Why?
You really wanna know why?
Here's your answer!
Posted on 10/07/2005 4:18:30 PM PDT by J. Neil Schulman
I'm all for female equality, but with the releases of airplane thrillers "Red Eye" and "Flightplan" so close together, I'm starting to think that there's some kind of conspiracy to castrate both the male hero and the male villain and elevate the cerebral, anorexic woman to some kind of mythic status.
In "Flightplan," the men all seem completely powerless. Aeronautics engineer Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is flying with her daughter, but when she wakes up, her daughter is missing. Having recently endured the death of her husband, Kyle panics and demands the crew search every inch of the plane. When the crew and its captain (Sean Bean) discover that Kyle's daughter isn't even on the manifest, they begin to think she's crazy and leave her in the custody of the air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard).
Before the big twist toward the end when we learn whether Kyle is imagining everything or her daughter really is missing, the men stand around like bulls waiting in a Rocky Mountain Oyster line. The air marshal spends most of his time running after Kyle as she scares everyone on board by dashing around demanding the crew search this place and that. The Captain gets out of his chair just long enough to twiddle his thumbs and fret over the decision to search the plane or not. Then, of course, there's the dead husband, who helpfully committed suicide. Then we get the obligatory argument about racism between some hillbilly and a couple of Arabs on the plane. Every guy is either psychologically or physically limp.
There's nothing wrong with a strong female hero nor is there anything wrong with reinforcing the idea that women aren't always going to cower in the face of danger, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that my cinematic testicles are in a vice of political correctness making it all but impossible for a strong man to even help, much less rescue, a woman in trouble. It suddenly seems something more than a coincidence that Cillian Murphy, who plays the bad guy in "Red Eye" is next starring as a transvestite in "Breakfast on Pluto." That he makes an incredibly believable woman makes it all the more disturbing.
Nobody ever believes Kyle because nobody can say for certain that they ever saw her daughter. Ultimately, the film tries to make a statement about our self-absorbed culture and our collective inability to connect with those around us. Kyle's daughter goes missing because nobody cares.
Self-absorption can sometimes be a good thing: Had I been more self-absorbed during this film, I might not have suffered so much during the slow descent of "Flightplan."
(Mr. Cranky reviews this sucky movie)
Wow!!!
Apparently, in order for females to have equality (according to the feminists), one must first emasculate the males...or give them a vasectomy.
Michael Savage was right about one thing: Hollywood is a den of vipers.
what about Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick?
I think that came out after The Incredibles....
Vise.
I have to admit that even before reading the body of the article I answered in the negative the question in its title. The very reason the War on Terror is still in progress is that all of Europe and one half of Americans no longer differentiate right from wrong and good from evil. Had they known the difference, all recent wars --- from Vietnam onwards --- would've been won. We have the capacity to win but for almost one half of a century were unwilling to do so. Why? Precisely because we no longer see evil as such. Evil does not care, of course, and becomes only emboldened. In 2001, it started to fight us on our own soil.
The question you posed lies thus at the heart of the matter. And it is answered in the negative because we are unable to see not only propaganda for what it is but even much greater evil.
I think *vice* was funnier.
You refer, of course, to the House Committee on Un-American activities, the amphibole for which (HUAC) was coined by the comsymps and their sycophants in the media to refer back to the committee itself.
As far as the anti-American drift in the movies and Holyweird in general is concerned, I believe the public is wising up more and more. Thanks for helping that process along.
No poster as yet has commented on the point of your article. Maybe they're all Bushies who believe that the Islam is the Religion of Peace.
Actually, the failure of Hollywood to reflect certain real-world villainies began during the generalized anti-americanism of the 1960's; communism was treated as pretty much an equivalent political system. The bad guys were (1) capitalists and (2) all those millions of seemingly immortal Nazis who were threatening BelAire with immanent Anschluss.
"No poster as yet has commented on the point..."
Read 8 and 10, you dummy.
Thanks for the idea.
It's Friday night and my girls want to watch a 'toon.
"The Incredibles" is one of their (and mine) favorite movies of the year. Strong role models all-around and a great movie.
I agree with you,but there is not a lot we can do besides boycott these films,and of course discuss this stuff(like FR)thereby spreading the word.
Why?
You really wanna know why?
Here's your answer!
You just have to be discriminating. I rented a movie the other night, and it was great. It was called "True Grit."
I think people are getting their knickers in a twist WAY too much about this film. It's just a movie!
Most films are propaganda, some a little less subtly than others.
If anyone doubts the power of movies as a medium for propaganda, I refer you to the Entertainment Industies Council's website at http://www.eiconline.org/. This is a well-funded organization dedicated to inserting propaganda into movies and TV.
Wikipedia also has an excellent article on propaganda at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda
No, SuziQ, it's never "just a movie."
JNS
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