educated young people
don't recognize propaganda when they see it.
The recipe for a motion picture seems to start with nudity, profanity, pointless violence, and
blasphemy. The plot (if any) is added later. Television shows are apparently built
from the same blueprints, with a little less nudity. Evidently the goal of the motion picture
industry is to normalize deviant and promiscuous behavior, coarse language, reckless driving,
explosions, and rapid gunfire.
This is probably why so many of today's teenagers act like thugs and prostitutes.
With all the fist fights, gun fights, car chases, profanity, alcohol consumption, tobacco,
drugs and fornication depicted in the movies, it's bound to have an effect on the movie-going
youth of America. Movie plots are loaded with crooked cops and lovable criminals.
In the movies, mothers are strong, so fathers are irrelevant. The kids are smart and
the adults are dumb. Regular movie-goers naturally come away with a skewed perception of
reality, and more importantly, people in other countries get a warped impression of our culture
here in the U.S.
It amazes me to see movie stars pontificate about "senseless gun violence" in America's
big cities, even though that's an essential ingredient in most of their films.
Then there are problems with the theaters themselves. The last time I saw a movie
in a theater, the sound was too loud and too bassy. The film was scratched and
dirty, the picture wobbled around on the screen, and it was out of focus around the
edges. The floor was sticky and the lady in front of me was on
her cell phone checking
for messages every fifteen minutes.
Movie theaters show advertising to people who have paid for admission. Why do
people tolerate that? You can't just go see one movie, because you will be required to
view "trailers" for several other upcoming movies. The advertised starting time for the show
is actually the starting time for the commercials and trailers. And in my opinion, no movie
is so spectacular that it would be worth five dollars to see it. Like I said, I wouldn't
make a very interesting movie critic.
Updated 3/13/2006:
This page has been split (again) so that the material about cultural and political bias on television
(as opposed to the movies) is now on
its own page.
In an earlier split, the material about the V-Chip was moved
to this page.
Updated 5/31/2006:
Environmental propaganda movie reviews are now located
here.
Obama's
New Movie, Same Message: Blame White People. Netflix unveiled a movie last
month called Leave the World Behind that was about as subtle as an Antifa-thrown brick
through a windshield: societal chaos and global disaster are heading our way. [...] Since its
release, the movie has sparked a fever pitch of commentary. Hated by some and loved by
others, a recurring complaint is that the movie is all build-up without any pay-off. It
crawls along with a Hitchcockian rhythm of rising suspense and then abruptly ends without any
explanation. Between beginning and end, a tiny community outside of New York City is hit with
an Internet blackout, an out-of-control oil tanker running aground, electric grid failures, unusual
animal behavior, strange ear-piercing noises that appear to cause mental confusion and tooth-loss,
self-driving Teslas blocking highway escape, and menacing drones dropping red leaflets purportedly
from foreign powers claiming responsibility for all the craziness. Oh, and Julia Roberts
utters a bunch of lines to make sure that every viewer in the world knows white people are racist.
Put
a Chick in it and Make Her Gay. And Lame. [Scroll down] The sight
of Reese Witherspoon peeking terrified around a corner in their version of J6 (Nazis!!) infuriated
me. Because it's news I'm invested, and [...] are these women ridiculous. Jennifer
Aniston pretending to have intellectual substance is laughable. She plays intelligence as
resentment. The cast is stocked with people of color, and they know better, have better
instincts about everything. This is the extent of the analysis of the "writers". And
every single member of the cast is stuffed up to the nose holes with self-righteousness. I
want to slap them. Then send them back to school with a reading list. I wouldn't care
except our entire culture lies in the hands of these women. The pretty boys stood up as
"leaders" are elected by them. Trudeau, Rishi, Macron, Obama were made in a lab to appeal to
women who call themselves "feminists". Most of them — remember Obama's cradle-to
grave Julia? — are childless, and/or without a partner; the rest terrorize their
families into quiescence. Honey, all the battles have been won and were won thirty years
ago — you are just cosplaying actual feminists who opened the professions for
women. I mean there is even a spacewalk team that is women. They dropped their tool
box into space, but never mind, they were women.
Disney-Pixar's
'Elemental' is a beautiful, sensible, and very leftist movie. The newest movie from
Pixar for Disney is Elemental, which was released in the spring. However, since I
never voluntarily watch these movies, I ended up seeing it now because I'm staying with people who
wanted to watch it. It was a fascinating film because, combined with surprising common sense,
it reflects so much about leftist values and how leftists impose them on Americans, especially on
children. For those who know nothing about the movie, the setting is a place called Element
City, in which actual elements live: water, air, earth, and fire. A fire husband and his
pregnant wife (Bernie and Cinder) escape their obviously third-world country and come to Element
City, only to find that they're not welcome anywhere because they're perceived as so
destructive. They find a slum building and, through hard work and devotion to their core fire
values, build a prosperous store and are the heart of a thriving fire community.
Why
Did Superhero Movies Get So Bad? Coastal elites have always heavily skewed leftwing,
a fact which no serious person denies. As such, for decades, American entertainment has
jabbed at anyone to the right-of-center but generally kept the criticism relatively
tongue-in-cheek. After all, being blatantly adversarial to half of the country is a risky
calculation — Republicans watch movies, too. But, naturally, as unabashed
left-wing radicalism spilled into the mainstream during this time, the people tasked with creating
entertainment jumped the shark and crammed it into every medium we consume. And studios
embrace it — recall Disney executives proudly touting their "not-at-all-secret gay
agenda." Story and immersion took a backseat to "representation" of "marginalized" people and
hardly veiled leftist commentaries replaced character development. The goal became lecturing,
not entertaining.
Am I
the only one not rushing to Saturday Night at the Movies? Remember when movies were
fun? Dinner and a movie was everyone's favorite date night. No more. I guess
that's what happens when every script promotes a left-wing agenda or reminds you that capitalism is
responsible for global warming. Or when white men are responsible for every sin in
history. Honestly, the movies are so predictable these days that it takes away all the
excitement. A remake of Poseidon would probably blame the wave on climate change. The
Sting would have half of characters preaching homosexuality. Saturday Night Fever would
probably preach bail reform. Too much politics and not enough else! So don't blame me
if I spend my money doing something else.
Hollywood
may be in its death throes, and deservedly so. Throughout the 1920s and into the very
early 1930s, movie plots got progressively more sordid. However, in the face of combined
pressure from consumers and politicians, Hollywood cleaned up its act, producing family- and
America-friendly movies for the next 35 or so years until the social compact started falling apart
in the mid-1960s. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Hollywood turned against America. This
was in part because industry followed the Baby Boomers, who were a huge source of funds and who
were moving left at warp speed. The trend accelerated as Hollywood actors, few of whom were
credentialed, figured that they could give themselves an intellectual gloss if they followed campus
social and political trends. With bully pulpits, publicists, and unbounded egos, they gave
unsavory, unwashed, and unhinged academic intellectuals glamor and reach.
Lightning
and the Lightning Bug. Disney has decided that they are no longer a company that
tells stories, but a screeching, scolding schoolmarm, more interested in enforcing discipline than
education. Second, if they want to be a propaganda organ for the progressive movement, the
people who run Disney are sure making a mess of the job. [...] Disney is just a pale, pathetic
reflection of the glory, the magic it once seemed to produce so effortlessly.
Woke-Poisoned
Hollywood Has Doomed the Once-Unbeatable Movie Industry. Hollywood, specifically the
film industry, is going through a legitimate, serious, and potentially fatal phase. No one
likes the movies anymore. The key to a healthy industry — audience goodwill —
is evaporating quickly.
Disney
Fully Caves to China for Upcoming Ant-Man Movie with Pro-Socialism Message. Disney seems to have learned a
lesson about going woke and going broke, albeit it seems to have discovered the wrong one. They seem to have
concluded that "if American audiences don't applaud radical leftist ideas, then perhaps China will."
Disney/Marvel's upcoming superhero flick "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" seems to do just that. While China
doesn't tolerate LGBT messaging, what it does like to hear is that political systems that lead to communism are a good
thing. This is exactly what Disney/Marvel decided to get across in the movie with a line from a character.
According to YouTube Valliant Renegade who got an early viewing of the flick, one character delivers a very serious line
in the film. "Unpopular take, but hear me out: Socialism is a good thing," says the character. [Tweet]
Hunter Biden, victim.
Conservatives wonder why Hollywood no longer makes original, family-friendly TV shows and movies. The reason is
the writing talent today is so thin that the movie and TV studios are reduced to playing to the LGBT crowd or taking old
movies and slapping POC faces on the characters. Sometimes both. Audiences are bored by it. They want
to be entertained, not indoctrinated.
Hollywood
is all about glitz, glamour and gore. Theaters, empty. Projectionists don't even show up.
In some places the popcorn last popped when "Casablanca" opened. "Glass Onion" in the city's greatest most perfect
theater — the Paris, 58th off Fifth — had 10 patrons. Russell Crowe's statuette might not
increase the size of roles offered but the size of eggs laid. Why? Because he actually keeps the thing in
his chicken barn. Our population today? Migrants. Think they're eager to see films on artificial
intelligence? Think seniors rush to see stars they don't know, can't pronounce, have unfamiliar backgrounds and
every reel is stabbing, killing, dismembering? What ever happened to June, moon, spoon and customers?
Hollywood. Where actresses of 22 are considered senior citizens. Where there's such jealousy that they stab
you in the front. Where vasectomies are sold door to door — and this is what decides what ordinary
souls want to see?
Abortion propaganda film
'Call Jane' flops at the box office. Perhaps the film flopped for two reasons. The first could be
that Jane's Revenge is not a group to emulate. It frequently engages in violence while promoting the violent act
of abortion. Last year, Live Action News reported on multiple occasions how the group has taken responsibility for
attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. While the group portrayed in the film officially disbanded in 1971 and
members were never indicted of a crime, it is clear that they inspired today's Jane's Revenge and its terrorist
activities. The second reason the movie may have flopped is because American moviegoers have never seemed overly
interested in movies that glorify the death of a child through abortion. While most Americans want abortion to
remain legal, they also overwhelmingly support significant limits on the deadly procedure. In general, Americans
become more and more uncomfortable with abortion as pregnancy progresses.
Movie
Attendance Collapses 48% over Four Very Woke Years. Between 2018 and 2022, movie theater attendance
dropped in half, and I do not want to hear any excuses about the pandemic. People will go to the theater to see a
movie that appeals to them. Spider-Man: No Way Home proved this last year. Top Gun: Maverick
proved it this year. Avatar: Way of the Water is proving it right now. And those are just the
blockbusters. [...] In other words, blaming streaming or the China Flu on the collapse of the movie
business is anti-science, so please do shut up.
Disney's
first animated movie with a prominent gay character bombs. In 2021, Disney greenlit Strange World, an
animated movie about a family journeying through a mysterious land to save a resource that's losing its energy.
Bob Iger, who is returning to Disney to "save" it from Bob Chapek's sad tenure, was still on board in 2021, so he must
have greenlit it. That's a relevant fact because the movie bombed at the box office. Coincidentally or not,
the movie has an openly gay subtext as one of the main male characters crushes on another boy. Before the movie
opened, the media wanted audiences to know about the gay romance, probably under the mistaken belief that audiences
would care: [Numerous tweets] My suspicion is that, while many parents don't want their kids to have thrust
upon them even more pro-LGBTQ material than they're already receiving in school, a big reason for the box office bomb
may be that most heterosexuals just aren't that interested in gay romance. They can't relate to it, and they're
not impressed with Disney making such a niche film. Despite the left's relentless "gay, gay, gay" push, gays are,
on average, no more interesting than any other people, and things that are of unique interest to them, such as same-sex
relationships, don't change that fact. But yeah, thinking about it some more, it's probable that the failure is
mostly because Disney isn't supposed to be pushing children into a lifestyle that is unhealthy. No matter how the
LGBTQ crowd tries to dress it up, we know that they have more substance abuse, partner abuse, depression, and suicide
than the general population — and that's true no matter how supportive the greater culture is.
