Political Hollywood

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Political Hollywood

By Edward Abraham
Mar. 6, 2006

I really have a dilemma and there is not an easy solution. It's something that has got me feeling pretty lonely. I happen to be a movie buff. I love movies, all kinds of movies--thrillers, suspense, mystery---even a good romance every once in a while if it's not too slow and sappy. I even associate times of my life with the popular movies of the day. I can remember, as a youngster, going to see "Jaws" for the first time. I closed my eyes during one particularly shocking scene and did not want to open them for a week. My college years brought movies where Clint Eastwood demanded, "Go ahead. Make my day." and Henry and Jane Fonda spent a summer "On Golden Pond." In recent times, "The Sixth Sense" rocked my world in many ways, with its twist ending. It was particularly impactful for me in that I had just lost my mother around the time the film was released, and the subject matter hit close to home in many ways. And some lesser known films such as "Identity" and "Frailty" offered up some genuine spine-tingling creeps---in a good way, as movies are supposed to do.

My dilemma is that Hollywood, and it's foreign counterparts, is increasingly on a mission, and that mission seems to be the advancement of a leftist political agenda. Now, this in and of itself is not a crime. We live in a free country. Directors, producers and actors can make any kind of films they choose, with or without political messages. I could always get past the subtle leftist nuance which has appeared in many films through the years, such as the poster advocating gun control in a police station in one of those "Lethal Weapon" movies. (I forge which one, I think they made about twelve of them. Then they put Joe Pesci in them and this combinations was successful at ending not only the "Lethal Weapon" series, but Joe Pesci's career as well. I think Joe should have stuck with the mob boss theme; it was working well for him.) Anyway, I've been in many police stations and I have yet to see one with a gun control poster hanging up. Most cops I've known have plenty of their own guns in their homes; I doubt they'd be eager to hang up gun control posters where they work. Of course, Hollywood sees it differently, which was fine when it was little things like a gun control poster.

Movies of late have moved well beyond the subtlety of a camera pan across a poster though. Now we get full-fledged in your face hammer to the head propaganda without any pretense. I rented "Crash" last week based on a number of positive reviews. This is one of the films nominated for Best Picture of 2005. The movie is essentially about racism in America; however, the characters in this film are so overtly racist that it is difficult to even watch. And I mean EVERYONE is racist in it. It is so heavy-handed in its approach that it is just painful. And many leftist Hollywood types see things in such black and white (no pun intended) that complex issues such as racism are oversimplified for the purpose of feeding the director's ego. The message seems to be, "I'm so smart because I made a movie about racism and you need to watch it so you can be as smart as me." I feel sorry for those who plunked down eight to ten bucks plus popcorn for this mess. I would hazard to guess that the founder of the Ku Klux Klan was not as overtly racist as most of the characters in this film. No thanks.

Tonight, I attempted to get through "The Constant Gardener" which is another 2005 release that received positive media feedback. From the opening salvo of the Rachel Weisz character--an anti Iraq War rant that lasted several minutes--it was easy to see where this film was headed. The rest of the movie continued with a typical Hollywood theme---evil drug companies kill people so they can make even more money than they already do. Am I oversimplifying the plot? Not really. Strip away some nice cinematography of Africa and that's all there was really. I made it about halfway through the flick before turning it off.

Virtually every Best Picture nominee this year has some political message or motivation behind it. The gay message of "Brokeback Mountain" has been played again and again across various media outlets. Now personally I have nothing against the gay lifestyle whether we're talking about gay cowboys or lawyers or clowns, but I don't necessarily need the idea shoved down my throat by groveling do-gooders that I HAVE to like this film. I don't HAVE to like anything, including overwrought movies. Now perhaps this is being a bit unfair to the director, who may have made a good movie (I haven't seen it), but the peripheral publicity machine needs to stop. The same message applies to "Capote".

And those two movies are the LEAST political of the Oscar nominees. "Crash," "Goodnight and Good Luck" and "Munich" are all three over the top leftist politics. "Good Night" is a George Clooney production so we know it's full of objectivity. From this we learn that Joseph McCarthy really was a bad dude. With "Munich" Spielberg feels the need to let us know that murdering terrorists are really just misunderstood, now let's all just go get some ice cream. I liked Spielberg better when he was filming fake sharks in the waters near where Ted Kennedy likes to take late night drives....oops, sorry.

Didn't Hollywood used to make movies that, well just entertained? I want to be scared, I want to laugh, I want to cry and, yes, I don't even mind having to use my noggin a little during a movie. I don't need self-righteous drivel spoon fed to me.

Yes, I really do have a dilemma. I like my movies straight up, hold the politics please. Unlike Burger King, however, Hollywood is not serving it "your way" anymore. "You'll take our movies the only way we make them, with full bore one-sided, over-the-top simplification of issues that, in the end, are too tough for most of us Hollywood types to even comprehend, but that doesn't mean we're wrong!"

My only consolation in all of this is, given the box office decline for major motion pictures of late, including the fact that nobody seems to have watched any of this year's Oscar nominees, maybe I'm not so alone after all.

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About the author: Ed Abraham is a concerned citizen living in flyover country, U.S.A., who happens to be truly disgusted by the loss of common sense in our society and is doing all he can to try to reinstall it.

Email: eabra@myway.com

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