Posted on 04/04/2008 11:27:08 AM PDT by Abathar
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Last weekend, Hollywood offered moviegoers -- particularly younger ones -- a choice.
They options were a glossy movie about a bunch of sexy MIT whiz kids beating the house in Las Vegas and a gritty movie about a bunch of sexy young soldiers who, after completing their tour of duty in Iraq, learn they are being redeployed to the front.
Overwhelmingly, audiences opted for Sony's "21," which opened in first place to $24.1 million, over Paramount/MTV Films' "Stop-Loss," which bowed in eighth place with just $4.6 million.
In a "memo to Hollywood" posted on his site, Fox News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly proclaimed "Stop-Loss" "a bomb, a major disaster at the boxoffice." O'Reilly added, "There is a difference between loyal dissent, a good thing, and trying to make your country look bad. You, Hollywood people, often do the latter. And the folks know it."
Needless to say, the reality is a good deal less black and white.
Although "Stop-Loss" hardly set the box office ablaze, it was more a misfire than a bomb. The opening gross for "21" might have been five times higher than that for "Stop-Loss," but "21" was playing in twice the number of theaters. On a per-theater basis, "Stop-Loss" actually ranked fourth among the weekend's top 10, taking in $3,528 per theater, ahead of fellow rookie "Superhero Movie," which opened at No. 3 with $9.5 million.
The serious-minded "Stop-Loss" inevitably faced an uphill battle when facing off against escapist entertainment like "21." Although the current crop of Iraq movies hasn't yet connected with audiences in the way that the Vietnam movies of the second half of the 1970s did, it's worth remembering that most of those movies weren't blockbusters, either; 1978's "The Deer Hunter" ($49 million in domestic grosses) and "Coming Home" ($32.7 million) paled in comparison to that year's "Grease" (nearly $160 million in its initial release).
Now, the common wisdom in Hollywood is that with the Iraq War still raging, it's too soon to ask moviegoers to revisit the war. After all, Hollywood waited several years after Vietnam ended before approaching that topic.
But it's just as possible that the current Iraq War movies simply are arriving too late.
Consider: Americans remained deeply divided over the Vietnam War even after its inglorious conclusion in 1975. Many regarded Jane Fonda a traitor, vowing never to go near any of her movies, but those who had protested the war eagerly embraced her films. Arguably, a movie like "Coming Home" benefited from that partisan divide.
Today, the majority of Americans have turned against the war in Iraq. The debate is over. A mid-March Gallup Poll found that 59% of Americans said the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq. In a CBS poll, 65% said the war was not worth it. And according to CNN, 66% now oppose the war.
Still, the war drags on. Even the cable news channels have shifted away from covering the endless sectarian fighting in Baghdad and Basra in favor of the never-ending he-said-she-said of the current Democratic presidential contest.
If anything, "Stop-Loss" is an uncomfortable reminder that the war isn't over. Ryan Phillippe plays a man who doesn't want to abandon his country or the men he has fought with but who still sees returning to Iraq as an exercise in futility. As the movie struggles to end on a satisfying note, that's a tough sell to audiences, many of whom already have turned off to the war and would just like to put it all behind them.
That's because the war is over and it just mopping up.
And that's going well too.
Hell, if WW2 had been covered this way, the war wouldn't have been over until 1974, when the last of the Japanese resistors surrendered.
We should just start calling it FDR's illegal war.
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and we start sending troops to Europe. The men in the Bataan death march could've been saved.
you mean “Rendition” ?
I think it was redacted.
And to think our soldiers would have only had to been over seas for a year during WWII. Then come back home.
And Christ, I’m sick of seeing some news nitwit sticking a mike in front of some wife and asking her how she feels about her husband having to be in Iraq for and extra 6 months.
They should have asked my mom how she felt when my dad was gone during WWII, and when he took part in 7 out of the 10 campaigns of the Korean War.
One of my favorite movies, Walken was brilliant and De Niro's method acting was outstanding.
Fortunately, very few saw its rendition.
never heard of it.
guess I need a subscription to Entertainment Weekly or something. My pop culture meter is pegged at around negative twelve.
You know, I think if they made a “Black Hawk Down” type of movie about Iraq; the profits would be on the same level as Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, or We Were Soldiers.
But the only movies we get fed about Iraq are Jarhead (Iraq I) and Stop Loss (Iraq II).
I know that the boys on the ground over there are doing just as brave things as the grunts in the previous wars. Why does Hollywood insist in not telling their stories?
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