A Political Year at the Movies
Just don’t expect the newly installed President Barack Obama to catch any flak from actors speechifying on Oscar night. They prefer to ignore the fact that he’s against same sex marriage.
More than a few critics of Frost/Nixon, and the film’s director, Ron Howard, are using the story to bash President Bush anew. Howard made his views clear during a recent press gathering — which drew the ire of Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
The film could also jump-start a new movement to galvanize the left — waiting for the new ex-president to “confess” his crimes to Oprah, Barbara, or some other high profile interviewer. An Oscar win would certainly help jump-start such a movement.
Director Steven Soderbergh’s Che, the four-plus hour biopic of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, drew some withering reviews from both the left and the right. Star Benicio Del Toro is still a favorite to pick up a Best Actor nomination for playing the title character. Hollywood loves Guevara almost as much as naïve college students do.
The film got a hearty salute in Cuba recently, and that should be catnip to Oscar voters with a soft spot for the Castro regime.
Politics routinely factors into the minds of Oscar voters. When Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth got a Best Song nomination, was there any doubt she’d walk away a winner?
And speaking of Truth, the glorified Power Point presentation got its Oscar two years ago solely based on politics. That same year, the devastating documentary Deliver Us From Evil was among Truth‘s competition, and there likely hasn’t been a more engrossing doc put out since.
But it didn’t stand a chance with Oscar voters. They had a message to send, art be darned.
Oscar politics is nothing new. Tom Hanks won his first Oscar playing a dying gay man with AIDS in Philadelphia, even though co-star Denzel Washington acted rings around him, and the film itself was hardly a memorable one.
And let’s not forget Moore’s body of documentary work, which has all but redefined what the genre actually stands for — polemics, not adherence to the unvarnished truth. Yet he’s become a perennial Oscar favorite.
Politics might even interrupt a justly deserved honorary Oscar slated for aging funnyman Jerry Lewis. The news broke this week that the 82-year-old legend would receive an Oscar for his decades of humanitarian work.
But influential industry blogger Nikki Finke says protests are starting regarding Lewis’ selection because he’s used the “F” word for homosexuals in the past few years.
Finke’s parting shot on her blog will likely echo the thoughts of many in Hollywood:
Despite Lewis’ laudatory 42 years of raising money for MDA [Muscular Dystrophy Association], his publicly demonstrated debasement of gays doesn’t make him a humanitarian in my eyes.
That movement, combined with lingering headlines surrounding Proposition 8, makes Sean Penn the surest bet to walk home with an Oscar Feb. 22, 2009.
What more can a film do to win Oscar love? Not being a piece of comic book hocum would be a good start.
Secondly, and lastly, it is scientific fact that people who can only read Wall-E as politically incorrect are dead inside.
Frankly, I predict that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will win at least some Oscars. I’m not a big fan of Brad Pitt, but he’s excellent, and Cate Blanchett is quite good also. The rest of the cast is equally good, and the special effects are marvelous. I wouldn’t be surprised if it walks off with a bucket of statues on the night.
Hollywood is a garbage. I used to have respect for this industry but now, I just believe they have ulterior motives and they are all screaming liberals even though they know nothing about politics.
I loved “The Dark Knight” so it definitely won’t be winning any major film awards.
We all suffer from a bad case of the human condition: When a piece of art agrees with us, we think it’s the greatest thing ever and overlook its flaws. This is as true for drooling conservatives like me as it is for the Oscars voters. When I see a film that supports my views, I love it. Later, maybe, I’ll notice what’s wrong with it.
Hollywood’s inverted morality made it an embarrassment to the nation. It’s a disgrace.
I nominate the film “An American Carol” as best documentary.
Roy, I liked Wall-E on several levels, but I don’t think it makes me heartless to admit that the “save the earth” message was a bit heavy-handed and that in a few years this cute film will likely be used as canon to “prove” a need to “do something.”
The Oscars are on February 22nd? That soon already? It seems like this event get earlier each year and the Sper Bowl gets later. Pretty soon, we’ll have New Year’s Day Oscar presentations and a Super Bowl occurring the same week as the MLB All-Star Game.
As for the Oscars: Yawn! I am already not paying attention.
I hope all of these movies lose to the yellow dog. Marley and Me is more entertaining than all of them. The yellow dog for Best Actor!
Hey submandave, nice to see a fellow Bubblehead on the thread!
Hollywood has gradually lost the ability to make good movies. The writing, acting, directing, editing all are a mere reflection of the talent possessed by “old Hollywood”. Seemingly, with rare exceptions, Hollywood movies SUCK.
The history of the Oscars is littered with awards for forgettable films. I’d remind you of some of them but, er, I forget them now…
Hollywood is not like it was years ago when I was a kid. Now all movies have to have some political message. It is sickening, so on that note, I view very very very few movies. I never go to the theater either. $10+ to sit on my butt for three hours, forget it.