Hollywood's
Latest Attempt at a Woke Feminist Movie Is the Worst Bomb Yet. No matter how many times Hollywood tries to push
them on us, these films with woke messaging bomb at the box office over and over again. These mistakes cost studios and
the companies that back them millions and millions of dollars and yet they continue to pump out these expensive movies,
paying giant losses all in an effort to roll out "the message."
Our
Summer of Cultural Suicide. Hollywood should have been ecstatic over 21st-century globalization, which should
have made filmmakers and stars even richer and more popular, with a potential audience of more than seven billion. But
quarantine has shut down most theaters. Amazon, Netflix and Facebook, along with cable TV, have sent theater revenues
diving for years. Silicon Valley can create filmmakers who have no need to get near Southern California. In
response, Hollywood counts on bringing comic books to the big screen, or on making poor remakes of old classics. When
directors try to make a serious new movie, the result is often the monotony and boredom of thinly veiled woke
propaganda. Viewers can take only so many heroic green crusaders, diverse superhumans, and beautiful
feminists — and only so many villainous cardboard-cutout Russian oligarchs, toothless and twangy Southern
Neanderthals, and corporate yes-men. The hypocrisy gets worse when the Chinese government often adjudicates movie
content as the price of entering a Chinese market with more than a billion potential customers. But viewers do seek out
theaters for more lectures from beautiful multimillionaires on their racist, sexist, homophobic country.
Another
feminist movie bombs at the box office. [Scroll down] I have not seen and don't plan to see this
movie. I saw one trailer about the "superwoman" theme and decided that watching a Stars hockey game was better for
me. Why are young women staying away? My guess is that a lot of young women are sick and tired of the
message. So I have a message for the people of who financed this movie: First, stop making films with predictable
dialogue. We know that Hollywood hates Trump and believes in climate change. How many times do you have to tell
us directly or indirectly? Second, I would change the title overseas to something like "Charlie's Angels Defends the
World from Trump."
Hollywood's
Dark Fate Foretold in Box Office Performance of 'Dark Fate'. Judgement Day is upon the Border Patrol, or at
least that's the message in "Terminator: Dark Fate." The latest installment of the series features Border Patrol
agents being slaughtered by a Mexican-American actor while illegal aliens flee a detention center. The people who
protect our borders, it seems, are even less human than the film's cybernetic antagonist. The message was received loud
and clear by the "woke" press, who appreciated the bloodbath but thought Hollywood should have taken this fiction
further. "It'd be fascinating to see a world where the Terminators are working as ICE agents," wrote one critic, "the
ultimate purveyors of evil."
Young
Adults Fed Up with SJW and LGBTQ Tyranny. The new "Batwoman" TV series featuring an openly lesbian Batwoman is
failing big-time. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that young adults are turned off by the show's extreme woke and
SJW (social justice warrior) politically correct messaging. "Woke" means you are aware of social and racial injustice.
"Woke" also means straight white men are the source of all evil and must be punished. Women and minorities are perfect in
every way. Woke culture says anyone who dares criticize a woman or a minority hates women and minorities. Batman
fans are outraged over the "Batwoman" TV series trashing Batman and its in-your-face trashing of men.
The Editor says...
In other words, it's a "made for TV" movie. Just about every Saturday afternoon filler movie on TV is a
man-bashing chick flick, peppered with man-bashing commercials.
Coming Soon to an Empty
Theatre Near You. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the movie theatre, for entertainment and
not progressive indoctrination, think again. Netflix just paid a record $10 million for a hagiographic documentary
on Democratic starlet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After the demonization of Dick Cheney in Vice and canonization
of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex both deservedly flopped last year, Hollywood is going full speed ahead
on political fare, as always only in the left lane. Studio bosses never let such trifles as box-office poison change
their social justice warrior ways. Netflix outbid Hulu, Focus, and Amazon to pick up Knock Down the House, after
it stunned absolutely no one by taking the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Favorite Award.
More
than half of movies have been R-rated in the past 50 years. The MPAA is marking the 50th anniversary of its
film ratings by releasing data on how movies have been rated over the last half-century. The R rating has been placed
on by far and away the majority of the movies since then, more than half of the almost 30,000 titles that have been given
classifications. The breakdown: Since 1968, the first year of the rating classifications, there have been 17,202
movies rated R, 5,578 rated M/GP/PG, 4,913 rated PG-13 and 1,574 rated G. Just 524 movies have been rated X
or NC-17, reflecting the reluctance of exhibitors to carry those titles.
45
Hollywood Groups Sign Letter Demanding Transgender Inclusion In Movies. The pressure is on for Hollywood to
portray transgender characters in movies and television more positively. In concert with GLAAD, a recent manifesto
signed by more than 45 groups, talent agencies, and production companies state that the age of Trump makes the need
for transgender characters more dire than ever before, according to LifeSiteNews. "As a community, trans people are
fighting every day to be seen and accepted as human beings," the letter says.
Confronting
Leftist Lies. Movies and TV shows are no longer mindless entertainment. Ninety-nine percent of what comes
out of Hollywood is lies; designed to seduce Americans into embracing Leftists' ungodly agenda. Hollywood relentlessly
demonizes Christians, America, mainstream Americans, and Trump. [...] The 6 o'clock news was on the TV in the background
while I was chatting with a relative at his home Folks, it was a truly painful experience. Every news story was liberal
spin and/or lies. Programming after the news was seductive liberal propaganda. I watched my relatives unknowingly
soaking in all the Leftist beautifully presented excrement.
Propaganda film: Disney
Debuts 'First Boy Princess' in 'Star vs. the Forces of Evil'. I'm sorry, but what the heck has happened to
cartoons? Not only are they hideously ugly to look at and filled with vulgar humor, but they all seem to be spewing
some sort of leftist ideology. I mean, seriously, what's wrong with slipping on banana peels and having anvils fall on
your head? Is that not funny anymore? Why does everything have to have a sanctimonious message? Take
Star vs. The Forces of Evil, which airs on Disney XD, for example. The latest episode of this show is
being lauded all over the internet for depicting Disney's "first boy princess."
Oscar
Contender: Movie About 30-Yr Old Guy Who Seduces Teenage Boy. How can it be that in the midst of the
firestorm of accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault all over Hollywood and beyond, that a movie about a gay man
"seducing" a teenage boy is now being deemed Oscar-worthy?
Will
Hollywood get the message? Summer movie revenue plummets. By the end of this coming holiday weekend,
Hollywood's domestic summer box office will be down a whopping — and historic — 16% from last
year. That's the worst decline in modern times and the first time since 2006 that midyear movie box office failed to
reach $4 billion. Summer totals will probably limp in around $3.7 billion, which still seems like a fortune to us
schlumps who are balking at paying $13 or more for a worn seat on a sticky floor and twice as much for a popcorn and drink.
Hollywood
pumps cash to save Senate majority for Democrats. Hollywood is pouring money into the
midterm elections, with A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
and Barbra Streisand all coughing up blockbuster bucks. The donations are largely aimed at
keeping the Senate in Democratic hands.
British
filmmakers ordered to provide gay, racial diversity on screen. British filmmakers must
now meet new targets for ethnic minority, gay and female characters on- and off-screen if they wish
to continue receiving funding from Britain's largest public film fund. The British Film Institute
has revealed its "Three Ticks" scheme, which will be implemented in September to ensure diversity in
films and behind the scenes, The Telegraph reported. Films must "tick" at least two of three
criteria: on-screen diversity; off-screen diversity and "creating opportunities and social
mobility," the paper reported.
16 Reasons Why the United
States is Going to Hell in a Handbasket. [#3] Everywhere we turn today we (and
our children) are bombarded with images of sex and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures,
music, and TV. This constant bombardment has promoted promiscuity, and corrupted the minds of
the American people and made us into a nation a degenerates and perverts.
What Fed Up Gets Wrong
About the Food Industry. There's enough to dislike about Fed Up — a New
York Daily News critic gives the film two stars — that I suspect viewers like you will find it
is the film you don't want you to see. Fed Up features a who's who of well-known
supporters of increased food regulations, including Marion Nestle, Kelly Brownell, and Michael
Pollan. That's to be expected. But it gives little screen time to opponents of increased
regulation. And when it does, the treatment they receive is unfair by any objective measure.
The film's brief gotcha moment, for example, centers on Professor David Allison of the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, whose public-health research the filmmakers targeted because, the filmmakers
say, it's been funded by food companies.
'Noah'
Review: Brilliantly Sinister Anti-Christian Filmmaking. [Scroll down] The Message is
everything. And this is where Aronofsky is the snake in the garden. Using $135 million, he
and Paramount have brilliantly and deviously disguised the Pagan god Gaia as the God of the Old
Testament ... as THE God. And let's give the Devil his due: using the story of Noah to twist
Christianity into something it is not, is a genius piece of propagandizing that is sure to lead many
away from God under the mistaken belief that through left-wing environmentalism they are coming closer
to Him.
New Noah epic awash in flood of criticism for green agenda and taking liberties
with Bible. [E]ven before it opens in America this week and Britain on April 4, Noah, a $130 million
blockbuster with Russell Crowe in the lead role, is already awash in a turbulent sea of controversy. [...] Noah's
director Darren Aronofsky, a self-described atheist who made the Oscar-nominated hit The Black Swan, has described
the movie as is "the least biblical biblical film ever made" and called Noah "the first environmentalist". According
to one early review, the name "God" is not actually spoken at any stage.
Beck
Continues Crusade Against Noah Film: It's the 'Babylonian Chainsaw Massacre'. Glenn Beck panned the
new film Noah last Friday [3/21/2014], but over the weekend he saw the movie to see if it was better than
the reviews said. Beck came out of that experience bewildered at some of the creative license in the film
and how Noah was portrayed as a "homicidal maniac." Someone at Paramount reached out to Beck and invited
him to watch the movie, but Beck found it hard to contain his shock as the film unfolded, even giggling at parts
involving the "rock people" sent by God to help out Noah. Beck credited the movie for not being the climate change
propaganda some reviews made it out to be, but aside from that, he said, "If you are looking for a biblical movie,
this is definitely not it."
Tinseltown's Propaganda Problem.
The legendary media tycoon William Randolph Hearst believed America needed a strongman and that Franklin D. Roosevelt would fit the bill.
He ordered his newspapers to support FDR and the New Deal. [...] Hearst also believed the voters had to be made to see what could be gained from a
president with a free hand. So he financed the film Gabriel Over the White House, starring Walter Huston. The film depicts an FDR
look-alike president who, after a coma-inducing car accident, is transformed from a passive Warren Harding type into a hands-on dictator. The
reborn commander-in-chief suspends the Constitution, violently wipes out corruption, and revives the economy through a national socialist agenda.
When Congress tries to impeach him, he dissolves Congress.
