Don’t Hate Me: I Vote in the Oscars
Other movies I liked this year were the sentimental Quartet – director (this time) Dustin Hoffman and writer Ron Harwood’s bagatelle about life at a British home for retired musicians – and Argo – Ben Affleck’s telling of the escape from Khomeini’s Iran by some of the 1979 hostages. Affleck has a couple of obligatory liberal tropes in his film, but I’ll excuse him. His heart and his filmmaking skills are clearly in the right place.
Two big Oscar contenders I did not admire were Les Miserables (it’s always been a mystery to me how this tuneless musical was a success in the first place) and the “hunt for bin Laden” thriller Zero Dark Thirty whose plotting (as Lionel Chetwynd and I discussed on Poliwood) is an unfathomable hodge-podge.
Of course, those are just my opinions and worth no more than yours – even if I get to vote in the Oscars [insert smiley here]. I have always noticed you can argue with someone as long as you wish – and as well as you can – about why they should like a film but you can rarely get them to change their real reaction to it. We each have our own experiences of art, which work on deeper emotional levels than we can easily explain or, for that matter, argue. We all bring our own histories to stories and our own lives — and they are and should be inviolable. Art (the art of film, in this case) is its own form of dialogue. At its best, it speaks to the unconscious.
Which leads me back to my title. I have noticed – how could I not – how much conservatives despise Hollywood. Many refuse to go to the movies altogether and say they don’t care who wins the Oscars. (I don’t blame them for that!) But they abandon the culture at their peril.
Despise Oliver Stone and Sean Penn all you want, but don’t cede the playing field to them. They are telling the stories your children are watching. Such story telling is a natural process, as old as Homer, indeed older. It’s part of human development actually.
And turning off the television set won’t help. It will only make things worse because other peoples’ children – far, far more of them, I assure you – are still watching. Your children are going to have to share the world with them. Don’t give up the culture. Take it over.
Vita turbam. Sorry Roger but when the culture is a fetid cesspool it is best to avoid it altogether.
But Roger, all history and all mores have been taught by movies for over a half century. Teachers don’t really exist.
So exactly HOW are we to take over the culture? It would take a cell-like dendritic organization such as communism over 100 years to reverse the trend. We won’t be alive even if that were to happen. And those that come afer me, called “our children and our children’s children” by the pols and commenters, are not worth the struggle, believe me.
Image Media presents our mostly unwitting mass culture dreams. Freud had much wrong, but this he had right: “dreams are the fulfillment of our wishes”. Hollywood, TV, Youtube and ubiquitous celvideos are unfolding the Boomer dream.
Boomers rule now, and so will their children and their children’s children. Run! The nightmare’s barely begun.
Go Galt!
Boomer hatred. You do know that’s a left-wing meme, right? You hate lefties but spread their memes for them? How’s that make any rational sense? It doesn’t. It’s insane.
Conservatives abandon the field, then wonder why they lost the game/battle/war. SoCons are particularly good at this.
Instead of engaging people in a positive fashion, you stand apart and bitch when they get it wrong. …or worse, you knock on their door and tell them, in their own home, that they’re going to hell if they don’t do things your way. (vote for your candidate.)
Yes, we know the world’s a wreck. What have you done to fix it? In the past, have you actually done what you said you were going to do? …or did you tell others what to do and then go off and do the exact opposite, yourselves?
Like claiming to hate the left and MSM while spreading their memes for them?
Conservatives claim to like Reagan, but Reagan engaged people in a positive fashion, with a positive vision for all Americans. You never met an American you didn’t hate…like Boomers….or an American you didn’t blame for not doing things your way.
Self-examination. Mote. Eye. Log. That sort of thing. Which, when you get down to it, is Mr. Simon’s point.
Roger, with respect.
Obviously you have mistaken most of the readers of this blog as persons who give a crap about the Oscars. If the Oscars ceased to exist today, no one would care except Hollywood, Liberals (I digress), and the low-information citizens who make-up the bulk of this once great country.
Go Galt!
It’s called reding comprehension.