Happy New Year everyone
Roy M. … I sure hope I’m not dead inside! I must say I’m still amazed at the reaction my mediocre review of “Wall*E” inspired. I’ve never gotten such feedback from a critique — and much of it echoing your thoughts. Love the passion, even if I can’t quite understand it in this case. When it comes to reviewing a film, I’ll absorb the movie’s message — left, right, whatever, and then I’ll appreciate the story for what it is and accept it on that level. Can’t just blast away at movies that don’t agree with my worldview. That said, “Wall*E” didn’t move me — even though the first 20 minutes are sheer joy.
Shouldn’t the title be: ANOTHER Political Year at the Movies?
They’ve politicized every liberal viewpoint in one form or another- whether through an actor’s performance or best picture- since I can remember.
I quit paying any attention at all to the Oscars the first time some idiot “star” sent a surrogate on stage to “accept” (or refuse) the award because of some perceived political slight. I go to the movies to be entertained–not to be preached at or to by people who don’t have much of a clue anyway. One reason I’ll not go see the remake of “Day the Earth Stood Still” is its stupid, phony, anthropogenic global warming theme this time around. AGW is a hoax and I will NOT SUPPORT any organization (including the Democrat Party or any Republican) that supports the idea as if it were “established fact.” For other reasons, as a Vietnam vet, I’ll NEVER see another movie that stars Hanoi Jane Fonda or Ed Asner and I’m getting pretty tired of being preached to by the likes of Susan Sarandon, Joy Behar, Woopie Goldberg, Fatso O’Donnell, Roseanne Barr, Julia Roberts and especially by Babs Striesand and her ilk. Not a one of these women is as smart as a bag of hammers. But then neither are Alec Baldwin or Charlie Sheen and I have some doubts about Tom Hanks.
Save your money and refuse to see this KRAP. I was forced to see Quantum Solution out of respect to my daughter who thought it was sensational. What a pile of special effects crap . Films are an absolute waste of resources.
This industry needs to disappear.
I don’t watch the oscars and I don’t care who wins them. They don’t mean anything anymore.
Gee. I don’t know what Michael Moore will do when he no longer has Bush to kick around; loose some weight I suppose. It’s tough being a successful communist capitalist film maker. After the end of the war on terror, perhaps childhood obesity can become the national security problem of the decade for Michael Moore, right up there with better health care for Tinker Bell in Cuba as a model for Kansas. And the movie Milk? Well down the road away from San Francisco is a rest stop, built in commemoration of father Junipera Serra, before priests and Spanish navigators were politically incorrect. It attracted a lot of after hours sexual activity; with very little effort police often made their end of the month misdemeanor quota arrests for lewd behavior in public. Among the highway patrol and sheriff’s deputies it became known as the Harvey Milk Memorial Rest Stop, and for entertainment value it reportedly competes with the Oscars. You definitely cannot find that kind of sympathetic professional law enforcement and tolerant movie making in Iran. For Michael Moore it could be a great spot for another exploitation movie about hedonistic bankers getting busted for practicing excessive oral sex on the wretched of the earth while packaging sub prime loans for the meat markets and bath houses of San Francisco.
Come on folks, the yellow dog was a great actor.
Some numbers -pulled from Rotten Tomatoes
The Dark Knight, a nearly explicit endorsement of the War on Terror and (gasp!) President Bush. Box Office: $530M
Wall-E, an entertaining, interesting story with the subtext that humans are wasteful, stupid, and so self-absorbed that they can’t see the world around them. Box Office: $223M
Both great stories, both high on the Tomato-meter, both with a “message”.
Which one sells?
BTW, I rarely see anything at the theater anymore, but I went to see The Dark Knight twice (the second time with my brother). It was and is that good.
Since Spielberg, Katzenberg, Eric Roth, and now Kevin Bacon have been ID’d as Madoff sucker investors with rumors of far more to come…
Will the big fashion item at this year’s Oscars be the big hat to pass around?
FWIW, I didn’t see WALL-E, but Tuesday I had lunch with someone who just saw it and thought it was great. It was kind of a pain to get him to stop talking about it.
I came away from the discussion thinking it was a cute, possibly too precious, love story. If there was a political angle, he didn’t notice it or think it important enough to mention in his review.
I am watching The Dark Knight on PPV right now, again. If Heath Ledger isn’t best actor with a performance that makes Jack Nicholson’s performance look like the old TV show. I don’t know who is.
Having said that, all art is political. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the difference between art and craft is political content. What is annoying is that the “judges” are so one sided.
