Friday, November 02, 2007

Anti-war and Anti-American films bomb

Maybe Hollywood will learn from this but I doubt it. Govindini Murty of Libertas (a forum for conservative thought on film) has an excellent article at the New York Daily News regarding the recent spate of anti war and anti American films. Here is a nice summary of the films I hope all of you will not see:

If Tokyo Rose were alive today, she wouldn't get jail time - she'd get a three-picture deal.

Throwing all caution and fiscal sanity to the winds, the Hollywood establishment is releasing a slate of anti-war films that do violence to the cause of American victory - and to the art form of film.

Art is best served by an open competition of ideas. When only the anti-war left is allowed to make films in Hollywood and pro-American voices are excluded, the result is movies that are ideologically rigid, morally shallow and creatively sterile. Is it any wonder that recent anti-war films like "Rendition" and "In the Valley of Elah" have bombed at the box office?

Hollywood's enforced ideological conformity is obvious: "Elah," the Tommy Lee Jones vehicle now in theaters, and "Redacted," directed by Brian DePalma and set for release later this month, both depict American troops in Iraq as murderers and psychopaths. "Rendition," released last month, asserts that the American government allows innocent Muslim civilians to be tortured. "Lions for Lambs," featuring Robert Redford and Tom Cruise, depicts a venal Republican senator risking the lives of American troops in order to advance his political career. "Stop Loss," starring Ryan Phillippe, posits that the only noble American soldier is the one who refuses to serve.

Even the relatively tame "The Kingdom" concludes with a coda that draws a moral equivalency between American CIA agents and Saudi terrorists.

The article goes on to compare old Hollywood and how both liberal and conservative Hollywood types supported military efforts then. Pro-military films cannot even be made now despite efforts of many screenwriters.

What is hollywood afraid of? Let both sides be shown. Let the public decide.