These films - The Crying Game (1992), Philadelphia (1993), Secrets And Lies (1996), The Cider House Rules (1999), Far From Heaven (2002) The Hours (2002), Million Dollar Baby (2004), etc. - are sleekly advertised and their content is carefully concealed in ads.
There are certain message films where you see the trailer or the ad in the paper and you understand the subject matter and themes straightforwardly: Schindler's List or I Am Sam for example.
Then there are others which are not revealed despite reams of hype until customers are sitting in the theatre.
How many moviegoers attending The Crying Game knew they were in for a two hour spiel about sodomy? It was advertised as a film about IRA intrigue.
How many moviegoers knew that Million Dollar Baby was shilling for euthanasia? It was pitched as an has-been coach taking a last shot at redemption with a female boxer.
Or that The Cider House Rules was a screed for abortion? It was pitched as a kindly old doctor and his orphan charges.
Or that Secrets and Lies and Far From Heaven were about how horrible white people supposedly are?
or that The Hours and Far From Heaven were about how cruel the heterosexual world supposedly is?
Hollywood will spend a ton of money to promote its agenda while concealing the actual content of the film until they've taken people's money.
I suppose you're right. I've never found any problem determining the content of a film ahead of time, though. Also, I've seen most of the movies you mentioned, and don't remember folks walking out of them, either. If they were duped, you'd think they'd leave at some point.
In the same years all of those films were distributed, there were also dozens and dozens of other films distributed. My point is that people should choose the films they see carefully. After all, it costs a pretty penny to take your family to a film, what with the cost of tickets, plus any goodies from the concession.
Just on economic terms, it's worth making sure you'll enjoy the movie, both on an entertainment and a moral basis, don't you think?
That's why I don't choose films from ads. I choose them after reading about them. These days, that's pretty easy, since there are dozens of sites reviewing films. I like IMDB.com.
'The Crying Game' and 'Secrets and Lies' weren't Hollywood films. Neither was Boys Don't Cry really...not a Studio film certainly. But sometimes you can't give away what a film is about in previews without spoilers. I obviously question the designation of Million Dollar Baby as propaganda for euthenasia. It was rather ambiguous on that score. And 'Far From Heaven' was more about 1950s movies then anything else...just sytematically inverting their cliches...all it really did of course was create new ones.