Hollywood leans left. It’s as certain as taxes and death. But I’m convinced there are enough influential right-leaning folks in Hollywood (Clint Eastwood, Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Gary “Sirius Black” Oldman, Gary Sinise, and James Woods, to name a few) with the power to push “conservative” projects. In fact, the task might be easier if more Hollywood conservatives came out of the closet.
(What is a conservative movie? Let’s start with pro-America themes and a fair depiction of the Christian faith …)
That’s where conservative Andrew Breitbart comes in. Owner of news site Breitbart.com, part-time editor of the Drudge Report, and author, Breitbart has created Big Hollywood, a group blog featuring commentary from conservative and libertarian people in the entertainment business and political arena.
“Big Hollywood is not a ‘celebrity’ gabfest or a gossip outpost — it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots,” Breitbart writes in his Washington Times column.
Right-leaning actors and decision-makers do exist, though they’re not as vocal as their liberal counterparts. Perhaps Big Hollywood will encourage conservatives in Tinseltown to talk about their views loud and often. Just shut up and entertain, you say? Like it or not, political ideologies shape the entertainment culture and influence what’s produced in Hollywood.
Having said that, complaining about liberal Hollywood is pointless, but it’s easier than doing something about it. In that regard, I agree with Entertainment Weekly‘s Gary Susman:
[I]f conservative Hollywood wants to make more openly ideological movies, it should stop whining and make them.
Susman doesn’t believe openly conservative actors are hurting for work, nor does he believe “liberal intolerance” is to blame for the lack of conservative movies. People watch movies to escape into fantasy. “Explicitly partisan movies, left or right, don’t seem to do as well as those that give both sides a voice or whose ideology takes a backseat to plot and character development,” he writes.
What about “Christian” movies? Would Susman say that explicitly religious movies don’t seem to do as well? Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ would disprove that notion. Gibson’s account of the arrest, show trial, murder, and resurrection of Jesus Christ earned over $370 million in the United States. Fireproof, starring Growing Pains actor and evangelical Christian Kirk Cameron, also is overtly Christian. Made on a budget of $500,000 and released last fall by Sherwood Pictures, Fireproof has earned over $33 million.
Most explicitly Christian films don’t earn that kind of box office money, but those movies are being made, and people are paying to see them. Events like the annual San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, which seeks to respond to Hollywood’s hatred of Christianity “not by cursing the darkness” but by building a community of Christian filmmakers to light the darkness, showcase such films. From its vision statement:
This is a wonderful time to be a Christian engaged in the arts. The cultural antithesis between good and evil is ever widening. The enormous leadership vacuum within our culture has opened a world of opportunity for a new generation of maverick Christians to challenge the status quo presented by Hollywood. More than ever before in the recent history of our nation, we have access to the tools for waging a new form of cultural guerilla warfare against the elites who would redefine the biblical family out of existence and present a dark and nefarious vision of reality to the future. We need Christians to challenge the present culture of death, infidelity, perversion, and ethical malaise by boldly proclaiming the crown rights of Jesus Christ over every sphere of life and thought — including film. God has given us a tremendous window of opportunity. We must seize the day!
Carpe diem, Christians!
Believers in Hollywood network through groups like Hollywood Connect, where they can “fulfill their individual God-given calling so that Christ will be lifted up in Hollywood and the world.” The non-profit Act One in Hollywood trains Christians for careers in mainstream television and movies. The organization offers screenwriting seminars and script consulting. Biola University in La Mirada holds an annual media conference for Christians on the CBS Studios lot in Hollywood. Biola also sponsors the God Blog Conference, which I’ve attended since the first meeting in 2005.
Instead of retreating from what one of my blog readers calls a “suburban Gomorrah,” Christians should heed God’s command to be salt and light, even in Hollywood. Is it any less a mission field than Africa?
The success of Fireproof shows there’s a significant audience for movies that offer something other than titillation and anti-America sentiment.
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