Exclusive:
Hollywood Brainstorms 'Portraying ObamaCare in TV & Film'. The intent here is obvious and deadly serious, and the American people
should brace themselves for a propaganda push in their film and television entertainment that is meant only to aid and abet Obama's federal
government. This invitation should serve as a reminder that, with rare exceptions (that only prove the rule), Hollywood is not filled with
brave rebels, iconoclasts, and individual thinkers; but rather they are servants eager to do their government's bidding and who understand that
success in the entertainment business means never coloring outside the lines of left-wing conformity.
7
Lies Liberals Tell Young Americans. [#3] Faith isn't relevant anymore: Hollywood almost
universally makes Christians look bad in TV shows and movies, liberalism has become reflexively hostile to Christianity,
and militant atheists work overtime to attack people of faith. Yet and still, this nation has been a success in large
part because of Christianity. If not for this nation's Protestant work ethic, fundamental Christian decency and
biblically inspired dedication to human rights, we would have never been so successful.
Harvey
Weinstein has secret film project to destroy NRA. The "Shakespeare in Love" producer told Howard Stern on his
radio show Wednesday [1/15/2014] that the NRA is a "disaster area" before revealing a secret project. "I shouldn't say
this, but I'll tell it to you, Howard," he said. "I'm going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we're going to take
this head-on. And they're going to wish they weren't alive after I'm done with them."
Harvey Weinstein
Has Change of Heart On Violent Content In Films. A day after he announced he was going to make a film taking on the
NRA with Meryl Streep, Harvey Weinstein — the producer of the violent Quentin Tarantino movies such as Django
Unchained, Pulp Fiction, Reservior [sic] Dogs, Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards — told
CNN's Piers Morgan in an interview to air tonight [1/17/2014] that he has had a change of heart about violent content in film.
The Editor says...
The text in the article above has now been revised, and the long list of movie titles has been deleted.
I haven't seen any of those films, nor would I care to watch them even if the theaters were clean, cell phones were prohibited,
and admission was free. But as I understand it, each of the movies named in the article immediately above is replete with
gunfire (and, I would assume, those perfectly white and smokeless muzzle flashes from every gun), and the central heroic figure(s)
triumph in the end through their use of bigger and better firearms than those employed by their many enemies. And now the
producer of those many movies, who has made a great quantity of money from their production, says that he has had a change of heart.
Let's all wait and see if this man never again makes another violent film that's saturated with senseless gun violence.
Harvey
Weinstein and Meryl Streep new movie to make NRA 'wish they weren't alive'. Mr. Weinstein has been watching
too many movies if he thinks the good guys find fully loaded firearms in convenient locations to use only when necessary.
Before Mr. Weinstein and Miss Streep start production of their multimillion-dollar effort to persuade Americans to give up
their guns, they might want to look at the history books of what happens when you do.
The Hypocrisy of Hollywood. That Hollywood
is no longer a source of entertainment but now a source of (liberal) propaganda isn't exactly news. Even avowed leftists will admit that
film and television are solidly the domain of progressive liberalism and that progressive messaging is embedded in just about everything Hollywood
produces. From children's programming to the gratuitous "awards shows" that basically feature writers, actors, and producers giving awards
to one another, it's either bold and in-your-face or latent and just beneath the surface — but its there. The overt liberalism
that is the entertainment industry is indisputable.
Reality Bites Gays. Image control has been crucial
to gay activists. In 1980 Hollywood produced, Cruising, a big budget film that showed the seamier side of gay life. [...] Since then,
any filmmaker who does not conform his gay characters to a positive and largely asexual template is likely to be criticized. The arrival of
the AIDS pandemic helped reinforce this pressure by offering up a new version of a time honored movie stereotype — the terminally ill secular
saint. Today it is allowable to use a gay drama queen as a comedic foil, but only if he is also shown to have a heart of gold.
Otherwise gay characters have to be positive. In recent years such gay characters have been everywhere on TV and in movies.
Hollywood and the New Racism. If you believe press reports, Twelve
Years a Slave is undeniably one of the greatest — perhaps the greatest — film of 2013. [...] [I]t joins a number of other recent pictures such as
The Help and The Butler, and even, in a twisted way, Django. These films are all examples of a generally unrecognized subgenre of the propaganda
film. They are racial films designed to raise an admonishing finger toward the white audience regarding its "legacy" as slaveholders while bolstering the blacks in
their conviction of victimhood.
Hollywood Fanning Flames
Of Racial Hatred With False History. Slavery's stain on American history cannot and should not be whitewashed. But neither
should it be portrayed as worse than it was to serve a political agenda. And yet this is what Hollywood is doing with its slate of horror
films about slavery and its legacy. [...] The movie ["The Butler"], heavily influenced by Obama cheerleader Oprah Winfrey, ends with what looks
like a campaign commercial for Obama.
Hollywood Goes Bankrupt. In her new book, Sleepless in
Hollywood, [Lynda] Obst says that thanks to the crash and burn of the DVD industry, the entire Hollywood profit model is at risk. [...] Because the
business model of film is changing, the only way to make money is to cash in theatrically. That's why we've seen an uptick in the number of 3D movies,
no matter how poorly made — they allow theaters to charge in excess of $15 per ticket in major metropolitan areas.
Lesbian love epic wins Cannes' top
prize. An uncompromisingly explicit film about a love affair between two teenage girls has won the top award at the Cannes film Festival,
which finished on Sunday [5/26/2013].
Relativism: America's new 'religion'.
It is unlikely that many Americans would consciously choose a culture of coarseness, so why is American culture — TV, radio,
films, books and advertising — so immersed in violence, indiscriminate sex, superficiality, pornography and ugliness?
There is much talk about our freedom to choose, but we rarely hear that we can't choose the consequences of our choices. When
relativism is adopted by a society, it does not produce beauty, but coarseness, if not as the desired outcome, then as an unintended
consequence. One can see this occurring in America, in a descent to the lowest common denominator when it comes to art, music,
literature, public discourse and entertainment.
The President Gives Hollywood a Pass
on Violence. The president's campaign against gun violence has produced a stale debate marked by lots of speeches with
little achieved. A more creative chief executive would have used this moment to widen the discussion by drawing attention to the
increasingly graphic violence so pervasive in television shows, movies and videogames. Mr. Obama is particularly well positioned
to challenge Hollywood because of his special relationship with the media world's elites.
Stone-faced lies. In the wake of World
War II, quite a few people failed to recognize the threat posed by Communist ideology. In their eyes, Marxist/Leninist societies were emancipating
workers from capitalism. This view turned out to be wrong as well, and in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and Cambodia, tens of millions were massacred
as a result. Today, of course, we see the world more clearly, don't we? Well, some do, some don't.
5 Signs Of Societal Degeneration In America.
[#3] Decay In Entertainment: During WWII, when we had troops in the field, Hollywood made movies portraying them as heroes fighting for a just cause.
Today, Hollywood undermines the war effort and talks about the troops like unstable drones. Actors openly encourage hatred against the country where they
became rich and famous.
Hollywood's cynicism is
breeding disconcerting cultural standards. By the time they are 18, American children — who watch an average
of four hours of television per day — will see 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence, according to the
American Psychiatric Association. The consequences of this exposure to violence, which only increases with age, are not
insignificant, as the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry points out: Such exposure not only desensitizes
viewers to violence, but it leads to more violence in the real world. When it comes to violence, life imitates art.
Obama's Historical Fiction. The political left has a
long history of using plays, movies, and TV series to push their agenda because dramatic media showcase their agenda items to good effect. Many
audience members get so wrapped up in the images, characters, and action that they don't stop to think about the huge dose of political propaganda
being served on the side.
Hollywood: Driving the Homosexual Agenda for 40 Years.
Hollywood celebrities exuberantly celebrated President Obama's recent declaration of support for gay marriage. But
Hollywood did not have to come out of the closet and support homosexuality — it has long used its influence to purposely
swing public opinion in favor of homosexuality. For several decades, Hollywood has shown its overt support for
homosexuality. Brokeback Mountain was nominated for Best Picture for its unabashedly sympathetic portrayal of a doomed
gay relationship. Newt Gingrich's half-sister officiated at a gay wedding on "Friends" in the 1990s. More
recently, late night talk show host Conan O'Brian officiated at an actual gay wedding.
Obama's Historical Fiction. The
political left has a long history of using plays, movies, and TV series to push their agenda because dramatic media showcase their
agenda items to good effect. Many audience members get so wrapped up in the images, characters, and action that they don't stop
to think about the huge dose of political propaganda being served on the side. This is one reason why the left talks so much of
narratives. The political right, on the other hand, completely dominates the emotionally cooler medium of talk radio, where
words alone have to carry the message.
The Unseen Message
of The Hunger Games. Though the liberal media and leftist Hollywood are wrapping themselves
in The Hunger Games, the book series' pro-individualism, anti-socialist/communist/totalitarianism message
has thus far eluded them — but the legions of children reading the books are getting the message. ... The
author is starkly clear in this anti-oppressive government premise, and at no time during the reading of the books are you
left with any sense this is a greedy rich vs. righteous poor tale. No, this series is about the children of a
once-free American culture wrestling their own destiny back from the iron grip of government totalitarianism.
Why the Left Loves the Titanic Disaster.
The Titanic storyline embraced by left-leaning filmmakers, writers, and university professors is right out of "Das Kapital." To them, the disaster
happened because heartless capitalist put profits ahead of human lives. They falsely claim that this is why the Titanic had too few lifeboats.
Above all, leftist ideologues vilify the Titanic's rich first-class passengers. They falsely claim they got first crack at lifeboats — and
as a consequence, passengers in second class and steerage died in large numbers. In this interpretation, the Titanic's legacy was not about
women-and-children first. It was about first-class passengers going first. This false narrative was embraced by filmmaker James Cameron
in his 1997 epic "Titanic" — a view that many impressionable movie goers now take as fact.
Liberals
Decide They Don't Like Propaganda. Act of Valor opened last weekend to an enthusiastic response
from moviegoers — it topped all films with a $24.5 million gross — but a less enthusiastic
reaction from liberal critics and pundits. ... Well, the movie is certainly pro-SEALs. Whether that makes it
propaganda, you can decide for yourself. What is funny about this, however, is that quite a few movies have
been made about post-September 11 warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Virtually every one
of them has been shameless propaganda.
Top
10 Ways Hollywood Can Win Its Audience Back. [#4] Keep Politics Out of Children's Movies.
You loaded up "The Muppets," "Cars 2," and "Happy Feet 2" with political sucker punching and left a ton
of money on the table as soon as word got out.
Red Tails Nosedives. Red Tails flew
into the movie theatres January 20 with a ton of fanfare, via free publicity from a gushing Main Stream Media
eager to promote the true story of Black World War II pilots overcoming white
racism and segregation to make the world safe for Democracy.
Why
Businessmen Wear Black Hats in Today's Movies. It is hardly surprising that pop culture protesters
in zombie makeup are now intent on Occupying Wall Street. For the past decade, Hollywood has been casting
financiers as the demonic villains of society. They have even replaced terrorists as villains. In
the Warner Bros. political thriller "Syriana," for example, the villain is not al Qaeda, an enemy state,
the mafia, or even a psychotic serial killer. Rather, it's the big oil companies who manipulate terrorism,
wars, and social unrest to drive up oil prices.
Movie
Review of Current Blockbuster Movie "The Help". I found "The Help" a ridiculously one-sided
examination of a serious subject in order to pursue an agenda. The nonstop stereotypes were so annoying
I walked out early. ... Every possible stereotype imaginable was used from the dumb blonde to the wise noble
negro having to put up with treacherous, stupid whites. Strong sensible black women dealing with overly
freckled cruel, vindictive white women was the flavor of the day.
