Disney's Fictional Fahrenheit? (M. Night Shyamalan's new movie another Bush Bash)

Fox News ^ | 7/27/04 | Roger Friedman

[drjimmy]

I take this review with a huge boulder of salt. Friedman claims that the woods represents the "red states," and supports his theory by quoting the director as saying he made the movie with thoughts of the 9/11 disaster. Those are two very different metaphors that Friedman has thrown together. Perhaps if Friedman had equated the woods with Iraq, his anti-Bush claim about the movie might make more sense. My guess is that Friedman knew throwing Michael Moore's name and the name of his movie around a few times in his review was good red meat for the Fox audience. I haven't seen "The Village" yet, but I certainly will, to get my own take on it.

[dawn53]

I liked this guy's movies.

And Signs, IMHO, was a great movie about faith.

The guy makes scary movies, he hasn't made any political statements, at least not that I'm aware of, so I'm not putting much stock in this review.

On the other hand, I've heard the remake of the Manchurian Candidate has exchanged "Big Business" for Communism as the sinister brainwashers. Don't think I'll be seeing that one, although I loved the original.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I thought "Signs", the movie he did with Gibson, was one of the most unusual I had ever seen. A science fiction film with a strong faith component - very odd, but well done. If you haven't seen it, you should. Hard to describe otherwise.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

I would have to say this reviewer is reaching as well.

It would be possible to say many movies made decades ago were anti-Bush if you spin it right. Its called assigning meaning where no meaning was intended. If I thought about it a bit, I could write a review saying this movie is an indictment of the Dems.

Its all in the spin.

[Honcho]

I agree, the last M. Night movie, Signs, was about faith in God.

[marty60]

I agree, When faced with this awful danger, it was his reevaluation of the recent events that brought him back to his faith.

[horatio]

Ok, other than a gossip columnist's opinion of the film, what do we have here?

Who knows what the "cover-up" is and is willing to spoil it for those of us who won't see the film?

[gunnygail]

Understood but the enemy picked Red for the Bush states, not us. Slick little move to lose their "commie" connotations.

[antiRepublicrat]

Anti-Bush? It takes place in the 1800's for cripes sake!

I haven't seen the movie so can't comment on it. But in a general sense you don't have to be in the same timeframe to satirize something.

[aruanan]

Don't these people realize that conservatives go to movies, buy CD's, read newspapers, etc. also?

And don't you realize that you're reading the interpretation of some guy of another guy's movie, another guy whose movies have always been thoughtful movies based on a religious/moral theme, not political?

If you keep kneejerking like this, you'll never stay in one place long enough to see what's really going on.

[RightOnline]

Silliness. It's a fright flick, not a political statement, fercryinoutloud.

[BADROTOFINGER]

I really like his movies, and really doubt that there is any ulterior motive on the part of the director...JFK

[third try]

I'm not so sure this guy has got it right - I remember watching the movie 'Signs' right after the war started, and at first I was afraid it was going to be one of those movies about how horrible it is to give in to our "irrational fears", cause there really weren't any aliens or anything to fear, and if there WERE aliens, we should sit down and have a nice long talk with them. But as it turned out, the message was that our fears are justified, and instead of talking we need to smash their heads in with a baseball bat.

[superiorslots]

My lawn tractor which happens to be red has been breaking down this year. I think I'll vote Kerry/Rats(blue) this year because my tractor must be telling me something about those evil Republicans and their broken down ideas.


I plan on seeing the movie.

[Zavien Doombringer]

[Lancey Howard]

I think Fox News has a troll who is attempting to discredit the whole organization by putting out faux paranoid "theories" like this one. Even if it is supposed to be satire, it's too clever by half. My 2 cents.

[longfellow]

I agree, it sounds like it's reaching... however we did give Shyamalandingdong's people the shock and awe. Just kidding, I did like signs and unbreakable and he is the most original film maker out there.

[avg_freeper]

These wackjobs could find a political undercurrent in a Speedy Gonzales clip.

"The mouse is obviously a sign of Republican's fear as we all know that elephants are afraid of mice. Additionally I believe that the cartoonists are ridiculing Bush because Speedy is wearing a hat. See hat leads to cowboy hat which leads to Bush. Yah, I know that these cartoons were made decades ago but the drugs I'm currently taking let me make leaps of stupidity like that."

[aruanan]

Good point. It jives with the village sheeple covering up the "bad" color of red. Just more Hollyweird vomit to ignore.

Good point? Have you and others in this thread completely lost touch with reality? The use of color, especially red for danger, as a symbol is part of a tradition thousands of years old. This is the tradition that the use of color in the movie is tying into.

You'd be far better off asking just who it was who came up with the red state/blue state scheme and why. Even though these two colors were probably chosen because they're the only two actual colors on the U.S. flag and look more interesting on a election map than red and white or blue and white, you could ask whether whoever did it did it because he wanted to associate the color of blood and sore throats and skin infections and danger with one party and "true blue" with the other. It could, however, have been nothing more than a personal preference with no symbolic intent at all.

Folks, you're making too much out of too little too often.

[aruanan]

I was pondering M. Night Shyamalan's politics the other night as I watched the 2nd movie he made w/ Bruce Willis, and of course, he made a movie with Mel Gibson. Both Willis and Gibson are conservatives, and it got me to wondering.

Note that all of his movies to date, starting with Praying with Anger, have a religious/moral/supernatural theme. They've never been political.