Sean Penn’s Huey Long movie was so pathetic I don’t think I’ll ever bother watching him again, politics aside. I’ll still watch the other Hollywood ninnies if they come up with something. And could somebody write some truly good songs celebrating the USA? The ones Sean Hannity promotes are just lousy, even if the sentiments are admirable. It’s hard to match God Bless America and the other classics, but let’s keep trying. Let it rock but make it something we can really enjoy singing, like one might get from Shania Twain or Gretchen Wilson. Humor wouldn’t hurt. Plus, how about the Ballad of Sarah Palin? Time for talented crackers to get crackin. Arts Report signing off.
*Yawn*
Are they still holding that self rewarding award show? Why does anyone care anymore since it has slowly but surely turned into a “it’s who you know and what you stand for” show and nothing to do with the actual films. I stopped watching back in ’97 and I’m glad I did. Waste of time and energy.
I haven’t been to a movie house in a decade. Nor do I have cable. I do buy DVDs when they reach about $3.00 in discount stores. You can actually find good recent movies near that price if you are patient.
Normally I watch a movie several times if I like it. Lawrence Of Arabia, for $5, has pleased me repeatedly. On DVD always make sure you are getting a wide screen version and not a movie cut to fit the old 4:3 TV format.
But another good buy is entire seasons of a TV show for around $20. Or a mini-series. You watch what you want, when you want, without commercials. And DVDs usually have accurate closed captions that help those with poor hearing.
You won’t get closed captions in the theater. And on broadcast TV or cable the captioning is often very poor even when offered.
Back on topic. As DavidM noted, Brad Pitt will be a contender. I am told The Curious Case…. is a very good movie. It is also unique. And Brad is very PC. Now that he has setteled in France with the ever growing Jolie flock he should be a cinch for the Oscar.
Joking aside, Brad does good work. He was nominated for Twelve Monkeys as a supporting actor. My $1.99 DVD of Twelve Monkeys shows Brad doing a helleva job playing a – take your pick – confused activist, terrorist, community organizer, or lunatic.
DARK KNIGHT was the HIGHEST GROSSING movie of the year and was shockingly CONSERVATIVE… The SECOND HIGHEST GROSSING picture of the year featured INDIANA JONES kicking the sh*t out of Communists… FOURTH HIGHEST GROSSING concerned an alcoholic black man who cleans up and gets a job as a superhero… FIFTH HIGHEST GROSSING film of the year was IRON MAN, a heroic defense contractor… SEVENTH BIGGEST featured well-known liberal, JAMES BOND… And TENTH BIGGEST movie was CHRONICLES ON NARNIA, a Christian-themed adventure.
So, six of the top ten pix are essentially conservative. Compared to the money these films made, who cares about MILK?
JM:
Wait until you see Marley & Me. That yellow dog is licking them all at the box office right now! I hate political movies because they make my popcorn taste bad.
Frost/Nixon: All I’ve seen is the incessant commercials for the movie, but, based on them, its essence is caricature, not characterization. I know that Oscars aren’t usually handed out for scenery-chewing, but, because this bashes Nixon, an old Hollywood bugaboo, it may well be a winner.
BTW, I’m old enough to actually have seen the ORIGINAL telecast, and it was nowhere near that dramatic. Despite the movie’s apparent horror with the concept of executive power, there really is a cogent Constitutional principle encased in Nixon’s comment that “when the President does it, it’s not illegal.”
I don’t expect that that argument will receive any notice in either MSM reviews or the movie.
kbdabear writes:
?Since Spielberg, Katzenberg, Eric Roth, and now Kevin Bacon have been ID’d as Madoff sucker investors with rumors of far more to come…”
Huh? Really? Thank you, thank you, thank you, kbdabear! You have made my 2009 and it is just January 2nd!
..also, bud, I saw the original Nixon/Frost interviews and I agree, they must be more riveting than the Opie-remake. When on considers how far Nixon had fallen from grace in the public’s eye and how he turned into a fairly noble (and not self-serving) statesman despite all of the vitriol, one cannot help but be impressed.
I mean, consider the trainwreck that was the Carter presidency and the crap that that miserable, poisoned, coddler of dictators has perpetrated on this country in the name of his legacy. He is garbage.
My take on the whole entertainment industry is that they are nothing more than trained seals. Like the seals I watch them to be entertained. Nothing more. They do backflips, toot their horns and mouth words written for them by higher functioning seals.
As for their political views, I don’t take my political cues from a bunch of trained seals. Even if they are called “stars.”
Do you?
a good movie should be released on DVD
marketed online
and watched at home
if you want to hang out with people- go to dancing party at the underground techno club and meet nice chicks
I agree, Heath Ledger should get best actor this year, but am afraid Batman was to conservative. Especially when they called Joker a “terrorist” instead of “misunderstood freedom fighter” and seemed critical of people who blamed Batman fighting him for their problems, and dared to blame the Joker – that probably sealed the movie’s doom.
33. John D wrote:
As for their political views, I don’t take my political cues from a bunch of trained seals. Even if they are called “stars.”