It wasn’t about the Oscars. It was about engaging other people in a positive fashion, instead of withdrawing from society and becoming the crazy hermit uncle/aunt of the American family. You know. The uncle who doesn’t allow visitors or go out. The one who bitches about everything? Yeah. Conservatives have become that guy.
That’s Mr. Simon’s point.
Typical Lib. Presuming to make the author’s point. Bonesteel? More like Bonehead.
Wouldn’t that be “reading comprehension” and not “reding comprehension” Mr. Bonesteel? I do so love irony.
I didn’t know we had to be accredited and licensed typists in order to be allowed to have an opinion in this country. So much for freedom of speech, eh?
Second, in answer to your comrade, and to the implied meaning of your own words, I’m not a lefty.
Third, you both proved my point for me.
“Go Galt!”
TommyTee casts one vote for Atlas Shrugged II for best picture.
That’s one more vote than that film deserves.
Roger, why didn’t you like “Lincoln”? Does John Wilkes Boot’s shootdown of it express your take? I thought it was superb — brilliantly done (and written); true to my historical knowledge and sense of the man, of the other participants, and of the events; shockingly (thankfully!) non-liberal (except for the tiny detail of once putting the modern liberal buzz-word “fairness” into Lincoln’s musing); smart and sophisticated; and (contrary to JB’s sour, crabbed view), lively, compelling, moving and immensely entertaining. (Don’t hate me, I love PJM.)
Roger, you’ve got it wrong about the Oscars. We despise them. If middle eastern Muslim terrorists attacked them, I’d gladly provide the suppressing fire allowing them to make their getaway.
I tend to agree, except that I would gladly gun down the terrorists after they did their thing. Win-win.
Mr. Simon’s point about not abandoning the culture is well taken. Hollywood DOES produce the stories that our kids will watch and integrate into their worldview while growing up.
I am reading lots of b**ching in response and no positive suggestions. In this area as in others, the response too often is to abdicate rather than to do something, anything, to fight back.
My kids are unplugged from the TV. No cable. I choose what they watch, I choose what they read. Before I let them consume something, I do check it for whetheror not it is something positive for them. If I see something I don’t like, I challenge them to notice it. Dr.Seuss’ “The Lorax” is a perfect example. “Why didn’t the Once-ler plant his truffala seed instead of hiding? The tree might already be grown?” “Maybe the once-ler should have planted more trees while he was cutting- then he could have kept making money and kept his family employed”. (My kids will not be seeing the movie version of ‘The Lorax”.)
Read your kids the traditional fables. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is about as conservative a tale as you can get. “The Frog and the Scorpion”, “Hansel & Gretel” also teach well.
Choose their movies well. The Incredibles over a nickelodeon laden with leftie values. The Pixar movies are generally excellent.
Choose. Don’t abdicate. Choose. Share your criticism of media with your kids. Teach them to question and criticize the schools before the schools teach them to criticize and reject you.
If it wasn’t for liberals, I’d be happy to dislike conservatives. No shortage of boneheads on either side, as we can plainly see. Does someone force curmudgeons to read articles not of their liking? Watching and reading has nothing to do with award shows or whether you like or watch THEM. Participate in the culture or be led by those who do. Your choice.
Which leads me back to my title. I have noticed – how could I not – how much conservatives despise Hollywood. Many refuse to go to the movies altogether and say they don’t care who wins the Oscars. (I don’t blame them for that!) But they abandon the culture at their peril.
I refuse to watch any of the “Aren’t We Wonderful!!” awards shows because there are better uses for my time. As for going to movies, I go very seldom (once this year) because so few of them are of any interest to me. I’m a 55 year old man, not a teenager. I’m outside the target demographic and it shows. If they don’t make movies for people like me, then they shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t attend. I have over 250 DVDs in my collection but have stopped buying them (even from the discount rack) because there’s so little worth watching.
Sure, there are some actors that I refuse to watch and Sean Penn is on that list. Frankly, I wouldn’t cross the street to urinate on Penn if he was on fire.
What is it about show business that people feel the need to give each other awards so frequently? There are many awards shows not just this one. I find the constant seeking of approval a strange pathology. It is kind of pathetic.
