Posted on 07/27/2005 8:19:03 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
New York Post columnist John Podhoretz has ripped into Hollywood stars who "are out to bash the U.S.” for its policy on Iraq.
In his Wednesday column headlined "Hollywood Hell,” Podhoretz tells readers:
# Oliver Stone is directing a movie about the 9/11 attacks.
This is the same Oliver Stone who has called the attacks a legitimate "revolt” against America. The conspiracy theorist and "JFK” director has also suggested the attacks might have been the brainchild of multinational corporations.
Stone says his new 9/11 film is "not about the motives of the terrorists.” Podhoretz writes: "God forbid anyone should question the motives of the terrorists.”
# Steven Spielberg is making a movie about the aftermath of the Munich Olympics massacre, when the Israeli government launched a campaign to assassinate those responsible for killing 11 Israeli athletes.
The movie’s screenwriter Tony Kushner is a self-proclaimed Marxist. He was a signatory of a letter written after 9/11 that accused U.S. leaders of unleashing "a spirit of revenge” following the attacks, and said the "brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine.”
Podhoretz writes that Kushner "views Israeli self-defense in the Intifada as a ‘brutal repercussion’ from American warmongering after 9/11, and ‘takes inspiration’ from Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve” in the West Bank or Gaza.
# The co-writer of Spielberg’s last film "War of the Worlds,” David Koepp, has said that to many people the aliens in the movie symbolize the U.S. military.
"Certainly there are a lot of political undertones and overtones,” he told the Chicago Sun Times. "In other parts of the world, the new movie will be [about] fear of American invasion. It will be clearly about the Iraq war for them.”
# Jane Fonda has created new controversy by announcing she plans to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq.
The move comes after "Hanoi Jane” spent time this spring "sorta kinda apologizing for her appalling conduct” during the Vietnam War, Podhoretz writes.
# Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal has said she believed the U.S. was in "some way responsible” for the 9/11 attacks.
"Gyllenhall has apologized for her remarks,” says Podhoretz, "doubtless following several emphatic conversations with her agents and managers.”
The thing is that actors aren't actually "dumb". If they were truly dumb, then we couldn't hold them accountable for the things they say. But they're not dumb, they are just ignorant, due in large part to the fact that they work in an industry that:
1) ...is very insular and isolated from mainstream society;
2) ...focuses on "emotional truths" via images and rhetoric to the exclusion of cold hard facts, making them far too easily swayed by images and rhetoric;
3) ...is so lucrative for the few that make it to that level that images and rhetoric easily make them feel guilty for their achievements, and they will latch onto anything that gives the appearance of compassion or altruism;
4) ...is so un-regulated compared with any other industry you can name that retribution against anyone the Hollywood powers that be disagree with (blacklisting) can be done openly and with impunity.
The average actor is probably average to slightly above average intelligence. Their problem is not low IQ but ignorance, isolation, over-reliance on emotions, and a near cult-like loyalty to the hyper-secular ideology of Hollywoodland. In other words, Stockholming on a massive scale...
I'm with you on that one. Good on Denzel!!!
Buying movie tickets feeds the beast. If you must see one of their movies there are ways to do it that don't cost anything (get it from the library). Don't enrich those that hate you.
Of coure, it could never be made because the terrorists in the book are Muslim, and we all know that Islam is The Religion of Peace
Visited LA and Hollywood last week..
The thing that struck me most about the place was the pervasive smell of urine.
I enjoy going to the movies, but I don't go often. So much of it is just drek. And since the war, so many of the actors have said so many really ugly things, and its difficult to separate their off-screen character from their on-screen character.
Actors really need to keep their private lives as private as possible. To be effective as an actor the audience has to able to believe, for an hour, that they are the person they portray. Too many interviews, too many appearances on Leno robs them of their believability. It may add to their likeability if they really are likeable, but it adds nothing to their ability to play a role in a movie and in fact it subtracts from it.
Wow, I'm proud of the MSM, they didn't forge documents to make a story favorable to America.
This tour is all about Jane. Jane is addicted to herself and any attention she can draw. If the public and the media, all good and bad, ignored this crusade, she would limp back to Hollywood and drain a bottle of barbiturates.
Even after your posting of her picture I still have no idea who she is.
We'ew planning on going to see 'Stealth' this weekend. It looks like a great movie. My whole family loves to watch movies in which $hit goes Boom!!!
That's our "free" press...they have to err on the side of the enemy at all times.
Are you caling me gay? *cocks shotgun*
j/k
So glad I didn't see that movie. From what I heard it was nothing more than a melodramatic, overacted, homoerotic romance set before the common era with a big budget.
It will be most interesting to see what Spielberg does with his developing movie on the Battle of Iwo Jima. The Marines fought an enemy that through the code of Bushido was prepared to die in battle, trying to take 10 Americans for every one of him, and did so to the last man. Will he truthfully portray the USMC under those conditions, or will he bastardize them in revisionist propaganda? Desecration of the efforts and hideous sacrifices of the USMC on Iwo Jima by Spielberg will truly demonstrate that hollywood hates America.
Well, I have hope. For such an extraordinary liberal, he did give us "Saving Private Ryan", second in quality only to "Band of Brothers". Plus, I know all Spielberg's movies are formulaic, but...I like the formula! I like Jaws, Close Encounters, etc.etc.
I stand corrected. I was not trying to further an internet story run amok. I was sharing what my cousin in the Army sent me in an e-mail.
I will forward the correction to his attention.
Thanks for pointing this out.
"Do you like movies about Gladiators, Danny?"
So which will implode first?
The DNC or Hollywood?
It appears to be a close race.
I liked the Russell Crowe one. And Ben-Hur wasn't too bad either, for a movie from that age. Am I missing any other movies about Gladiators?
Except for that boxing one they air on TBS sometimes.
I second that. E.T. wasn't bad either, for what it was. And I found Schindler's List very powerful and moving. Saving Private Ryan might still be my favourite, though.
A.I. was ok, too, if a little (ok very) sappy.
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