Posted on 08/01/2006 1:46:10 PM PDT by GMMAC
Hollyweird’s Wake-Up Call?
By Rachel Marsden
FrontPageMagazine.com
July 24, 2006
Hollywood director Oliver Stone dropped by Toronto’s Varsity Cinemas this week to premiere his new movie, World Trade Center, about two of the last police officers who were pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble, post-9/11.
With him was Scott Strauss, one of the real-life police rescuers. Stone says Strauss and the other 9/11 families kept him in check. That’s quite the feat, given that Stone has called the Cold War “irritating”, says nationalism and patriotism are “evil forces”, considers Fidel Castro a personal friend, and mused that if he was George W. Bush he would “shoot himself”.
With this film, Stone has created a historically accurate, riveting human interest piece—a Hollywood rarity nowadays.
Every strong political leader in the movie is Republican. The caption at the bottom of TV newscasts repeatedly reads “Attack on America”—a handy reminder for liberal moviegoers who may have forgotten why we’re still fighting.
One character is a former Marine who leaves his civilian office job to help with rescue efforts, saying to his colleagues, “Don’t know if you guys know it yet, but this country’s at war.” He later says that the U.S.A. will need “a few good men to avenge what happened here”, and we’re told in the epilogue that he reenlisted in the military and served two tours of duty in Iraq—you know, that place where terrorists are being killed every day, even though liberals constantly tell us that it has nothing to do with terrorism or 9/11.
It’s a welcome departure from recent self-indulgent Hollyweird pap. Stone’s movie about Alexander the Great was basically soft gay porn. Apparently, this great warrior got about as much action in the sack as he did on the battlefield. And this was supposed to be a war movie?
Why stop there? How about remaking Patton from the perspective of the general’s “privates”? Or maybe redo Full Metal Jacket, showing why straight soldiers might have really needed one.
Legendary cowboy, John Wayne, would never have put up with Brokeback Mountain’s director telling him, “Okay, John, there’s really no plot or bad guys. You’ll just be riding around the countryside with Tonto, stopping periodically to erect a tent and have a sausage toss, if you get my drift.”
Brokeback wasn’t exactly a box office smash, but was considered “groundbreaking” by Hollyweird standards—perhaps because they took George Bush’s people (cowboys) and had them screw each other. Men making out with men, and people watching it unfold on a big screen—how daring! Haven’t they heard of Pride parades, or World Cup soccer?
Actor/director George Clooney fancies himself a rebel, too. Last year, he made two politically skewed flops, ignored by everyone except in Hollyweird.
In Good Night and Good Luck, Clooney sought to demonstrate how U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy ruined people’s lives by targeting communists in America—but failed to show a single innocent person whose life he actually ruined.
And no wonder the Hollyweird left loved Clooney’s movie, Syriana. It was like a Noam Chomsky lecture: boring, nonsensical, and driven by themes like “America sucks”, “oil companies are evil”, and “terrorists are poor, misunderstood schmucks”.
Maybe studios are just tired of losing money on narcissistic flights of celluloid fantasy that the bore the rest of us “unenlightened” folks? No one wants to watch a feature length PowerPoint presentation by Al Gore about toasty weather and melting ice. The penguins are happy and have lots of ice—I saw that in the March of the Penguins documentary that beat Al Gore’s at the box office.
Rachel Marsden is a political columnist with the Toronto Sun and the Canadian correspondent for Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. Rachel has served as a Director of a DC-based political think-tank, worked as a political strategist in both Canada and the USA, and is currently the president of a Toronto-based public relations, lobbying and communications business. You can visit her online at www.rachelmarsden.com.
PING!
I've changed my mind about seeing this movie after reading this, knowing about Mr. Stone and his politics. I'm going to bring lots of kleenex, tho.
Wonder how it stacks up to United 93.
I heard it's an unbelievable movie.
LOL!
I can't wait to see 'World Trade Center'. it sounds like a great movie.
Every review I've read, from Cal Thomas to Medved, has said it was a wonderful movie and very powerful.
I've heard that one long before.
I saw United 93. It was too real and I left the theater in a fighting mood. I'm not sure I can stand another 9/11 reality movie for another 6 months or so.
I wasn't going to see it either (Oliver Stone you know) but I have heard some reviews that said, "It's nothing like the usual Oliver Stone movie." So I am reconsidering also.
The movie won't be getting my money.
Will the Left claim, "It's too soon?". Probably not, since they didn't say squat about Farenhype 911...
bump for later
I have to say I am surprised that Stone could make a patriotic movie...may just have to see it.
Stone is and always will be a commie stooge.
If people have forgotten why we fight or need a teddy-bear kumbya memorial movie, by all means go see it. Me, I'll wait for Hollywierd to give us a film about our boys righteously kicking some raghead butt, another Sands of Iwo Jima.
Been 5 years..........glad I'm not holding my breath.
I need neither.
But I see no reason to send a message to Hollywood that essentially says, "You made a movie about 9-11. You didn't whitewash it. You didn't call Bush Hitler. You didn't have the characters go to therapists to discover how we can make them like us. You didn't compare it to Vietnam. You portrayed :gasp: a few Republicans favorably. You told the truthful account of a few involved, even showed fairness to their faith. So now to show our gratitude after years of whining and pot shots about Hollywood's liberal agenda..we're going to make sure you take a financial loss."
Yeah, it's your choice of whether to go to the movie or not. And I wouldn't mind a movie like you described. I think Bruce Willis was looking into making that happen actually. But I'm going to support the movie to make sure Hollywood gets the right message. Hopefully enough do the same. If they do, who knows, maybe Hollywood will make some of those films you want. But I doubt it if they take a loss on films like this.
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