A short and doubtless incomplete list of “Aren’t We Wonderful!!” awards shows:
People’s Choice Awards
Academy Awards
Tony Awards
Country Music Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Emmy Awards
Daytime Emmy Awards
Critics Choice Awards
Grammy Awards
Hell, this is too much trouble. Here’s a link to just the movie awards.
How could you forget the obnoxious MTV music awards, or the Soul Train Music awards where Jamie Foxx announced the Obama was his lord and savior.
Good for you, Roger. It takes a bit more time now to sort through the predictable offerings to find something worthwhile. The only votes I have are with my feet and my dollars, I don’t support movies or artists I find objectionable.
6. Thomas L
Critical thinking obviously isn’t your forte. Follow your shallow grave thinking to its logical end and in Germany, 1942, you’d participate in the culture by joining the SS. Consider not commenting here any more. We suffer fools.
*ding!*ding!*ding!*
Did it really take 10 comments before we had a reference to Nazis?
Regarding Affleck, who “has a couple of obligatory liberal tropes in his film…” As Roger suggests, we need to give that kid a break. His film had Muslim bad guys and he’s playing a Mexican. So Affleck really belled the PC cat on this one.
I don’t blame movies and video games for a coarsening culture. I remind others that those things are refletions of a culture’s attitudes. Now, don’t get me wrong, in the chicken and the egg analogy, I think they came around at the same time. The liberals will defend that they are making movies that people wanted to see, but nobody was pining for Midnight Cowboy or Rosemary’s baby when they came out, well not the average movie goer. Hollywood pushed those on audiences for shock value. These days they have no shock value whatsoever. So while a desensitized society eagerly swallows grimmer and more graphic images, Hollywood is eager to provide it.
Until the culture is willing to pull back and say, enough is enough with the imagery, well, then making movies like, for example, Fireproof are still going to be niche market offerings. Taking back the culture will have to start at the same battleground that culture was first taken, the public school system. Until that happens, Hollywood will primarily fill the needs of the lowest common denominator, the 19 year old male, as pointed out by a PJM columnist in another article.
I thank God for those like Mr. Simon who stay engaged and fight the good fight in the cultural arena. I also appreciate the information about current movies offered at sites like PJMedia.
As a mere consumer, I pick and choose carefully. I find that most of Hollywood’s offerings fail to interest me, a fact that probably has more to do with my age and personal tastes than political considerations. Yet even I have enjoyed a few of the latest movies. I loved both of the last 2 Oscar winners (“The King’s Speech” and “The Artist”) and very much enjoyed “Moneyball.” They are still making good, apolitical fare.
The Oscars? I haven’t watched the ceremony in decades. (The only thing that interests me about it is the women’s gowns and I can get my red-carpet fix instantly on the internet.) I do enjoy some of the discussions about contenders —especially on Poliwood!— both before and after the event, though.
Oscar time again? That yearly event in which the most vacuous and vapid people ever to exist gather and give each other awards? Spare me. I’ve seen maybe two of this years ‘blockbusters’, and both on those via a DVD someone else was watching. Don’t care, don’t wanna know.
Best film of 2012: Atlas Shrugged II. Why?-because the message and meaning of a movie preceed all else.
You are 100 percent right, Roger. The worst thing you can do is leave the field.
The “oscars” as important….lol. Yeah, like the nobel peace prize.
Seriously, ignore the garbage….. for that is what it is. Acknowledging either as having any worth is to signify they have worth.
Far from ceding the field… why expend any resource on a worthless objective?
You need to spend more time with real people Roger.
Two movies I thoroughly enjoyed this year (were they made in 2012?) were: The (?) Marigold Hotel, and, made by Spiegelberg, Tin Tin. I hope to see them again.
Meh, what field? The one which awarded obama a nobel peace prize… heck he may as well get an oscar or three.
Both are equally irrelevant in the real world.
But hey Roger, by all means… smooze and vote, certainly I do not begrudge you that as I would too.
Just remember.. it is not real world.
Well, I just forget all that and enjoy wonderful expressions of the art like “Vatel” or “Radio Days” or “Black Orpheus” and thank them.
