Welcome to the Right, Mr. Mamet

Los Angeles Times ^ | 03/19/08 | Andrew Klavan

[originalbuckeye]

David Mamet's public coming-out as a political conservative -- done in a 2,500-word essay in the Village Voice last week -- is wonderful news for the culture, far better, I fear, than many conservatives will appreciate. The left has monopolized the arts for so long that some on the right have lost the knack of them. We love to denounce Hollywood and indulge in paroxysms of rage about the latest artistic insults to patriotism and God. But when it comes actually to producing mature and complex works of art -- or supporting the people who produce them -- a good conservative can be very hard to find.

Mamet, on the other hand, is a pillar of the arts. I don't know if he's America's greatest living playwright, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a better one. Many people know him for his movie work: "The Untouchables," "The Edge," "House of Games," etc. But it's plays such as "American Buffalo," "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Speed-the-Plow" that represent his best writing by far, each searching for remnants of heroism in the rubble of modernity through a hilarious and poetic tough-guy vernacular.

[originalbuckeye]

Something rare here. A playwrite wakes up to reality. Long overdue.

[Voltage]

Hate America rhetoric worked well in 2006. I hope that the hate exposed in the last few days will enlighten voters to the degree that it’s attraction will wane.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

The journey 60-year-old Mamet has made from being what he calls a "brain-dead liberal" to acknowledging the genius of philosophers such as Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman is a difficult one for an artist. We in the creative world swim in liberalism like fish in water. It's hard for us even to imagine that one might evolve and walk on dry land.

Mamet's "The Edge" was decidedly pro conservative,

I was surprised to hear Mamet described as a liberal after having viewing the 1997 movie.

He must have stayed in the closet for at least a decade.

[Cedar]

“The Winslow Boy” is one of my all-time favorites. Great movie.

[Cedar]

[Cedar]