This entire exercise would be fascinating if it weren’t so easily and solidly refuted by the fact that, at present, roughly 2/3′s of the people in this county (not Hollywood – the entire country) disagree with this war, the President, and the Republicans who engineered it. In order for Simon’s theory to hold true, it would stand to reason that polling would show enormous support for the war and an aching desire to see that support reflected on screen. There is not a single reputable poll to back up this assertion. And the inability of conservative fare like The Liberty Film Festival and the Half Hour News Hour to overtake the cultural landscape doesn’t forward this theory much, either.
The fact is, Lions For Lambs got middling to terrible reviews and the big names (Redford! Cruise!) just don’t generate the opening weekend box office they used to. This is not to say that Hollywood is innocent of vanity; just that Hollywood vanity had nothing to do with nobody (on the left or the right) wanting to see this uninspiring movie. Perhaps before accusing others of “living in a bubble” and being “massively uninformed”, Mr. Simon would do well to learn what the rest of the country, and not just his Pajamas Media partners, really feel about Iraq.
