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
Of course he was. He was just back from Iwo Jima.
You sure will, right up there on the moment on the northwest corner of the Alamo site. You can see the entire list at the The Alamo site.
Juan Seguin is one of the more well known of the Tejano patriots, but he wasn't at the Alamo when it fell, having been ordered out by Col. Travis (he was a Captain in the Regular Texas Army at the time) to seek reinforcements. He later fought at San Jacinto and eventually became a Lt. Col. in the Army of Texas. His father was Alcalde (mayor) of San Antonio de Bexar at the time of the Texas Revolution.
And the contracters don't often speak highly of their customers either, when the customers are not around that is. I've been on both sides of that dance, and they are both right and both wrong. Some of the sterotypes of both sides are correct. But then again, I picked up some of the sterotypes held by the contracters when I was on the military side of things, both active and later reserve. I also observed some of the things the military and presumably NASA, complain about relative to the contracters. Now I work for a non-profit that is somewhere in the middle, although technically still a contracter, but much closer to the military than the Lockeeds, Boeings and Raytheons of the world.
For the most part they are. They consider him a "traitor" to Mexico. This based on events during and following the U.S/Mexican War, after Texas had become a state, and which resulted in the "sale" of, by Mexico to the United States, of all lands, other than Texas, that were once part of Mexico and are now part of the United States. (Claims of an independent California Republic not withstanding) We, the United States, reinstalled Santa Anna in Mexico, after the then existing government had exiled him. It worked just as we intended, with Generalisimo Antonio López de Santa Annabecoming once again a big fish in a somewhat smaller Mexican pond, although not before Santa Anna, as was his wont, double crossed the US and led the Mexican Army, or part of it, against US forces. See Santa Anna or better yet just search on Santa Anna
I think that's the scene people are refering to, but I also think they are overeacting. I never "read" it that way. Just a guy reacting with "I don't know if the damn thing will work under those conditions, since wasn't designed to do that", before realizing "there isn't any other choice, so we've got to make it work".
That said, I also saw that Grumman guy as more "bean counter" than engineer, even though he probably was an engineer by training, and perhaps, but only perhaps, by early carreer experience. There really are *some* people like that in industry, and I've know several of them in my 25 years on the industrial side of the MIC.
Be always sure you are right, and then go ahead.
Nothing PC about that...Davy believed in being right, not popular. After his last defeat at the polls, he announced to the voters, "As far as I'm concerned, you can all go to Hell. I am going to Texas."
A great man, we shall not look upon his like again...
One small point; while many of the defenders of the Alamo indeed were Americans, primarily they were Texicans.
What I would like to see is a epic movie telling the history of Texas Independence. From Austin's colony (take too long to go back too far) through the battle of San Jacinto. This incredible part of our history should be better known outside of Texas.
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