Robbins' Anti-War, Anti-Bush Play Receives Poor Reviews

talon news ^ | March 16, 2004 | Jimmy Moore

[prairiebreeze]

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- Liberal Hollywood actor Tim Robbins has received poor reviews for his new anti-war, anti-Bush satirical play called "Embedded."

Although the 90-minute play debuted at the Public Theater in New York on Sunday, it has not been welcomed even by the mainstream press.

The New York Times wrote in a review that "Embedded" seems old and that "it is hard to avoid the sensation that everything said here has been said before, in some cases many years before."

The New York Daily News described the play as "slapdash" and "adolescent."

The Associated Press compared "Embedded" to a funeral parlor, suggesting the title should have been called "Embalmed." The review concluded that there was little "genuine wit" in the play.

Newsday said the play was nothing more than an "agitprop cartoon."

Even the left-leaning New York Post said "Embedded" was "just a bore."

The play itself shows three groups, including U.S. soldiers, embedded journalists, and those in charge of running the war in Washington.

One of the U.S. soldiers is Jen-Jen Ryan, who is captured by the enemy and rescued by the government for political purposes. This is an obvious reference to Jessica Lynch.

The embedded journalists are those reporters who were allowed to be with the American troops on the frontlines of the battle on the way to Baghdad to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

The third group all wear masks and have conspicuous names such as Rum Rum (Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld), Dick, Gondola, Pearly White and Woof (Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz). These characters are all plotting the invasion of "Gomorrah," the Biblical name of modern-day Iraq.

Robbins does not appear in the play, but wrote and directed it. It was originally released in Los Angeles last November at The Actors' Gang.

Robbins has been a longtime vocal critic of President George W. Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the idea for "Embedded" was a result of his perception that the American people were not being told the truth about the reasons for going to war with Iraq.

"I was reading a different account of the war in the U.K. papers and that was for me, curious," Robbins told Newsweek. "I started by writing the scenes with the Office of Special Plans folks -- the neo-conservatives -- just as an exercise. I wondered what skewed logic was it to use deception and lies to get the American public's support for the war?"

Robbins came under fire last year for attending anti-war rallies and speaking out against the war in Iraq by having a 15th anniversary screening of his hit movie "Bull Durham" cancelled by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Admitting that there are people who do not agree with his anti-war position, Robbins says people are "pissed off" about it although it is supposed to merely be a "satire."

"And you can't be polite in a satire," Robbins declared to Newsweek.

Last April, Robbins told the National Press Club that he believed the country was wrong for going to war with Iraq because Bush allegedly lied about the reasons for going.

[prairiebreeze]

Awwww. Poor Timmy's little play flops and "Passion of the Christ" is a mega-blockbuster.

Go figure, Timmy.

Prairie

[martin_fierro]

Robbins is a real dim bulb. Always has been.

[Integrityrocks]

This makes my day.

[ahayes]

"And you can't be polite in a satire," Robbins declared to Newsweek.

I'm afraid we've forgotten how to be incredibly cutting yet simultaneously painstakingly polite. That's one reason I like reading Jane Austen--her characters say some of the most critical things to each other in the most civil way!

[Mich0127]

HAA HAA...Good for him!

[Mich0127]

And always will be!

[Paleo Conservative]

I bet his mother in law - oh wait a minute he's not married. The maternal grandmother of his children would have said the same things as the reviewers.

[lowbridge]

bump

[HHFi]

As a professional comedy writer myself, I'd like to point out that this shows the dangers of actors believing that just because they can read intelligent or witty lines written by other people, they can think them up themselves. In this case, Robbins' delusions were exacerbated by the fact that, as a liberal, he naturally believes he is far more intelligent than people who disagree with him, and he couldn't possibly be the one who is misinformed. Also, living among wealty Hollywood liberals, he never actually meets anyone who disagrees with him, so he assumes that all civilized people must share his viewpoint, no matter how inane. This cocoon effect prevents him from realizing that it's actually all inane people who share his viewpoint.

[HHFi]

wealty=wealthy. Damn typing fingers.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Maybe for a comeback he can make a musical about Boy George! Ahh..nevermind.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Sounds like it was written by a committee of DU and Indymedia members.

[Slainte]

OK, help me out here, I get so confused...

If the New York Times pans Robbins' play, does that make the NYT a part of the "vast, right-wing conspiracy?"

And if the play is forced to fold, will Robbins be accusing the New York Daily News of censoring him and stiffling his right to free speech?

[prairiebreeze]

Yes, I believe you have it correctly.

The civil suit lawyers are on speed dial I'm sure. Or maybe he'll just whine and fuss to Babs, Martin, Ferret and of course, Susan. They'll provide a good audience anyway.....

Prairie

[BattleFlag]

This exposes the flaw in the logic that in these times all one need do to gain acceptance or "get laughs" is bash George W. Bush.

It may work at Manhattan cocktail parties or moveon.org self-congratulatory gatherings but in the larger "real world", It doesn't play. (pun intended)

[fish hawk]

put Tim and Embedded in the same boat with Rosie and her Boy George show and watch them both sink. Good thing the Idiot Left love each other as no one else is going too.

[facedown]

Ha ha!

[baseballmom]

Even the left-leaning New York Post said "Embedded" was "just a bore."

Left leaning??

[ZULU]

Robbins is a perfect example of a perfect actor. Great at pretending somebody he's not, and not very good at all when it comes to analytical thought or original ideas.

[Fintan]

Had me wondering too...