Posted on 09/19/2002 8:22:53 AM PDT by Kevin Kelley
As reported by Fox News, director Ron Howard is backing out of filming a new movie about the Alamo, clearly one of the seminal moments in American history and the settling of the west. According to reporter Roger Friedman, Disney balked at being involved in a project that would garner anything above a PG rating--effectively informing Howard that they wanted to tone down the violence--a problem given that the story of the Alamo is an inherantly violent one of military siege in which the Americans were greatly outnumbered and were eventually massacred by their attackers.
"I wanted to do a gritty, no holds-barred film about the wild gang at the Alamo. It would not have been the Cocoon version. It was going to be very graphic--and Disney said no. They wanted a PG movie. They didn't want an R movie with controversy, so it became this battle that was brewing. Did I want to take this huge project knowing what I was up against? Because what they were going to do was say, 'Okay, go ahead, get going,' and then somewhere down the line think they were going to soften me into cutting the film into what they wanted. And even [though] I have final cut on my films, it didn't seem worth it, to know that fight was going to be constant. With a movie like that, everyone has to be working together with the same goals -- and there are other directors who I'm sure started out wanting to make one kind of film and wound up making another."There are two issues that come to mind for me. The first is that Disney is the embodiment of modern political correctness, and as such, their position should come as no surprise. Howard obviously sensed this and surely knew that pressure would mount to placate the Hispanic community and tone down any level of patriotism. Disney would not be happy until "both sides" were equally represented.....with the resulting dilution of the conflict leading to a story that had no story....just a bunch of guys who mistakenly started fighting and then one side killed all the others and they were friends after that and everybody was happy.
Having said that, I would note that last week I heard on the radio that the fall network lineups include reduced numbers of minority actors in lead and secondary roles, and there was much adieu about the decline. However, the problem is that the groups that feed at the protesting trough in Hollywood have cut the legs out from under the actors by way of protesting everything. In the case of shows like The Shield and The Wire, they protest that the shows depict Blacks and Hispanics as being stereotypically violent and crime-prone, while in the case of The Cosbys they protested that the show cast Blacks as being too "white". Effectively, they have created a situation where it is actually safer to not cast Blacks or Hispanics at all.
It's a tough call, but by allowing victim groups to have a place at the table, you actually give them power and encourage them use it toward their own ends--they become de facto censors, looking to propagandize for their own interests. Maybe there is a place for a company like Disney that has developed a fuzzy feel-good formula for success, and perhaps Ron Howard is just pitching his project to the wrong people, but by altering history (as was done for the Japanese release of Pearl Harbor), we do a disservice to our kids who grow up with a distorted view of how the country was founded and the heavy price that was paid by so many.
Kevin Kelley
Bingo. They couldn't deny the history, so they had to be clever with their censorship.
He probably didn't want to become the stooge in a Politically Correct movie. He has too good a reputation for that.
Disney already did that themselves with the six-feature Davy Crockett serials back in the 1950s on TV.
Glorification of firearms, killin' Bars, whoopin "Injuns", slaughtering endangered wildlife to make hats, drinking contests against Mike Fink, fightin' instead of negotiatin', killin' Mezkins, etc.
Hard to improve upon Fess Parker's portrayal.
Industry is evil according to Hollywood (and every story has to have a villian).
I enjoyed Apollo 13, but cringed at the scene where the LM engine was used for a mid-course correction burn. If the movie version was to believed, the Grumman rep's only concern was for his job and not the lives of the astronauts.
I don't buy it.
It probably had quite a bit to do with Disney's thinking. We cannot have white men being heroes - it just isn't done anymore.
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