Just wait.
Lemmings
Christopher Johnson, Midwest Conservative Journal
It's official. Hollywood has a death wish. According to Jason Apuzzo, here is a list of movies that are in the pipeline:
"V For Vendetta." From Warner Brothers and the creators of "The Matrix" comes this film about a futuristic Great Britain that’s become a ’fascist state.’ A masked ’freedom fighter’ named V uses terror tactics (including bombing the London Underground) to undermine the government - leading to a climax in which the British Parliament is blown up. Natalie Portman stars as a skinhead who turns to ’the revolution’ after doing time as a Guantanamo-style prisoner.
"Munich." Steven Spielberg directs this film about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic terror attacks that killed eleven Israeli athletes. "Munich"’s screenplay is written by playwrite Tony Kushner ("Angels in America"), who has been quoted as saying: "I think the founding of the state of Israel was for the Jewish people a historical, moral, political calamity ... I wish modern Israel hadn¹t been born." The film focuses on the crisis of conscience undergone by Israeli commandos tasked with killing PLO terrorists - rather than on the barbarity of the terrorists themselves.
"Untitled Oliver Stone 9/11 Project." Paramount will distribute Oliver Stone’s new film recounting the rescue of two Port Authority officers after the 9/11 attacks. The film will star Nicholas Cage and Maggie Gyllenhaal - who recently suggested that America was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
As for Stone, he had this to say only a month after 9/11: "This attack was pure chaos, and chaos is energy. All great changes have come from people or events that were initially misunderstood, and seemed frightening, like madmen."
"Syriana." Starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, this Warner Brothers film - set during the first Bush administration - features a plot by American oil companies and the U.S. government to redraw Middle East borders for greater oil profiteering. The film even depicts a handsome, ’tragic’ suicide bomber driven to jihad after being fired by an American oil company! The film’s climax comes with the jihadist launching an explosive device into an oil tanker as American oil barons and Saudi officials look on.
"The Scorpion’s Gate." Sony has optioned former terrorism-czar Richard Clarke’s novel about oil companies and Washington politicians colluding to reshape the map of the Middle East for greater oil profiteering - this time by launching a global nuclear war.
"The Chancellor Manuscript." Paramount reworks Robert Ludlum¹s 1977 thriller into an anti-Patriot Act star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. Here’s the film’s screenwriter, Michael Seitzman: "We live in this crazy post-Patriot Act environment where Benjamin Franklin¹s warning that ’those that give up essential liberties for temporary security don¹t deserve either one’ are being ignored, so the subject matter seemed ripe."
"No True Glory: The Battle for Fallujah." Universal has attached Harrison Ford to star as real-life General Jim Mattis - in this story blaming the White House for the deaths of fifty Marines in one of the Iraq war’s deadliest battles. Based on the book of the same name by Bing West.
"American Dreamz." This ’satire’ from Universal Pictures deals with Pakistani suicide bombers out to kill the US president. The film stars Hugh Grant, Richard Dreyfuss, Willem Dafoe and Mandy Moore. According to writer-director Paul Weitz ("American Pie"), "The film is a comic examination of ... cultural obsessions" like the War on Terror "and how they can anaesthetise us to the actual issues of our day."
"Terminus." Set in the Middle East of the future, this Warner Brothers film depicts a ’disillusioned’ war correspondent covering an ’insurgency’ he decides he must support. The producer, Basil Iwanyk, says: "It deals head on with what some call insurgency, what some call guerilla warfare and what some call freedom fighting."
"Jarhead." This Universal release, starring Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal, deals with the ’dehumanization’ of Marine trainees prior to and during the 1991 Gulf War. Based on Andrew Swofford’s notorious and questionable memoirs of the same name.
Forget that tired old cliche about how big corporations are conservative, says Apuzzo.
One thing should be obvious from this list: left-wing agitprop filmmaking is no longer the purview of desperate, ’indie’ filmmakers with shaky camcorders and maxed-out credit cards. The films listed above are being made by large, multi-national corporations - and will feature sophisticated, expensive marketing campaigns with A-list stars. Imagine Leni Riefenstahl cross-promoting "Triumph of the Will" with People Magazine covers and E! Channel specials. That’s more or less what Hollywood has in mind.
Hollywood has shifted strategies in its opposition to the War on Terror. No longer content to let clumsy, uncouth documentarians like Michael Moore or Robert Greenwald conduct its foreign policy, Tinseltown is rolling out big guns like Harrison Ford and Leo DiCaprio and George Clooney - complete with their p.r. firms, dazzling smiles, and easy charm.
What should conservatives do about this? Buy cameras.
The proper ’response’ for this sort of thing is simple, if complex in execution. At some point conservatives need to raise capital, pick up cameras and start making movies of their own - much like Mel Gibson did with "The Passion." And conservatives should do this not simply to ’rebut’ the other side, but to add depth and imagination to what has become a wasteland of popular entertainment. Most Hollywood insiders - even liberals - agree that Hollywood is in a creative depression. More conservative voices can only help what has become a bleak situation for the town, both artistically and financially.
I agree to a certain extent. Hollywood is an artistic trash dump and conservative voices can only help. But there is one easier thing that conservatives can do about this situation which might make Apuzzo's suggestion a lot easier. Stay home. Refuse to see any of these movies. If you want to watch a movie, go to the library or video store and pick up a movie or two that isn't garbage.
If the movies on this list go into the tank, and they will, a studio or two might go under and a lot more money might be freed up for these conservative films Apuzzo would like to see made. After all, if Hollywood didn't learn from The Passion of the Christ, it can't learn from anything.
not only that, remember when the Patriot was a hit?
Hollywood could not condemn it fast enough.
There are some terrific stories to tell about our soldiers' heroism in Afghanistan and Iraq and someone needs to tell them. I'm looking forward to the story of the battle of Fallujah that Fox will have on this Sat. night, I think. We need to support the movies that support our troups.
I agree with this assessment. But it is grossly oversimplified. "Picking up a camera" is not even particularly easy, if you consider that a used Arriflex can run $20K, and that's without any additional lenses, a tripod, or film mags. Then there's the sound deck; you probably don't want to use your KMart tape recorder for production sound, so be prepared to shell out for tape deck, mics, booms, tape, and editing gear.
Let's not talk about lights, sets, costumes, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. And that just gets the film in the can.
Then there are the post-production expenses: editing, sound sync, special effects, copying, distribution. Then there are the marketing costs: advertising, insurance, promos, posters, etc..
All this means that someone with deep pockets has to be willing to step up and take a risk with a conservative filmaker. I've never met such a critter.
Oh, and by the way, Hollywood -- which owns most of the distribution apparatus -- will be fighting you all the way. And their whores in the media will skewer the movie before it's even on the projector.
The moon landing was easier. And cheaper.
That will pretend to be patriotic, and thus sucker people in to then get the leftist propaganda shoved down their throats.