Horror as
Stimulant. A recent newspaper article discusses recent scholarship on horror films, how they
have grown more graphic, and what is their appeal to audiences. A new peer-reviewed journal, Horror
Studies, started last year. One theory not mentioned, because it wouldn't suit left-liberal insistence
that much of America teeters on poverty, desperation, and despair, is that life has actually grown too comfortable
in our country, up and down the social ladder. Challenges are few, and people have a lot of time on their
hands. They seek increasing levels of horror, violence, profanity, obscenity, and other kinds of extremism
in entertainment in order to feel alive.
NBC's Diversity Bet
Fails. NBC's past season, from Fall 2010 to Spring 2011, was a massive bust. NBC's big
bet on diversity failed. ... Sooner or later someone at a network will take a gamble on men, and provide a
staple of cheap, entertaining, and amusing male-skewing shows. The country will be better off, because
traditional male-oriented shows for the most part must embody fairly conservative values. Honor your word,
show physical and emotional courage, stand up and fight, protect the weak, punish the wicked. Those are
the stories men of all ages are interested in, and are almost completely absent on the TV screen every night.
In
'Cars 2,' John Lasseter Says Big Oil is the 'Uber Bad Guy'. I kept thinking about, "OK. A spy
movie in the world where cars are alive. What would be a really good kind of über bad guy?
Who is an über bad guy?" I kept going to big oil. ... And so I thought, well, that could be really
cool in that you could have big oil versus alternative fuel. That's when we kind of crafted the bad
guy's story.
Review of Kung Fu Panda
2. Christian parents may be a bit concerned with the film's reliance on Taoism and pagan
beliefs. For example, there is a heavy emphasis on finding one's "inner peace" and using that peace to
accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. It also references finding harmony in the universe and includes
pagan ideas involving a soothsayer that can predict one's future. Naturally, for those who believe that
inner peace and harmony can only be achieved by a close relationship with Christ, this element of the film
may be a bit disconcerting.
Killing Politicians and
Other Guilty Pleasures. [Scroll down] I am not referring to the British faux-documentary
Death of a President (2006) that has been mentioned by some this last week, in which President George W.
Bush is assassinated. I am writing of two American-made films in which characters presented as right-wing
elected officials were killed, by either the hero of the movie (Shooter) or by one of the right-wing
politician's own minions in a scene intended to be humorous (Machete). In both films, the killing
of the elected official was meant to be enjoyed by the audience, and for many on the left, that was precisely
the case.
Spike
Lee Attacks NRA. Director Spike Lee, along with his wife Tonya, came on Wednesday's [1/12/2011] Today show
to promote their new children's book, but he couldn't leave without blaming the NRA for the Gabrielle Giffords shooting
and slamming the United States of America for being "the most violent country in the history of civilization."
How
Leftist Hollywood Betrayed Post-9/11 America. Never has an industry been more cravenly political
and morally blind than Hollywood during our present struggle to defeat Islamic extremism. Tinseltown's
response to President Bush and America and our troops has been nothing short of the middle
finger of betrayal.
Hollywood's Love Affair with Obama.
Sen. Barack Obama promised us "Hope and Change" during the 2008 presidential campaign. A gaggle of
celebrities from Tom Hanks to Spike Lee predicted more than that if voters pulled the lever for Obama.
They said the senator would "change the world." Voters assumed they meant for the better. But
after 16 months of the Obama Administration in action — high unemployment, allies rebuffed,
promises shattered, chaos in Afghanistan and mind-numbing deficits — these very same celebrities
owe us an apology.
It's fine to abuse young girls, as long as you're a great film
director. So now we know. If you are a 44-year-old man, you can drug and anally rape a
terrified 13-year-old girl as she sobs, says "No, no, no," and pleads for her asthma medication —
all according to the victim's sworn testimony — and face no punishment at all. You just
have to meet two criteria — (a) you have to run away and stay away for a few decades; and
(b) you need to direct some good films. If you do, not only will you walk free, there will be a
huge campaign to protect you from the "witch-hunt" and you will be lauded as a hero.
Hollywood:
Whose Side Are You On? Once upon a time Hollywood movies were often about American heroes
vanquishing our enemies. Now they make movies attacking Americans while ignoring the real people
who attack America. Once upon a time Hollywood had no problem distinguishing our enemies from our
allies. Now our allies are often shown to be feckless and evil while our enemies are either
ignored or made out to be mere puppets of our evil leaders.
It Takes a Village of
Idiots. I have always found it odd that whenever the producers of TV, movies and records, are accused of
setting a bad example for the kids, they always insist that their product is simply entertainment and that entertainment
in no way influences youthful behavior. If they really believed it, they'd have to be even stupider than they are.
Nazis And Commies. The
real danger since the end of World War II has been the KGB, not imaginary Nazis. There must be hundreds of
films and books that rely on or mention the theme that Nazi fascist brotherhoods are everywhere — even today,
more than 65 years after Hitler was defeated. ... But no real Nazi threat has appeared anywhere except in books and
movies. It's always the Nazis, never the Communists, although the murderous rampages of Stalin make Hitler seem
tame in comparison.
The New Hollywood
Blacklist. Hollywood can still mount a soapbox and recall the dark days when people lost their jobs in
show business for daring to take an unpopular political position that was outside the mainstream. Whenever they're
criticized, they proclaim, "McCarthyism," accuse their critics of "blacklisting," and condemn the deplorable "intolerance."
Hollywood has yet to accept, perhaps even to understand, that it is the entertainment industry that excels at this slanderous
behavior.
Woody Allen
says President Obama should be granted dictatorial powers (seriously). Woody Allen has a strange
take on the democracy that allowed him to become rich and famous. The "Scoop" director said it would be a
cool idea for President Barack Obama to be dictator for for a few years. Why? So he could get things
done without all the hassle of opposing views getting in the way.
One hand washes the other: Emergency Bill to Close Tax 'Loopholes' Includes
$46 Million Tax Loophole. A bill titled "The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of
2010" that will add $115 billion to the federal deficit between now and October 2011, and that the
Democratic leadership intends to push through Congress before they leave for their week-long Memorial Day
recess, includes a special $46 million tax loophole for Hollywood movie and television producers.
Hollywood
Once Hailed Offshore Drilling. In energy production, Louisiana has been well ahead of the learning
curve for decades, and offers ready proof regarding its much-hyped "perils." The first offshore oil production
platforms went up off the Louisiana coast in 1947. By 1953 Hollywood (no less!) was already hailing the
pioneering wildcatters who moved major mountains — technological, logistical, psychological,
cultural — to tap and reap this source that today provides a quarter of America's domestic
petroleum, without causing a single major oil spill in the process.
Milk. Timing
is everything, and I doubt it's a coincidence that Hollywood — without knowing the election
outcome — chose a few weeks after the election on California's Proposition 8, to release
this very heavy-handed gay rights propaganda flick. To say this movie is "flamboyant" would be the
understatement of the year.
Squaring Off With
Obama: Hollywood is a peculiar place where celebrities who treat their own assistants and household
help like underpaid coolies, are constantly demanding that Washington should do more for the poor and the oppressed.
Hollywood is where actors think God was created in their image, while actresses are so full of plastic and collagen that
even their own dogs can't pick them out of a crowd. I'm sure that Sean Penn thinks he should be ambassador to
Cuba, and if only he owed back taxes, I'm certain this administration would give him the gig.
George Soros, Movie Mogul: Philanthropist
George Soros wants the medium of film to advance his goal of tilting America to the left. … Most of the documentaries
that receive Sundance funding are highly critical of some aspect of American life, capitalism or Western culture. The
projects generally share George Soros's worldview that America is a troubling if not sinister influence in the world, that the
War on Terror is a fraud and terrorists are misunderstood freedom fighters, and that markets are fundamentally unjust.
Help! I'm
a Hollywood Republican. I'm a Republican. A heretofore secret Hollywood Republican. I know men and
women who are heavy drug addicts and they have no problem finding employment in Hollywood. I know men and
women who are gambling addicts and they work pretty regularly. There's even a director who was arrested
for child molestation and yet was hired by Disney — yes, Disney — to helm a picture, and
people defended this decision by saying even child molesters have a right to work. I would bet
my bottom dollar that all these people are on the correct side of the political spectrum. They
are liberal democrats.
A Right Turn On Hollywood
And Vine. Not everybody in Hollywood loves Hillary or thinks that "An Inconvenient Truth" is the
only truth. So a growing number of Tinseltown conservatives have launched a counterattack to what they
call leftist films like "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Syriana."
Hollywood stars attack
Palin. Hollywood is liberal and right now there is no love for the conservative Alaskan
Governor who made history last month by becoming the first woman on the Republican party's US presidential
ticket. Governor Palin may have the look of a mum in one of those cheesy US sitcoms, but everyone who's
anyone in Tinseltown is barracking for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Hollywood heavyweights set
to rake in cash. One of the first major fund-raisers for the budding Barack Obama presidential
campaign will be hosted by entertainment moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg — that's the Hollywood
buzz.
Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people.
The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a
God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential
election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country
and help create a socialist America.
The Editor says...
When Jon Voight wrote the article above, he stirred up quite a controversy in Hollywood, where dissenting
opinions are evidently not permitted. The article below includes a discussion of the effort to blacklist
Mr. Voight for expressing those opinions.
Enemy
of the State. Last Monday on these pages, my article "Blacklist Then and Now" coincidentally
appeared the same day as an op-ed penned by screen legend Jon Voight. Since his Oscar-winning turn in
the 1978 antiwar film "Coming Home," the venerable actor has come to the conclusion that he and many in
the "so-called peace movement" were manipulated by Marxist propaganda.
Bill Maher's Anti-Religion Movie.
"Religion is detrimental to the progress of society." That's my favorite quote from Bill Maher's often
brilliant, but often unfocused "documentary," called "Religulous." … Maher sends up everything outrageous
and unusual in religion, cherry-picking the fringe elements wherever he can find them. There's no question
that he's serious in his endeavors, and for a while following him feels like it's going to lead somewhere.
Alas, it doesn't.
Gere
and Theron Bash Bush in Venice. Richard Gere and Charlize Theron added their voices to a chorus of
stars taking swipes at the Bush administration at the Venice Film Festival. "How did we elect Bush
twice?" Gere asked rhetorically while promoting his new film, "The Hunting Party."
Elites vs.
America: Hollywood, which significantly supported its country in World War II, today practically
requires anti-war, anti-American activism among its ranks. Some days, it seems The New York Times
exists to divulge secret US war plans and to portray efforts aimed at our enemies as hopeless.
Soros
Anti-American Horror Propaganda Coming to a Theater Near You. Not too many commentators seem to have noticed
that George Soros is slowly but surely becoming the mainstream media that is the focus of the analysis we do at
NewsBusters. The liberal billionaire-turned-philanthropist has been buying up media properties for years in order
to drive home his message to the American public that they are too materialistic, too wasteful, too selfish, and too stupid
to decide for themselves how to run their own lives.
Drives
You Up AWOL. After five years of news footage and documentaries coming from the war in Iraq,
"Stop-Loss" is as phony as a re-enactment with finger puppets. "Stop-Loss" is a highly patriotic film,
if you happen to dream of the restored caliphate as you sleep in your Osama bin Laden pajamas.