Do you?
Peter responds: You may not, John, and I may not, but it appears somewhere around 52.9% of the American population does, and that is very, very sad.
..um..I forgot to ask this: doesn’t milk go good with twinkies?
Though I haven’t seen it–nor will–I doubt that any film this year was as shamelessly propagandistic and insulting as Oliver Stone’s “W”. And how did that one do?
A couple of days after taking my daughters to see “The Dark Knight” (they were DYING to go), I was flipping around on cable and came across Tim Burton’s first “Batman” with Jack Nicholson. After watching Heath Ledger in DK, Burton (and Nicholson) came across like a cartoon in comparison. The sad thing is that, because of his death, Ledger’s performance will probably be underrated. Hands down the scariest, most nihilistic, insane villain ever put on the screen.
I’m proud to say that I have not spent a cent to see any movie that ANY of the folks mentioned above have ever made. I simply refuse to (knowingly) contribute to any anti-American “actor” nor the organizations for which they work.
Based upon one money-losing political bomb after another (Redacted, etc) I believe the Hollywood Left is in collusion with the non-history-teaching Big Education Left to cement their version of history.
In fifty years the movies will still be there as history…even as actual history books are forgotten.
Look how we today view movies from the 30s as representative of prevailing opinion and mores while not reading history texts from the same period. Clark Gable is more fun.
It’s not a stretch to see future teachers/indoctrinators playing “W” or “Rendition” as historical Truth, even as they are now forcing students to watch “An Inconvenient Truth” as legitimate climate science.
Why is it that seriously leftwing Europe produces movies about people and their relationships while Hollywood produces movies with a message even when the subject matter is unrelated? How many Hollywood films have a line or two taking a sneer at Nixon or, more recently, Bush in situations completely unpolitical?
That is, in my opinion, precisely why “Boston Legal” failed. It was an often very funny series, but Spader and Bergen were SO very PC and leftist in their rantings and ravings that it became tiresome. I quit watching it for precisely that reason.
Pappadave:
The actors on Boston Legal are just saying their lines. And the writers are working to general instructions from the producer. It is the producers who decide what you hear.
Personally I now avoid every series in the category of police or legal procedures.
The police category tends to make Gods of a team of pretty men and women who work in special units and learn everything from DNA or forensic evidence. Any other aspect of police work is done by dolts.
Preachy and righteous with a substory of fantasy, often the detective has amazing insights or even paranormal power. And the crime lab nerds know all but have to be asked the right questions.
The legal shows usually promote meanness and evil with great glee. The message is “See how smart we are, how well paid, how willing to do anything or screw anyone for gain!” Probably true but how depressing.
You may be right about Boston Legal. But the actors are just saying lines. The writers provided them and the producer(s) gave them the guidelines.
I avoid police and legal shows. The usual premise of the former is that a Special Team of attractive people are Gods sent to supervise all civilians. The Gods get most of their information from DNA or other forensic material. There is an amazing crime lab staffed by nerds who supply both humor and magical science.
The team itself has at least one member with infallible insights or even paranormal psychic abilities. He/she provides the key interpretation just in time to prevent blunders such as shooting the wrong suspect.
The legal shows are basically sneers. They promote meanness and amoral behavior with great glee. The message is “See how clever we are, how well dressed, how highly paid, how willing to do anything or screw anyone for our own benefit?” We all have nice offices and a lot of sex too.
The police shows are predictable, PC, repetitive and preachy. The lawyer shows may even be realistic. That thought is depressing.
sorry for double comment 44 and 45. it wasn’t my fault. and i’ll stick to that story.
I have no problem with most cop shows. Of course, NO lab anywhere can put a hair into a machine and get DNA identification out within a couple of minutes so much of what they show is pure fantasy insofar as forensic science is concerned. Likewise, you can’t take a fingerprint, put it into a computer and get a match in a matter of minutes either and THEIR matches include current address, telephone number, where they work, who their associates are and how long their rap sheet is along with a fairly up-to-date photograph. NCIS is about the best at the science aspect of such shows.
In law programs, much of what’s shown is nonsense. You simply CAN’T make a phone call and get a search warrant. It doesn’t work that way.
I understand that actors are “just saying their lines.” I didn’t mean to imply any criticism of Spader and Bergen for what their characters said (I DO know that Bergen is HUGELY liberal, however). I mean to imply that the writing on the series was so far, far left-wing that the show became tiresome.
The only movies I saw in the theater were “Iron Man,” “Prince Caspian,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Tropic Thunder.” Heath Ledger will get Best Supporting Actor as a memorial tribute. Robert Downey Jr. will be nominated for “Tropic Thunder” (the most hilarious and un-PC movie of the decade), but you just can’t compete with the dead guy.
TDK was a bloated, overrated dungheap.