Posted on 03/07/2006 9:22:24 PM PST by george76
The divide between conservative and liberal America was on full display at the Oscars, with both the winners and losers championing social and political topics heralded by the left.
Across the United States, in blogs and on call-in radio talk shows, conservatives seethed that their point of view was not represented in the choice films honored with nominations -- let alone among those given awards.
"This year's Oscar nominees include stories of homosexual sheep herders, a transvestite and Japanese prostitutes," ...
American conservatives are accustomed to frowning at liberal Hollywood, but they were more disaffected than ever by the left-of-center themes of this year's Oscar nominees.
the conservative Concerned Women for America (CWA)...complained that the few Hollywood films it approved of had loads of popular appeal and impressive box office, but "got the cold shoulder from Hollywood elitists."
Conservative America long has been at odds with liberal Tinseltown, championing films with religious overtones like the blockbuster "Passion of the Christ," which was snubbed at the 2004 Oscars.
This year another hit with Christian overtones was the film "The Chronicles of Narnia...which has raked in more than 637 million dollars in ticket receipts around the world...
Narnia's ticket sales nearly equaled those of the five best picture Oscar nominees combined.
"This year's anticipated Oscar-winning movies, reviewed in light of their box office appeal, reveal Hollywood's true motives.
They are far less concerned about entertaining people than they are with trying to shape the culture and advance a political agenda."
"If you want to be truly courageous and take actual risks then make a movie that gives conservatives a fair shake or, God forbid, make a movie where a Liberal is the bad guy."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
McMurtry is an interesting guy. From a teeny tiny small town in Texas, he went to Stanford in the early 1960s for the creative writing program and fell in with Ken Kesey et al out on the infamous Perry Lane. The character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (McMurphy) is a play on his name. Unlike a lot of the students at Stanford at the time, he wasn't a "rich kid." He earned his tuition buying and selling rare books, mostly old travel books and maps.
I did not see any of the nominated films. The best movies (worthy of Best Picture consideration) I saw last year:
Cinderella Man
Walk the Line
I don't think Narnia, as enjoyable as it was, would be worthy of consideration. Unfortunately, it pales in comparison to LOTR (whose acting was superior). Also King Kong was not best film caliber (very slow starting film and the acting was not great).
I just can't understand why neither Cinderella Man nor Walk the Line got nominated. They were not great films, but solid. I guess the five that I missed must have been tremendous (just joking).
It's kind of unfair to compare Lonesome Dove to nonfiction accounts. He was trying, I think, to write one of those "traditional westerns," which really isn't his thing.
I didn't care for Lonesome Dove, either the book or movie. Much better is the long forgotten film The Quick and the Dead based on a Louie L'Amour book. Note: there are at least two movies with that title, the only good one is based on the Louie book.
Do you want movies different from what you see coming out of Hollywood?
Who is going to finance them?
Movies require a bunch of money to make and they are a high-risk investment.
Liberals are putting tons of cash into movies they want to see get made.
Conservatives are busy putting their money into everything but movie making.
I am producing a classic action Western indie movie right now so I know whereof I speak.
If you want some reality orientation, try producing your own movie.
I understand your ennui and remorse for the dearth of, and concurrent lack of genuine acting and characterization , but still cannot comprehend the apparent sympathy for depravity, perversion, and unseemly behaviour that support and exacerbate the decline of Western culture.
So, how are we gonna change Hole-ee-wierd?
Conservatives are busy putting their money into everything but movie making.
Too high risk. For the same money you can buy a mini mall or apartment complex and end up with more than a very long strip of plastic.
Hollywood is already changing and we should mourn that change as the death of an American artform -- whether you liked the movies or not. The industry is now international. The audiences are international. And the movies are directed at international audiences as much as at American audiences.
All entertainment seems to be going that way. It's like jazz. When I was young and went to jazz clubs it was filled with black hipsters, white hipsters -- guys from NYC, SF, New Orleans, etc. etc. Today, you go into a jazz club and its filled with Japanese business men, a half dozen couples from Paris, moody Eastern Europeans and maybe seven or eight Americans.
"I get DVD videos of John Wayne movies and play 'em at home, along with Clint Eastwood, and Arnold the Governator movies, with the odd Sean Connery movie."
I am with you. Don't forget about Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin!!!
America's REAL Hollywood action stars!!!
Yup.
Munich didn't even break the 50 million mark, so add it to the Box Office Bomb list along with Kingdom of Heaven.
Syriana still has not OFFICIALLY broken the 50 million mark either. They are just over 49 million.
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice/;_ylt=AqXO8miiYOr3zsUll7URBr9fVXcA
..."seething;" with liberals you have to realize they ALWAYS project emotion. the writer really meant that liberals are seething because red states ignore Hollyweird and its sociopathy.
First, it is dumbed down.. Second, I don't respect the nominating process
Potential nominees for THE 32ND ANNUAL PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS were compiled with the help of Knowledge Networks, a leading market research company. Knowledge Networks used its panel, which is the only web-based market research panel that is representative of the entire US population, to identify a pop-culture-involved sample of men and women ages 18-54. For each category, the respondents were provided with a set of candidates determined by national ratings averages, box-office grosses, and album sales. The respondents then chose their favorites in Television, Movies and Music. They also had the option to write in their favorites where not included among the provided candidates. Their top three selections in each category became the final nominees.
Third, its too unfocused.. IMDB has a significant following and there is the opportunity for finer detail can be brought forward than "Favorite Female Action star".
This sort of thing doesn't recognize specific performances and achievements. This is more the product of what a market research firm would deliver than a means of recognizing any specific achievement.
"But, to say that Brokeback Mountain was a flop compared to Narnia is completely inaccurate."
Okay, so get back with me on the distinct profit gains from bombs like Syriana and Munich.
Were they as "profitable," as say, Kingdom of Heaven?
I have noticed a trend in Hollywood: Whenever they misrepresent Islam (in a post 9-11 world) as something other than the bloodsoaked deathcult that it is, the film bombs big time.
Any exceptions to that rule are welcome.
They refuse, however, to understand that capitalism, getting the best bang for your buck, also applies to WHAT films people choose to watch. They freak out when their "vaunted" agenda films fail at the box office, by calling anyone who didn't "CHOOSE" to see the film a homophobe, racist, blah blah. They bully. They don't rally. They do emotional drive-bys to excuse their own cognitive dissonance.
Fine. Let them eat cake.
I've enjoyed nearly all of Larry McMurtry's books. Except of late. He can still write; but he's lost his way, IMHO. He's caving to a populist ideology that has seen better days and is in the wane.
In terms of Brokeback Mountain's mass appeal, it wasn't there.
I'm confused. Are you saying that the movie was terrible because of the subject matter or that it was a badly made film?
I am saying the subject matter lacks mass appeal.
What did Benny Hill win an Oscar for?
BINGO!... For this reason I wished they had chosen the homosexual movie... or is it homosexual sheeps? :) Well, something like that... Because then, this little ritual would have gone down the toilet once and for all. Still... it's pretty clear what the "oscar-gay-affair" is all about nowadays.
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