War is hell at the box office. This is the
Hollywood primary and the results are in. Americans simply will not head to their local Cineplex to watch anything to
do with the war in Iraq, the plight faced by veterans returning home or the broader George W. Bush war on terror.
Oliver Stone's W 'won't
recoup'. If recent trends continue Hollywood may be looking for a government handout. A
surge of liberal style patriotism has gripped the movers and shakers in Hollywood, they have produced movie
after movie critical of the war in Iraq. Every one a box office dud.
Hollywood Explodes
With Anti-War Venom. Recall, when our actors voluntarily joined the armed forces (Jimmy Stewart,
Clark Gable), when actresses manned USO canteens, when producers filmed patriotic movies to support the troops
and give America a sense of pride and shared battles. So yesterday!
The Iraq Movie Flop: The Robert Redford movie
"Lions for Lambs" has been a box-office disappointment. … It is not ordinarily big news when a movie does
poorly. Indeed, Mr. Redford's film has been savaged by critics, which makes its paltry ticket sales
even less of a surprise. Still, its weakness at the box office has been the focus of attention.
If you like old movies, read this. Hollywood's Red Decade:
As movie-goers, theatre owners and studio shareholders endure yet another wave of anti-American box office duds,
like Rendition and Lions for Lambs, it is worth remembering that left wing propaganda has real roots in Hollywood.
And thanks to the character of our media and cultural establishment, we rarely get to hear about them.
Three
cultural trends that finally died in '07. In the last year, Hollywood dropped enough anti-war
bombs to launch its own Shock and Awe campaign. Robert Redford's star-studded Lions for Lambs was panned
by critics and moviegoers across the ideological spectrum. But the bunker-buster of box-office bombs was
Brian De Palma's Redacted, which grossed a staggeringly paltry $65,000.
War Porn: Brian De Palma's Redacted is
a movie that gives war criticism a bad name. It's a nasty piece of work — and not in a
good way. He means to shock, but his film is merely distasteful. … Some have denounced the film as
anti-American or as propaganda for al-Qaida, but that exaggerates its potency.
'Redacted' is Repulsive. Brian
DePalma's "Redacted" did something that is not easy to do: It left me briefly at a loss for words. But
given that words are what a movie review is made of, I shall select a few: Repugnant, repulsive,
anti-American propaganda. Whereas "Lions for Lambs" could have been written by a first-year college
film class, "Redacted" could have been written by the "Ministry of Information" of Iran or Hamas.
Redacted Ad Absurdum. This
fall, the Hollywood left once again cranked up its propaganda machine, flooding American theaters with
anti-military, anti-Iraqi Freedom films in hopes of capitalizing on the perceived abysmal public opinion
of the War on Terror, the Bush Administration, and the United States military. The latest of these
was Redacted, which opened in fifteen theaters on November 16.
Hollywood in
all-out assault on America's 'war on terror': A generation ago, Hollywood movies
doubting the goodwill and sincerity of the American government were invariably shot through
with a sense of paranoia — nervy, unsettling films such as The Conversation, or All the
President's Men. Now, though, with the Iraq war dragging on, the bad faith of the
US government seems to be almost a given in the movie business.
Hollywood is
casualty of war as movie-goers shun Iraq films. The wave of recent films set against the
backdrop of war in Iraq and post-9/11 security has failed to win over film-goers keen to escape grim news
headlines when they go to the movies, analysts say. … Almost without exception … the crop of
movies have struggled to turn a profit at the box-office and in many cases have received a mauling
from unimpressed critics as well.
Howard
Zinn's Revisionist 'A People's History' Comes to TV. Hollywood doesn't learn.
Even though the latest round of America-hating movies flopped, Project Greenlight producer
Chris Moore will turn "A People's History of the United States" by pop historian and
Karl Marx fanboy Howard Zinn into a TV miniseries and a feature-length documentary.
An Unmighty Film. I went
to the screening of "A Mighty Heart" — activists Brad Pitt's and Angelina Jolie's movie on the Al-Qaeda
murder of Daniel Pearl — expecting a movie with an agenda. And that is exactly what I got. That,
plus a Lifetime Channel weepy-damsel-in-distress movie of the week. Muslims are the
heroes — NOT the perpetrators — in this "Can't we all just get along?" kumbaya film ostensibly
about terrorism.
'False theology' sinks
Evan. Despite the trend among ministries to get on board with Evan Almighty, the American
Family Association is not reserving space for this weekend's release of what is billed as "a comedy of biblical
proportions." AFA cites both false theology and objectionable content in the modern-day portrayal of the
Great Flood.
Hollywood Strikes Out Again in Effort to Appeal
to Faith-Based Audience. I've produced three books ... making the case for lowering the wall of
separation between faith and entertainment. But if the result is both dumbed-down religion and comedy
as in the box office flop Evan Almighty, it may be the strongest argument yet for reinstating that wall and
keeping religion and the movies as far apart as possible.
Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the
celluloid truth. Don't hold your breath waiting for the U.S. Treasury Department to charge
filmmaker Michael Moore with treason for a trip to Cuba that may have violated a U.S. embargo. In a country
where both Democrats and Republicans work for amnesty, treason flew out the window with Benedict Arnold.
Hillary and Barack battle it out
for Hollywood elite's millions. Barack Obama's surging campaign for the White House is winning
him new friends in Hollywood, where chequebooks speak louder than political opinions and some of the most
influential entertainment industry figures are already promising big-money contributions that might otherwise
be going to Hillary Clinton.
Hollywood Hil's? Barack is
gaining. Hollywood has been a cash-spewing ATM for Sen. Hillary Clinton, but Sen. Barack Obama
may challenge her top billing when it comes to Tinseltown cash. Powerhouse agent Ari Emanuel, whose
client stable includes A-listers like Michael Douglas, Martin Scorsese, Larry David and Paris Hilton, is
set to throw a sure-to-be-star-studded bash for Obama (D-Ill.) next month.
Hollywood Export Undermines
America. According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project, foreign opinion of Americans has been
declining — especially in Europe. … When viewers turn on their TV sets in London, Paris
or Berlin, they see an endless stream of anti-free enterprise and anti-American propaganda
packaged in some of our most popular TV dramas. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Dusk for the Sundance Kid: Once
again, Hollywood is on a "let's make America look bad" binge. This is directly caused by loathing for the Bush
administration, which the entertainment left sees as a combination of the Third Reich and Emperor Nero.
Thus, a series of earnest "America is a human-rights violator" films are coming to a theater near you, and the
odds are you will ignore them.
Hollywood
economics: The irony is that the average Hollywood star who is making anti-business movies is
far wealthier than the average owners of those businesses, who are half the population of the country.
The Los Angeles Times refers to documentary "films" that are "critical of corporate power." But just what
does this vague word "power" mean when it comes to businesses?
Movie
Rated PG for Christianity, Group Says. The American Family Association is outraged. It accuses the Motion Picture Association of
America — the movie raters — of putting Christianity on the same level as sex, violence,
and profanity because it might offend non-believers.
Judge rules against
film sanitizers. Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and
several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge
ruled. Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an "illegitimate business"
that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch
in a decision released Thursday [7/6/2006] in Denver.
What a Friend We Have in Hollywood.
After years of cursing the darkness about profanity, nudity and violence coming out of what collectively is
called "Hollywood" — whether the films are produced there or elsewhere — evangelicals
and others who like quality films are beginning to develop and produce their own. Two of the better
ones will be released next month.
Crooks in suits: From oil tycoon
J.R. Ewing in Dallas to corporate raider Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, businessmen have been
Hollywood's stock villains for decades. An occasional doctor, lawyer, mechanic, or teacher will be
the bad guy in a TV drama or movie, but studies show that Hollywood holds a particular hostility toward
the corporate world.
Never Mind
PG, MPAA Goes P.C.! The movie was made by Provident Films, a Tennessee-based production company
that specializes in faith-based entertainment and is owned by Sony. … The same Sony that put out The
Da Vinci Code. … Anyway, it seems that when Facing the Giants was submitted to the
MPAA, the producers … anticipated receiving a family-friendly "G" — meaning there was nothing
in the film to concern parents with young children. Instead, the board issued a "PG" rating —
because of "thematic" elements. And what elements were those? Not drugs, not violence and not
sex — but religion.
Anti-business
films are the new muckrakers. "Black Gold," now being screened at festivals and art houses, is
the latest in a growing genre of documentary films shaking up the business world. They are taking
critiques of corporate power that would once have been the province of newspapers and magazines to movie
theaters and DVD shops, where they're finding an increasingly receptive audience.
Bush
is the villain of Katrina film. Tears marked his 70-year-old cheeks as Arthur Brown, leaning on
a walking stick, walked from the film that sought to tell his story. "I think it's a great movie," said
Brown, on Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
Nobody
runs against Hollywood. The problem is that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., face two constituencies
with wildly differing levels of enthusiasm. On the outside are the American people. Across the
ideological spectrum, they are fed up with Hollywood's assault on their values, using the public airwaves they
own. On the inside are the lobbyists for the entertainment industry giants, plying members of Congress
with satchels of campaign cash and demanding only … inaction. Which has a greater effect in
politics today?
The Hollywood Left and the Real
Blacklist. Hollywood's film colony has had a long romance with the Left. Today's Hollywood,
with the help of the "mainstream" media, regularly savages those who stand up to America's enemies.
Why Hollywood
doesn't need the heartland. There was George Clooney, comically puffing his chest out
for being an 'out of touch' liberal — while receiving his Oscar for a left-leaning,
niche film ("Syriana") that relatively few people had seen. There was Rachel Weisz, picking
up a statuette for playing a shrill, anti-corporate activist in another left-leaning, niche
film ("The Constant Gardener") nobody had seen.
The impending
death of Fidel Castro: Castro may survive, but freedom-loving people the world over hope and
pray that he does not. We cannot count members of the Hollywood elite among those freedom-loving
people. In November 2002, Steven Spielberg flouted the American travel ban to Cuba by visiting
Castro personally.
How does he sleep at
night? Do you think Michael Moore sleeps well at night? I've often wondered how the
America-hating filmmaker could live with himself. After all, this is a guy who has made enormous sums
of money by manipulating Columbine massacre victims and American soldiers into being pawns in his hateful
"documentaries."
The
American way: The world of mid-twentieth century television was clean — safe
for viewing no matter what your age. Parents simply did not have to worry about what
their children were watching, or what messages they were receiving through their televisions. The 1950s,
however, are long over and modern Hollywood can't resist tampering with American icons. They want to
tear them down and rebuild them in their own image.
The Era of Big Cinema Is Over. As a
company town, Hollywood has always tilted to some extent or another to the left, but the studio heads who ran
it from the 1930s through the 1950s understood that its product must resonate with the American public as a
whole to make money, regardless of their filmmakers' personal politics. Or as Sam Goldwyn is frequently
attributed as saying, "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union".
For Hollywood, the late 1960s began to mark a retreat from that philosophy.
D.C. - on screen
and unfiltered. Showing "moral majority" types as closeted bigots, perverts and hypocrites is a
grand cinematic pastime. What seems unfathomable to many liberals in Hollywood is that many religious
conservatives are in fact decent, pleasant people and that nastiness is almost an entirely independent
variable from ideology. Man-of-the-people Michael Moore is a notoriously nasty boss,
while "virtuecrat" Bill Bennett is famously fun to work for.
The Academy Awards: "Out
of Touch" and Proud of It. Maybe the Academy wanted it be a "safe show," to counter the
perception that Hollywood is overly provocative and out of touch with America. The fact that many
of the prominent movies made political statements and their host a liberal political humorist made
them play it safe, but it was boring nonetheless.