The trouble is that you need people with money to make movies and such that get shown in theaters. Most of those people are in favor of big government, because despite the claims of higher taxes, in reality, they get all sorts of subsidies and benefits because they can pay government to do what they want most of time.
I mean, look at the TV. Something like 10 newschannels, all of which are left except Fox, which is center right (and given some of the remarks Ruper Murdoch makes, he’s not particularly conservative, it seems to be entirely Roger Ailes).. Where is the right wing equivalent of Current or MSNBC or Bloomberg? Sure, the ratings of those channels might not be great, but at least they exist.
I don’t think I’m likely to hate someone just because they belong to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
I think the people in it take themselves, and what they do, way too seriously, but it’s not exactly a crime against humanity.
Roger, I understand and appreciate your devotion to your chosen profession. It is hard to watch a labor of love being trashed and sullied.
Your request not to cede it to Stone and Penn and their hateful,lying, treasonous ilk is heartfelt and logical.
It simply is a monumental task with little hope of garnering minuscule returns. Hollywood will continue its five decade flirtation with radical leftism and continue hemorrhaging money, just as leftist “news” does…in fealty to their life of slander and sedition.
The narcissistic self-aggrandizement circus of multiple “award” shows, reward mediocrity and lockstep altar building…much like academia and its “tenure” system. (see VDH’s recent essay)
How does one “cede” a battlefield overrun with pillagers and rapers of our culture? Boycotting the cesspool and not contributing hard earned dollars to its continuing stench seems a reasonable response.
When an entire industry loses its honor, integrity, ethics and sense of right and wrong…it becomes an enemy of the people. Academia, mass media, and Hollywood have devolved into propaganda tools and state jackboots. I am no longer for “soft” rebellion as I once was.
Boycott them and all their sponsors. In droves.
There are actors whose performances I will not watch, but usually it isn’t so much their politics as their on-screen mannerisms that annoy me. For instance, even if George Clooney were a reasonable right-winger, I wouldn’t watch him because I find his bobble-head tics highly irritating. And, sorry, Sean Penn may be a fine actor, but I can’t look at him without thinking “sleazy barfly”. There are many other fine actors I enjoy watching enough to forgive and overlook their loopy politics and their verging-on-criminal escapades, because they aren’t going to influence my outlook in the slightest. They’re there to entertain me for a bit, and I don’t give a tinker’s dam what they think otherwise.
The most logical step to take is to poke a hole in all this ridiculous celebrity-worship and let the fetid air out. They put their pants on one leg at a time, same as all of us, so why are they worth all that reverence and coddling? Answer: they’re not.
I dont hate you Roger.
We need to go around as well, but we must also use Entryist tactics to take back our institutions. And nothing succeeds like success. Conservative themes are popular, and sucessful. The most popular shows on television are have lots of conservative themes, because they attract a wider audience, by attracting conservatives.
I also could care less about seeing a bunch of hollywood people carrying their gift bags and patting each other on the back. Too many awards shows have made awards irrelevent. I however loved Les Mis. I love the musical the time period and hugh jackman so it did not dissapoint. My 11 year old son who gamely went with me hated it and now he gets to choose the next two movies. I would love to see hugh and anne hathaway get a nomination.
These liberals are selling products and they have every right to do so, but only ObamaCare requires me to buy something I neither want or need. I don’t contribute a nickel to the Hollywood Plantation and its politically “astute” airheads.
Despise Oliver Stone and Sean Penn all you want, but don’t cede the playing field to them.
Only “despise” because they use their talents to propagate lies.
About a week ago, Penn asked us to “pray for” Oogoe Chavez, which was ironic on so many levels, I almost felt sorry for him (Penn).
I loved the film remake of Les Misérables.
After the first 1/2 hour, I was pulled into an epic story of the worst and the best of human nature.
Roger, congratulations on being a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. It means that you are amongst the very best in your craft. Financially supporting people who mock, disrepect and actively work to undermine my life does not seem reasonable to me. Also, when performers, etc., make statements or push agendas that I think are determintal to my Country, I find that their views interfer with my ablility to suspend believe and enjoy their performances. So I’ll continue to boycott Penn, A.Baldwin, Afleck, etc. and others of their philosophies.