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September 26, 2007
The Hollywood Surge is Failing
Not too long ago I predicted that In the Valley of Elah, Hollywood's latest smear against our troops, would flop—big time—at the box-office.
That was an easy call.
The per theater average of Elah indicates that only the earnest, dopey Sundance fanatics turned out for the first weekend—all 85 of them. The film is a stench of red ink, a jihadist enabling loop of anti-American sedition.
However, Elah will do a very brisk business in the black market souks in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
You think I'm kidding?
I wish.
There are consequences in the Arab/Muslim world to producing such movies. Jihadists use them as recruiting tools; they are proof that we infidels are so corrupt, so decadent that we don't even bother to defend our own values. These movies show the jihadists that Islam is fated to rule over the infidels.
Why do the studios green-light such obvious losers?
That's easy. The execs want to "be in business" with writer director Pauil Haggis, so if he's, ahem, passionate about a project, well, they'll roll with the 120 pages and takes a bath on the bad side of the ledger in the hopes that Haggis with deliver another project that has the faintest whiff of commercial potential.
But more important is the matter of ideology. The executives in Hollywood are, for the most part, arch leftists. They view themselves as the vanguard of the intelligencia and they see it as their duty to deliver "progressive" messages to the great unwashed.
That's you.
They also like to give each other meaningless awards at boring, endless dinners shows.
They love to congratulate themsleves on how brave they are for making films that are cutting edge and anti-establishment.
Conveniently forgetting that they are the etablishment.
In any case, there are a few more anti-American films surging out of Hollywood and they too will implode.
Finally, we in Hollywood need not churn out only mindless entertainment (though I happen to love mindless entertainment) in time of war. Casablanca is a war film, a stirring patriotic movie that is a classic. It won the Oscar in 1942.
Now, what do all these films have in common — besides being passionate indictments?
They all flopped. Or will, soon enough. (Except for, maybe, The Kingdom, which apparently has an appalling whiff of vigilantism.) And this is something we out here in Hollywood just cannot wrap our minds around.
What the hell is wrong with this country? We support the troops, showing them as the dysfunctional, murdering, drug-addicted, red-state crypto-rapists in need of psychoanalysis we all know they really are. Hey — even the Marine officer in Alan Ball’s award-winning American Beauty a few years back was humanized by making him a sadist and a closet queen. And this is the thanks we get?
These days, when you go in to pitch a new war movie, the first thing the studio exec does after offering you some bottled water and asking you whether you’ve yet given to Al Franken’s senatorial campaign, is warn you that “we’re trying to avoid jingoism here.” In the old days, we made a million Bataan movies but only one The Best Years of Our Lives. It the interest of fairness, it’s time to change that. As some snarky punk — I think it was Robert Frost — said, “a liberal is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in argument.” That’s us, baby — in spades!
To read the entire article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Dr. Carol
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at September 26, 2007 08:52 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Kevin Spacey, who starred in Ameican Beauty, just made a trip to Venezuela to meet publicly with Hugo Chavez. Flaming leftie.
Chris Cooper, who played Col. Fitz in American Beauty, is also an unapologetic, flaming leftwie.
Alan Ball, who wrote American Beauty, is a gay leftist whose primary writing credits are for TV and stage. The movie was not particularly artful as cinema, as la septieme art (as the French say; sorry, Robert). That movie was an ideological take-down of normal, prosperous, suburban America.
Having paid considerable attention to real gay men and lesbians (open and closeted), mostly socially and sometimes sexually -- having been paid attention to by them -- I remember his character well. Oops, I mean caricature:
* he frowned and snapped in almost every scene
* he stocked his home with Nazi paraphernalia
* and he read The Wall Street Journal at the breakfast table.
Oooooh ... scary.
True, as a result of its defiance of Judeo-Christian morality, homosexuality had a certain prominence among Nazi men. But Ball didn't write his script to urge audiences to sympathize with the real sorrow and real pity closeted gays suffer (and make other people suffer) -- he was exploiting closted gays to score a left-wing ideological point about prosperous, peaceful America being a Nazi, or proto-Nazi, society.
(Thanks for the opportunity to vent.)
Posted by: Jeremiah at September 26, 2007 01:41 PM
Jeremiah:
I thought American Beauty was creepy and I hated, I mean really hated the few episodes of Six Feet Under I managed to see.
I don't like French movies.
Alan Ball is clearly a French something-or-other.
Feel free to vent here at Seraphic Secret anytime.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 26, 2007 02:46 PM
On the other hand, the Kingdom seems very close to the type of film you've been looking for. It's not like Casablanca, because it's not apart from the action; on the contrary you're in the very thick of things; seeing AQ's dark deeds in Saudi Arabia from the getgo to the end. It suggests that we really do need to visit the neigborhoods
of Riyadh; like Suwiedi to face the real heart of AL Queda. It also suggests this war will be as long as the Cold War, but as bloody as any of the other World Wars.
Posted by: narciso at September 29, 2007 07:37 PM
Narcisco:
Thanks so much for jumping in.
I have not seen The Kingdom, but it does look to be above the usual Hollywood sedition.
I certainly hope so.
Judging from the action-packed trailer there will probably be a strong opening weekend for the movie. After that, it's all word of mouth.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 30, 2007 10:34 AM