Family
values, Hollywood style. Be forewarned: this modern Shaggy Dog is really just a shabby
story — one part political correctness, one part Tinseltown morality, and one part
hogwash — all wrapped up and cunningly disguised under a pretty little Disney bow.
Entertainment
as indoctrination: Entertainment is the subtlest and most effective means of ideological
indoctrinating. It creates a psychological opening through which cultural messages bypass the
intellectual filters that arrest most input for critical analysis. Because the context for these
messages is "entertainment," they get a free pass into the mind's cultural framework, where they
compete, at a subconscious level, with established ethical and moral standards.
An Uprising
on the Right in a World That Leans Left. Something besides liberal bias is responsible for the
striking shortage of conservative nonfiction cinema at a time when filmmakers on the other end of the spectrum
are flooding screens with messages about global warming, the war in Iraq and the downside of Wal-Mart.
The DaVinci Code: An attack
on the fundamental concepts of Christianity. The DaVinci Code, authored by Dan Brown, has become
one of the best selling fiction based novels of all time. However, the key word here is fiction.
The DaVinci Code is not based on historical fact, but some have elevated Brown's book into a factual narrative
of Jesus Christ's life. The DaVinci Code is not only fiction, it is also a demeaning attempt to revise
history. More important, the novel attacks the very pillars of Christianity.
Why Ears Itch for the Theology
of The Da Vinci Code Film. When a book as popular as The Da Vinci Code claims that
aspects of its story are based on fact, it may as well have thrown down a gauntlet to relentless hordes of
apologists and historians. The response didn't take long. The major source material for The Da
Vinci Code is Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book that was dismissed by historians as pseudo-history
shortly after its publication in 1982.
The Da Vinci Code: What it
Means … And What it Doesn't. While people do think Brown's work is fiction, they fear that
other people will think it's real history and they're threatened by the very possibility. To that end,
there was a real stink raised over the popularity of the book. A variety of books were published in
"response" to "The Da Vinci Code," most of them claiming to "debunk" the book. Of course, by claiming
the book needed debunking at all just lent further credibility to what is still just a work of
fiction! But that didn't seem to matter to those who were worried.
The Top Ten Da Vinci Code
Distortions: Dan Brown's murder mystery novel presents a problem for Christians. A 2005
Canadian survey showed that one-third of those who have read the book believe that it is factual. The
Da Vinci Code has sold more than 42 million copies. … Serious Christians will see through
the many lies and historical fictions that Brown plants throughout the book, but millions will believe that
this profoundly dishonest book contains at least some "truth" about Jesus and the church.
"The Da Vinci
Code": Cashing in on defaming Christ. Speaking lies to spark a controversy may sell
books, but it also breaks a law written even before Mary Magdalene was born: "Thou shall not bear
false witness against your neighbor." "The Da Vinci Code" bears false witness because it falsifies
the historical record of Christ, who is both true God and true man. In violating the Eighth
Commandment, it strikes at the First and Second.
No passion against
the "code". When Mel Gibson introduced "The Passion of the Christ" into the public conversation,
Hollywood had a lot to say about it. Now Hollywood is offering its response with the upcoming release
of "The DaVinci Code," inviting commentary not on that movie, but on Hollywood itself.
"V" for Vicious
Propaganda. If you liked the politics of last weekend's Oscar nominees, you'll
love "V for Vendetta." It's an exciting, quality Bin Laden film. But if you're like
the rest of mainstream America — you support our troops, believe in firmly responding to
terrorists on our own shores, and/or respect Christianity — then, don't waste your time
at this piece of garbage masquerading as a superhero movie. It is anything but.
Terrorist Heroes: Hollywood has
positioned the comic-book world as a farm team for its big-screen blockbusters. It was only a
matter of time, then, before the world of costumed heroes collided with the film industry's
increasingly dominant political consciousness. The result is "V for Vendetta," a mildly
entertaining dystopian pulp adventure weighed down by some of the most muddled political messages
to land on multiplex screens in a long time.
V is for Read the Book Instead.
"People shouldn't fear their governments, governments should fear their people." This line from the
movie "V for Vendetta" seems to have convinced libertarian luminaries like the Ludwig von Mises Institute
and Lew Rockwell that it is a libertarian movie. It isn't. The thing is, it could have
been. In bringing it to the screen, the Wachowski Brothers have insulted a great work.
V for Vendetta: You know the film has
gone far astray when writer Alan Moore, a self-confessed anarchist, criticizes the film's
politics. … Originally conceived as an extreme, anarchistic response to an extreme,
fascist government in the near future, V for Vendetta has been translated, with a terrorist
hero at its center, into a vicious, thinly veiled attack on American conservatives and Christians.
When
playing the race card doesn't work. I can't prove it, but I have a theory that Freedomland,
an over-the-top allegory on racism clumsily wrapped in thriller garb, was supposed to be one of Sony's
Academy award contenders this year.
Go
Left, Young Men. Hollywood salutes the sexually perverse and politically correct in Oscar
nominations.
Syriana
feeds our enemies hatred. Nothing tells you more about Hollywood than what it chooses
to honor. Nominated for best foreign film is "Paradise Now," a sympathetic portrayal of two
suicide bombers. Nominated for best picture is "Munich," a sympathetic portrayal of yesterday's
fashion in barbarism: homicide terrorism. But until you see "Syriana," nominated for
best screenplay … you have no idea how self-flagellation and self-loathing pass for complexity
and moral seriousness in Hollywood.
Losers and Perverts in
Hollywood: Sick and tired of Hollywood's assault on traditional values? A group in
Rochester, New York decided to do something about it. Viewers Insulted by Loser Entertainment, known
by the acronym VILE, staged a protest at a local theater against the pro-homosexual propaganda film,
"Brokeback Mountain," which is up for an Academy Award on March 5 and has already received four
Golden Globes.
Rev. Sheldon Speaks Out
Against "Brokeback Mountain". The homosexual/bisexual-themed film "Brokeback
Mountain" is being showered with awards and has already earned eight Oscar nominations. The
politically-correct film is simply one more example of Hollywood's efforts to normalize homosexual
behaviors and to vilify any one who criticizes homosexual behaviors.
"Brokeback" Awarded GLAAD
Prize. Brokeback Mountain took home the top honor at the 17th Annual
GLAAD Media Awards Monday [3/27/2006] … "Finally, an award that actually means something
to me," the director [Ang Lee] said. … Oprah Winfrey also managed to get in on the award
action, nabbing a trophy for Outstanding Talk Show Episode thanks to a coming-out-themed show
titled "When I Knew I Was Gay."
Breakouts:
While admittedly, Brokeback did well at the box office, its audience was exactly whom you
would have predicted all along: people in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The
film made far more money in Canada than in the Great Plains or the Rocky Mountain states.
And the Oscar
Goes to … Liberalism and Deviant Sex? This year's Oscar nominees include stories of
homosexual sheep herders, a transvestite, and Japanese prostitutes. Still other nominees promote
a liberal bias on the issues of terrorism, police brutality, and communism during the Cold War.
A
'Brokeback' backlash: Fate is indeed fickle. Who would have guessed that in this year's
Oscar voting, "Brokeback Mountain," a fine risky movie about a gay love affair, would surge ahead of "Capote,"
a movie about a gay celebrity journalist, only to be edged out for the best-movie Oscar by a fine, yet
risky, movie about racism?
Blowback Mountain: 61,061 Protest Brokeback Mountain
Oscar Nominations. More than 61,000 Americans joined Dr. Gary Cass today [3/3/2006] in a
letter of outrage protesting the eight Oscar nominations for Brokeback Mountain, a film that movie critic
Ted Baehr has called a "twisted, laughable, frustrating, plotless and boring piece of homosexual,
neo-Marxist propaganda."
Losers and Perverts in
Hollywood: Sick and tired of Hollywood's assault on traditional values? A group in
Rochester, New York decided to do something about it. Viewers Insulted by Loser Entertainment, known
by the acronym VILE, staged a protest at a local theater against the pro-homosexual propaganda film,
"Brokeback Mountain," which is up for an Academy Award on March 5 and has already received four
Golden Globes.
Oscar's thumbs up
for pimps. Prostitution may be the world's oldest profession, but now, apparently, it's
also an honorable one — at least in the eyes of the pushers of pop culture, who have discovered its
rebellious charm.
Protecting
Muhammad: We see a big storm brewing, brought on by the Danish newspaper's publication
of caricatures of Muhammad. … Iconoclastic expressions in America are broadly condemned as being
in bad taste. However, there is certainly freedom in America to deride Christ. This is
done every day on Broadway, and every other day in Hollywood. Americans do not take up arms in
protest. Derisory material at the expense of Jews is permitted only if the executioner is
a Jewish comedian.
Golden Globes Goes
Political. Concerned Women for America (CWA) says that by winning four awards,
Brokeback Mountain was the clear victor at last night?s Golden Globes award ceremony. About
male homosexual sheepherders who hide their affair for decades, the movie has garnered critical
accolades with limited showings in selected theatres, while a massive public relations campaign
paves the way for more mainstream success — and, seemingly more important, spreading acceptance
of homosexuality.
Unfair and
unbalanced: George Clooney has become the commander in chief of Hollywood's
anti-Bush forces. In the conspiracy thriller Syriana, he porks up to put his weight
as an actor behind the idea that the Iraq war was fought for oil and that the CIA assassinates
foreign politicians who threaten the Texaco flow.
Al Gore: the second
coming. Celebrity took an unusually nerdy form at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The
man everyone wanted to meet, talk to and be seen with wasn't a film star or daring new director. It
was a politician, who is in his sixth year of retirement and more famous for what he didn't achieve
than for what he did.
[Why do leftist politicians and film makers go hand in hand?]
Politics Makes For Bad Movies; Bad Movies
Make For Worse Politics. First, Hollywood loves to make lefty movies that the elites love
and the masses loathe. Second, even though the movies don't do well financially, they do succeed
in fouling the political climate such that drug companies put themselves and their shareholders' money
at risk by getting into the media crosshairs. And third, the diseases that are thereby neglected
get worse, and millions of people die.
Clooney Smears Senator McCarthy. Anyone
viewing the George Clooney film, "Good Night and Good Luck," should bear in mind that media skill does not
necessarily reflect historical truth. … The movie begins with an outright falsehood and ends
with a monumental disingenuous half-truth that insults one's intelligence.
Hollywood Surrenders to Terrorists.
Steven Spielberg is a gifted and influential filmmaker. His latest creation, Munich, about the
aftermath of the bloody attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, is superbly
crafted, as one would expect. But … it is typical liberal Hollywood propaganda, designed to
convince the public that the real threat to America comes from the Bush Administration, not the
terrorists that it seeks to capture or kill.
Harry Belafonte: Bush
is "the Greatest Terrorist in the World". During a visit with Venezuela's far-left President
Hugo Chavez, actor/singer Harry Belafonte, a UNICEF "goodwill ambassador," denounced President George W.
Bush as "the greatest tyrant in the world" and "the greatest terrorist in the world" and proclaimed to
Chavez that "millions of the American people, millions support your revolution."
Munich
lies. The camera always lies. That is one of my most dearly held beliefs, and
an early screening of Steven Spielberg's "Munich," which I saw last week, provides me with more
evidence. The camera always lies — and Steven Spielberg lies quite a lot too, at least
when he uses a camera pursuant to his Art.
