I have no problem with the trashing of McCarthy. He was a drunk and a demagogue. What I can’t stand about the revisionist history of some of the “victims’ of McCarthy is that they swallow the party line that these were simple liberal patriots who backed noble causes. Many of the most lionized were Stalinists. And I am not talking about the proven spies. Many were American citizens who embraced Stalinism, who followed strict party discipline, who usd many of the anti-democratic tactics that McCarty did. There was no tolerance for anyone who did not follow the official party line, those who expressed thoughts that did not toe the official dogma were hounded into recanting or were blacklisted themselves by the party faithful. And the were aware of the show trials, they were aware of the artistic repression in the Soviet utopia, and they embraced it as the required steps that wopuld lead to a Stalinist revolution in America. Many were not spies and were not criminals. But they were people whose political beliefs should be despised by Hollywood, not praised. They were committed Stalinists who fought to the bitter end to keep the myth of Stalins utopia alive in the world. Hollywood can hate McCarthy, I don’t care. But they should explain their love for people who would have outdone McCarthy in political repression if they would have had the chance is valid.

Colonel Andrew MacNaughton’s story is all about technology and war. He dealt with phyicists (including a future Nobel prizewinner) and Reginald Fessenden.

You have so many characters and stories to play off of that you can build analogies to We Were Soldiers, A Beautiful Mind along with any of the retro-Tom Clancy techonology theme movies that have been box office magic.

Go make a great movie… Don’t cry about where are the heros.

Don’t expect any sympathy, though, for studios closing and bad business times in Hollywood. It has always been true that most of what they make was trash to be burned without any lament. They do need to preserve a couple of sound stages and a few cameras so that occasionally, at rare intervals, from time to time, the apparatus will be around so someone can produce a really good movie.

I’ve noticed that about movies as well, geoffb. The best ones are controlled by a creator who can defend the project and maintain creative control. I’m not sure I buy the auteur theory but the best are usually those that have one person in control.

I suspect it’s always been this way but maybe now there are too many hands in the cookie jar. So much is riding on the project, nobody really wants to take credit in case it fails, so no one is responsible.

I knew this went on but didn’t realize it happened that much. I do know that the shows I’ve enjoyed the most and can rewatch have been ones where the original writer is in charge. Babylon 5, Buffy and Firefly I can watch anytime and enjoy them as much as the first time.

Bad Stories and PC Leftism are related. Any system allowing an outside pressure group to change a famous novel’s terrorist villains from Muslims to Nazis is, more broadly, a top-down enterprise where the money people are certainly telling the writers a lot more than such occasionally obvious examples. There may be Art in Commerce, but not when Commerce micro-manages, or chooses to do the same thing over and over.

Price and entertainment competition are certainly related. Movie prices may be down in general CPI terms, but the competition has gotten cheaper yet, while also getting more flexible and capable. Until the 1980s, it was only from TV (including eventually 1 HBO channel) which was generally free but allowed almost no choices. Then VHS rentals, and now On-Demand and multiple movie channels are cheaper and more convenient. A videogame generally costs a bit more than a movie ticket, but is good for at least dozens of hours of play before boredom sets in. Dating teenagers can stay in and watch a movie alone, and in many cases one of their sets of parents will allow far more to go on than would be safe in a theater.

The “Free” media’s constant search for content also means free publicity decides a movie’s success on opening night. The hook of the right title is key, hence most movies now are either remakes, TV shows, sequels, or best-selling novels (at least in name; is it the same novel when you change major plt elements?). The Star System may not be any more pronounced now than in the 1950s, but then stars kept their name in the public’s mind by making movies or attending press events. They did not see notorious behaviour as to their benefit (indeed, it was not), whereas now most transgressions will be praised by much of the press, and any can be excused by a stint in rehab or tales of childhood trauma (“How brave, how strong you are, to have survived!”). And finally, the mergers between movie firms, TV and magazines means much of the media’s hype is completely bogus, preordained based on how much money the corporation has invested, and not an independent judgement by anyone at the magazine or morning show as to the merits of the movie.

Why pay cinema prices for tickets and popcorn when I can get as good or better, cheaper and more conveniently? Recently, my retired dad bought himself another, bigger screen so I get his two-year old system for free.

Hell, that movie was so good it almost made me like the commies. “Enemy and the Gates” and “Blackhawk Down” are by far the best two war movies of the last 20 years.

Can’t Hollywood make one TV show or movie about Iraq where the troops are just a bunch of average Americans, mostly good but with human flaws, fighting not for politics but for honor, duty, and most importantly, for their buddies? Just one? As an experiment maybe?

Also – if Munich is as bad as anticipated, can we please take away Speilberg’s Jew Card? We can just replace him with Steve Spielbergo, his cheap Mexican counterpart.