Hollywood
still leery of religion. You can have school teachers assign students to read books
about rape, drug addiction, and accepting homosexuality as normal, but there better not be a
Christian metaphor on the reading list.
Ban
Torture? Not on the Silver Screen. What does Hollywood think about
torture? … Politically, the entertainment community is fairly two-dimensional in its
liberalism. But artistically — and to its credit — Hollywood
seems to grasp that life can be morally complicated. After all, tactics that qualify as
torture for the "anti" crowd show up in film and television every day.
Ratings Offers Parents Poor Guide to
Movie Content. [Ed Vitagliano] warns that parents should not be convinced of a movie's
propriety for family viewing based solely on its rating. He says more and more moms and dads are
experiencing a growing sense of "ratings creep," where what was once unacceptable for a certain movie
rating is increasingly seen under that rating, until it becomes commonplace.
Hollywood:
rotten to the Corps. It's pretty clear that those making movies in Tinsel Town don't know
any real men like Aaron Mankin. They apparently prefer cowardice over courage; witless whiners to
real patriots; gutless wimps and hollow phonies to men who know the meaning of self-sacrifice and
integrity. That's the only conclusion one can draw after seeing Hollywood's latest
anti-military travesty — "Jarhead." Movies advance a world view that derides patriotism,
faith, and traditional American values. Unserious
Syriana: How hopeless is Hollywood? More than four years after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, America's movie moguls seem to have not a clue about who attacked us or why, or
what sort of war we're fighting.
Are
you now or have you ever been a second-rate filmmaker? As noted here previously, George
Clooney's movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," about pious parson Edward R. Murrow and Sen.
Joseph McCarthy, failed to produce one person unjustly accused by McCarthy. Since I
described McCarthy as a great American patriot defamed by liberals in my 2003 book, "Treason," liberals
have had two more years to produce a person — just one person — falsely
accused by McCarthy. They still can't do it.
Why
run away from a "G"?. A new study by the Dove Foundation demonstrated
that Hollywood may not love money as much as it loves its "adult" themes of sexual
perversion, violent death and ear-bending profanity.
Fewer dirty words equals bigger
box office for PG films. A new study by The Nielsen Co. found that the PG-rated movies with the
least profanity made the most money at the U.S. box office. Sexuality or violence in those films had less
to do with success than the language, the Nielsen PreView group said in a study being released today [3/13/2008].
Hollywood's
Real Motive — It's Not Money. Why do producers consistently
claim they're "just giving moviegoers what they wanted"? … They are motivated by
the desire to impact viewers with a message — their "artistic vision" of
reality. Now we know the real reason the movie industry eschews family friendly
films for movies steeped in sexuality, brutality and obscenity. The driving force
for too many directors is an agenda that not only calls into question, but also
undermines traditional morality.
Hollywood's eye
contact with social issues: One of my favorite tidbits about Hollywood that I've gleaned from
the starstruck press is that a great many of its most accomplished stars don't allow their staffs to look
them in the eye. I'm not making this up. It has been reported that Barbra Streisand not only
discourages eye contact among staff, but that she required hotel workers to leave her presence only by
walking backward.
Hollywood family
values. At the Oscars, George Clooney declared he was "proud to be out of touch." Movies
and TV, he suggested, can help change the world, one wicked human heart at a time.
Do movies cause
smoking? Anti-smoking activists assert that smoking is more common in movies
than it is in real life.
Editor's Note:
Find a TV station that shows re-runs of Perry Mason. It's entertaining, but evidently the
show was originally sponsored by a cigarette manufacturer, because the show leaves you with the
impression that in 1960, everybody smoked. (And there was a gun in every desk
drawer.) Remember, many of these same "activists" are the people who made fun of
Vice President Quayle when they accused him of not knowing that Murphy Brown was a ficitional
character, after Murphy Brown flaunted her unmarried state of maternity. You do
remember that, right?
Flicks and
ashes: Is it even conceivable that exposure to movies and advertising
causes 86 percent of smoking? That all other factors in life together
contribute only 14 percent? At least as offensive as such patently absurd
claims is the premise that every filmmaker should make his work conform to the dictates
of the health nannies.
Shut up and
act. Hollywood keeps trying to remake the world in its own image, even if it doesn't
sell to the viewing audience. And it's not just political shows that fall flat. NBC's new
series "The Book of Daniel" has not only flopped in the ratings battle, it has scared off viewers and
sponsors with its in-your-face iconoclasm.
Help! I'm a
Hollywood Republican! Hollywood people are glamorous. But that's
about it. They are ill informed about jihad. They are ill informed about
Islam. They are ill informed about Israel, the PA, Iraq, Afghanistan. They
are ill informed about U.S. history, the Constitution, etc. The truth is, the
movie people I've met are ignorant about most everything — save the weekend
grosses of the top ten films. That they know like human computers.
Michael
Jackson: Hollywood's man in the mirror. The Michael Jackson story is
an extremely exaggerated microcosm of Hollywood's moral climate. Hollywood is ruled
by a class of people who believe that money solves problems and that the worst sin in the
world is to judge another person's behavior.
The
MJ in the rest of us: Celebrity, high and low, is judged by double
standards. We forgive the talented their sins because we appreciate their talents.
For
politics' sake: Artists can't fathom why John Kerry lost. The
prize for the most unintentionally humorous reason given by a liberal for why President
Bush defeated John Kerry — in a contest with many entries — has to go
to Alan Woods, an Ohio State drama professor quoted in the Chicago Tribune: "We are now
reaping, in election results, the consequences of the colossal reductions in art
education." Mr. Woods was trying to figure out why Americans reelected the
president even though the nation's artists told them not to.
The
re-whitewashing of Alfred Kinsey: Hollywood has long been a purveyor
of cultural poison, and a magnet for individuals to whom shame is a foreign
concept. The trap of letting the facts get in the way of the weaving of a
yarn that serves their ends is one they have always dodged quite artfully, but
never has the disconnect between image and reality been as acute as
in one of their latest efforts, Kinsey.
Promoting
Kinsey, Censoring Grandma. It isn't the acting, the directing, or
the "production values" that are creating all the media buzz about this supposedly
must-see "biopic." No, the major media have been hyping this movie to the skies
because of its subjects: Kinsey himself and the "sexual revolution" that
Kinsey was so instrumental in spawning. Kinsey has become a sort of god
for the sex cult that dominates the higher circles of our major cultural and
educational institutions: the media/entertainment cartel and academia.
Author
Calls Kinsey Film Propaganda for a Pervert. A movie about controversial
sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is opening this weekend [11/20/2004] across the United
States. Meanwhile, his leading critic claims the cover-up of the truth about Kinsey
continues. Dr. Judith Reisman is a researcher and author who been working for more
than 20 years to debunk what she terms Dr. Alfred Kinsey's "junk science." She
has written a number of books that expose the facts about the doctor's so-called research
and says the new film, Kinsey, is just the latest attempt to conceal the facts about the
man who has been undeservedly touted and lionized as a pioneer in the exploration of
human sexuality.
Bush bashing during
shows could backfire for Democrats. As frustrating as it is for the liberal
activists sponsoring the tour to acknowledge, they know most voters aren't especially
attracted by that kind of message. It's even likely that a significant number of
people buying tickets don't hate the president at all. They just like music.
Does America Need
Hollywood? Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) argued in the House Judiciary Committee that
the issue is not about "one company or one technology. "It has always been about the
ultimate rights of parents to limit the profanity, sex, and violence that their children
are exposed to in the privacy of their own home? No one can argue with a straight face that
it should be against the law to skip over a few pages or even entire chapters of a
book. So, too, it should not be illegal to skip over a few words or scenes
in a movie."
Bush
vs. Clark's kooks. Turning reality upside down is easy when you live
in the world of people like actress Janeane Garofalo, who proclaimed on MSNBC just
hours after the inauguration festivities: "George W. Bush is unelectable, in my
opinion." This isn't dissent. It's beyond denial. Welcome to
liberal dementia.
American Film
Renaissance: For the good or bad, in today's America, the
film industry profoundly influences the pace and direction of American
cultural life. Our movie screens have now become the primary front
in the cultural war waged between the traditional and the modern, the
spiritual and the secular. For far too long, the film industry has
used its influence to create movies advancing a world view that derides
patriotism, faith, and traditional American values. But for filmmakers
and movie-goers alike, the AFR offers an opportunity to consider film works
encompassing a view of America that represents pride, humility, and
appreciation for our great nation.
Shut
Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting
America. Meet the elites. They think you're
stupid. They think all freedom loving Americans are stupid. They
think patriotism is stupid. They think churchgoing is stupid. They
think flag-flying is stupid. They despise families with more than
two children. They are sure that where we live - anywhere but
near or in a few major cities - is an insipid cultural
wasteland. In this refreshing book Ingraham probes the
condescending elitism of liberals in politics and entertainment.
Flustered
film critics and "The Passion": Ann Hornaday of the
Washington Post complained first not about the artistry but the
history. The film "engages in some troubling assumptions, for
starters, by treating the Bible's four Gospels as literal eyewitness
accounts of Jesus' arrest, torture and crucifixion." A reader might
wonder: If critics like Hornaday were so tremendously concerned with
historical accuracy, what would she have said about "The Last Temptation
of Christ," Martin Scorsese's Christ-mangling film of 1988?
More Hollywood
Hate for Kerry to Ignore: Beat "Madman" Bush. The pro-Kerry outfit
MoveOn has teamed with Hollywood heavyweights including Rob Reiner, Matt Damon,
Kevin Bacon, Scarlett Johansson, John Sayles, Ed Asner, Margaret Cho and Al Franken
to unleash Bush-bashing ads (10 of them, according to the
Associated Press; 14, according to USA Today) for TV and the Internet.
Rock
of Hatred. Liberal-leaning artists, includingBruce Springsteen, Pearl
Jam, R.E.M. and the Dixie Chicks, have announced that they will tour under the banner
"Vote for Change" with the express purpose of replacing President Bush with Sen.
John Kerry. [They] are entitled to express their views, but it is hypocritical
and arrogant of them to demand that others refrain from criticizing them. Artists
who have made millions from fans of all political views must be willing to pay
the price for injecting politics into their performances.
They like the
music, not the politics. One local man who makes his living pretending to be
Bruce Springsteen won't be attending Springsteen's concert Tuesday in St. Paul. Tim
Sigler, lead singer of the Minnesota Springsteen tribute band Lucky Town, said he won't buy a
ticket. He may find a way to sneak in between his own shows, but he doesn't want to pay
to support the organizations that will benefit from the concert: progressive
organizations MoveOn.org and America Coming Together.
The
lost patriots of Hollywood: Box-office patriotism is dead. And
so I ask: If Hollywood refuses to support America, why should we
support Hollywood?
GOP
Hijacked by "Fundamentalist Wackos," Actor Says. Actor
Alec Baldwin slammed the influence of religious conservatives on
Wednesday [July 28, during the Democrats' convention], telling Democrats
that the Republican Party "has been hijacked by these fundamentalist
wackos." The audience, which included Democratic National Committee Chairman
Terry McAuliffe, greeted Baldwin's comment with sustained applause.
Editor's Note:
Isn't this the guy who said he would leave the country if
George W. Bush won the election? What's the holdup?
Cider
House: Rotten to the Core. The Cider House Rules, recently released
by Disney subsidiary Miramax, portrays abortion as "the work of the Lord," in hope that
pregnant women will seek out the "miracle" of death.
Farenheit
9/11: All heat, no light. Fahrenheit 9/11 is disgusting, pathetic propaganda
without the slightest shred of integrity. Reasonable arguments against the war
in Iraq exist — but this unbalanced screed displays none of them.
Review of "Fahrenheit 9/11".
Imagine the squealing from the left if someone made a real documentary showing Democrat vote-recounters
eating chads, a dozen high-powered Democrat lawyers landing in Florida minutes after the polls closed and
little old Jewish ladies from West Palm Beach lying about how they could not figure out the ballot
and meant to vote for Gore (these same ladies have no problem controlling 25 BINGO cards at a time).
Many of these Florida fibsters actually did vote for Pat Buchanan on purpose, and not mistakenly as
they purported. In fact, in a previous election, Buchanan got just as many votes in that same area.
Not to mention, the ballot was drawn up and certified by a leading Palm Beach County Democrat.
Unfairenheit 9/11: The lies of Michael Moore. To
describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of
respectability. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is
a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of
abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.
Tables turned on Fahrenheit 9/11's
maker. The latest assault on Moore's film-making techniques has come from an unexpected quarter.
In Manufacturing Dissent, a documentary to be shown for the first time at a Texas film festival on
Saturday, a pair of left-wing Canadian film-makers take Moore to task for what they describe as a disturbing
pattern of fact-fudging and misrepresentation.
Independence Institute finds 56 Deceits In "Fahrenheit
911". There are many articles which have pointed out the distortions, falsehoods, and lies in the
film Fahrenheit 911. This report compiles the Fahrenheit 911 deceits which have
been identified by a wide variety of reviewers. In addition, author Dave Kopel identifies some inaccuracies
which have not been addressed by other writers. The report follows the approximate order in which the
movie covers particular topics: the Bush family, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This report focuses
solely on factual issues, and not on aesthetic criticism of the film.
The Mainstream Media and the
War: The conclusions of Fahrenheit 9/11 have no basis in fact or reality. Michael
Moore presents Iraq as a peaceful, beautiful nation destroyed by American military action. President Bush is
portrayed as a warmonger, slaughtering innocent civilians — including women and children —
to enrich the oil industry. Moore has positioned himself as the American spokesman for al Qaeda.
Michael Moore's Trashy Movie:
The movie's diatribes, sometimes amusing and sometimes manifestly unfair, will not change any views. They
will simply cheapen the national debate and reinforce the opinions on both sides.
Giuliani
Doesn't Need Moore to Tell Him About 9/11. Former New York
mayor Rudy Giuliani made a splash Thursday morning [7/29/2004] when he told
a roomful of cheering Republicans that Michael Moore's "
Fahrenheit 9/11" film would carry no weight with him.
Yes, I
Gave Michael Moore Money. The danger in Fahrenheit 9/11 is not
that everyone who sees it will go home believing that the Saudis "own seven percent of
America" and control our foreign policy, or that President Bush is a lazy idiot. Anyone
who believes this is already beyond help. Rather, what we have to worry about is the
uninformed people who will see the movie — or even hear about it from
others — and allow such lies and propaganda to dissuade them from supporting
the War on Terror that we must win.
"Fahrenheit 9/11"
Shown on Prime Time TV in Cuba. U.S. director Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit
9/11" was shown on prime time Cuban state-run television on July 28 [2004] after playing to packed cinemas
for a week. In a country with a deep-seated distrust of U.S. governments, the film has generated widespread
public interest and added to a recent barrage of official criticism of President Bush.
Newspaper: Moore
faked its headline. An Illinois newspaper has accused filmmaker Michael Moore
of "falsely representing" its front page in his blockbuster "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Liberals
hate fellow Americans more than Islamists. Theaters are filling up with
fans of Michael Moore — a propagandist who makes Oliver Stone look like Alistair
Cooke. Moore is, of course, free to say that the war on terror is a clever cover story
for George W. Bush's attempt to line his own pockets. Or to suggest that as nasty
as bin Laden is, he is nowhere near as bad as our president.
The Michael Moore
of Fast Food: How does a film-industry nobody become the liberal elite's favorite
filmmaker? By trashing the world's most successful corporation.
The Gulf Stream's existence is a consequence of the large-scale wind system over
the North Atlantic Ocean, and of the nature of fluid motion on a rotating
planet. The only way to produce an ocean circulation without a Gulf Stream is
either to turn off the wind system, or to stop the Earth's rotation, or both.
-- Carl Wunsch
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology *
Hollywood
Heads in the Sand: Can anyone remember the last time Hollywood seemed so
bummed out over a film making a boatload of money at the box-office? ... Hollywood
may not have learned much from the success of The Passion. But we've learned
a lot about Hollywood.
All
of a Sudden, Newsweek is Concerned About Kids Viewing R-rated Movies. Newsweek's
mockery of Mel Gibson's effort to convey an accurate depiction of the
last 12 hours of Christ's life reflects the magazine's uneasiness
with religion. But it is no wonder why a film like The Passion
of the Christ literally terrifies liberal elites.
Hollywood's
death row fetish: Celebrity hairdos and hemlines may change, but there's
one fashion accessory that never goes out of style at the Oscars: Death Row inmates.
Stopping
movie "ratings creep": In a survey of movies from 1992 to 2003, Professor
Kimberly Thompson found "today's movies contain significantly more violence, sex and
profanity on average than movies of the same rating a decade ago." But more
importantly, today's PG-13 movies pack about the same dose of sex, violence and
foul language that used to earn films an R rating a decade ago, a problem defined
as "ratings creep."
Quotas
for Hollywood: Name a business group more identifiably liberal than the
folks who run Hollywood. One would be hard-pressed to name a "conservative"
executive — outside of Rupert Murdoch — in Tinseltown. Hollywood
historically gives far more money to Democrats than to Republicans.
Whatever
Happened to the Family Film? Of the top 20 moneymaking films of all
time, not a single one is rated R, and of the top 50, only five are
rated R - with the remainder being G or PG. Don't these figures
make you wonder what's wrong with Hollywood just from a business point of view? Why,
in the face of these statistics, does Hollywood keep putting out so many non-family oriented
movies?
Movie snack business suffering from
declining box-office numbers. Moviegoers tend to stuff themselves full of salty popcorn
and sweet candy. But when people steer clear of the multiplex — as audiences have
done for three consecutive years — manufacturers of theater snacks are left with a sour
taste in their mouths.
[Here's an idea: Just show good movies, and snack bar profits won't be a problem. On the
other hand, perhaps the consumers are just saying $3.00
for Milk Duds is
a little too much.
Michael
Moore's Call to Arms: While Michael Moore was delivering his infamous
speech at the Academy Awards, every single documentary filmmaker nominated for an
Oscar stood behind him in solidarity. The fact that liberals dominate the industry is
even more significant given the recent changes in campaign finance laws. Moore
and his fellow filmmakers are free to embed their opinions in movies, but citizens
who want to finance political ads will discover new limits to their freedom
of speech.
Murder
and the "anti-gay": Academics who study popular culture marvel at how
Hollywood has used its propagandistic powers to sell social issues. This normally means
persuading by any dramatic means necessary that traditional values are not only wrong
but archaic, even dangerous.
SUVs and
Terrorism: Arianna Huffington Version 5.0. If Arianna is
really concerned about U.S. use of Saudi oil or even foreign oil in
general, she could support exploration in areas of the United States such as barren
stretches of Alaska or off all three of our major coasts. Or she might try to encourage
her friends to sell their 10,000-square-foot houses in Bel Air and live in apartment
buildings. Or get them to stop flying in fuel-guzzling private jets. She might want
to tell producer Norman Lear, one of her financial backers, to tear down what the Los
Angeles Times reports is "a garage for 21 cars... which stands 45 feet
tall." As a minor sacrifice, her Hollywood pals might actually drive those little
hybrid cars they have bought instead of taking limousines. Or take the bus.
Misleading
movie ratings: It is a fact that R-rated movies do significantly worse at
the box office on average than do movies with PG or G ratings. Nevertheless, despite
that fact, Hollywood makes mostly R-rated movies. In other words, Hollywood disregards
its own economic incentives to make wholesome, family-friendly movies in favor of making
the kinds of movies people in Hollywood like.
Hollywood
Leftists: You Pay, We Insult. Some celebrities embrace feel-good liberal
causes as a way of saying, "Don't hate me because I'm rich and famous."
Hollywood Actors: False American Idols.
"How could such a destructive man be so popular with the American people?" singer Barbra Striesand asks about
George W. Bush's popularity. After all, she didn't vote for him. This arrogant mind-set is
reminiscent of theater critic Pauline Kael's reaction to Richard Nixon's landslide presidential victory over
George McGovern in 1972. "How can that be?" she supposedly said. "No one I know voted for Nixon."
Elia Kazan Should Be Honored Because of His
Testimony. Almost without exception, the obituaries of Elia Kazan — while
praising his enormous talent as a director — are critical of his testimony against Hollywood
communists. According to some, Kazan, a former member of the Communist Party, should never be forgiven
for naming names of fellow party-members before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Who Should Run America? Hollywood or the White
House? As American troops and our allies prepare to write a new future for the people of Iraq
and throughout the Middle East, who would you prefer to make the critical decisions? The White House
lead by President Bush or the anti-war protesters led by a gaggle of Hollywood actors and singers?
When Hollywood Went to War: It only took
60 years for Hollywood to go from producing war heroes to a group of hypocrites and pacifists, none of
whom would be free to make movies without America's Revolutionary War.
Antidotes for Jessica Simpson
syndrome: The same "progressive" Hollywood celebrities who sneer at President Bush's mediocre
college grades work in an industry that has long prided itself on, and profited from, popularizing anti-intellectualism.
Hollywood Appeasers Cash In on
Anti-U.S. Rants. Don't believe the whining of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon and other Tinseltown
leftists who claim they're paying a price for opposing Operation Iraqi Freedom. They're getting rich from
their anti-U.S. activism, according to the liberal Washington Post.
Time's "Person" of the Year: American Values, or Media
Values? I remember as a child eagerly awaiting Time magazine's choice of its Man of the Year each
year. I believed that there were great men and great events in the world that I needed to know about, and that
there was a great arbiter of them -- Time -- that somehow make the great even greater by recognizing them as
great.
Hollywood Westerns, Guns, and Property
Rights: The death of the western movie has matched the replacement of courage in this
culture -- and the replacement of justice. The masters of the media prefer
disarmed citizens.
Shallow Hollywood Double Standard: "Shallow
Hal" attributes no character flaws to people who consume too much food and burn too little energy, the primary
cause of obesity. But cigarette smoking, that's different.
Hollywood's Celebrity Bush
Bashers: Speaking of embarrassments, has Alec Baldwin defected to Cuba yet? The actor was
one of dozens of celebrity blowhards who reportedly threatened to leave the country if Bush were
elected [the first time].
Somewhat related: 10 Cinematic
Clichés That Must Die! As a writer and consumer of entertainment, I really hate
clichés and stereotypes. They're only useful for misdirection, making readers believe the
story is going a certain way so you can fool them. But Hollywood keeps trotting out the following lame
tropes over and over again. It's about time they were called on the carpet for this stupidity.
More
Clichés That Must Die: If you read part one of this essay, you know I hate clichés
and stereotypes. They're the products of hack writers, lazy minds, and innate bigotry. Part one
was about how Hollywood looks at "conservative America." That is, anything to the right of them
is "conservative." Part 2 is mostly about how they look at themselves and society.
