EISNER'S TEX MESS

New York Post ^ | 4/13/04 | TIM ARANGO

[kattracks]

April 13, 2004 -- Michael Eisner would probably rather forget "The Alamo." The $100 million Disney movie bombed at the box office this past weekend, causing a stir among many on Wall Street who are predicting the film's failure could eat into earnings and force the company to take a write-off.

[goldstategop]

I'm glad the movie bombed. It was an affront to everything Americans revere about their history and the heroes who died at the Alamo. Americans had the good sense not to watch Disney's politically correct dud about what happened in 1830s Texas. We're tired of Hollyweird forcing its anti-American garbage down our throats and voted with our pocketbooks to send Disney a message. We hope they heard it loud and clear.

[DeuceTraveler]

The funny thing is that if they created a pro-Texan Alamo they would have easily made most of their money back from Texans alone.

[Common Tator]

One would have to be blind, deaf, and believe Peter Jennings has a brain to think "The Passion of the Christ" would be a flop and "The Alamo" would be a hit.

[CalifornianConservative]

You're dead right. If Disney could just realize that people want to see uplifting stories about heroism, truthfully told, instead of this PC garbage, they would be making a mint.

The real head scratcher is how do these movie execs think that our country was founded? That Texas was founded? Do they think all of our forefathers were just racist con men? It would seem so; it would also seem that they think ALL of our forefathers were idiots and liars because they believed that what happened at the Alamo (or the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War) was heroic.

The real litmus test is: could this movie have been made by Stalin's film propagandists in the Soviet Union who would have been trying to discredit and discount everything about American history?

Answer: yes.

That's the scariest thing about this movie. It is plain sedition.

[szweig]

Well, maybe the Fess Parker "Davy Crockett" is a romanticized sugar-coated version but, by gum, it's a good story and one that Disney should have known not to mess with. What fools those mortals be!

[Huber]

Home on the Range also had a disappointing weekend. From a business perspective, we are looking at a massive loss of goodwill by the Disney company. Audiences used to trust the Disney name and would flock to theaters, often based on the brand alone. They do not anymore.

The bottom line is that over time, all the PC nonsense (which is just another form of lying) erodes trust between a company and its customers, and with it, shareholder value.

[IrishRainy]

When I saw the previews, I just knew it was gonna be a flop. Yeah, the Passion would be a bust, but a movie where we know beforehand that the main characters all DIE, that's gonna be a hit. What were these people smoking?

[bondjamesbond]

Audiences used to trust the Disney name and would flock to theaters, often based on the brand alone. They do not anymore.

It's worse than that, because people no longer trust Disney with their children. Imagine you had a favorite babysitter, and you came back one night and the babysitter was sitting there on the livingroom couch, stoned.

How long would it be before you hired that babysitter again?

[CalifornianConservative]

I had a former A list screenwriter lecture me the other day that studios today are in collusion when it comes to buying scripts that are outside their clique of filmmakers. They have figured it is easier just to hire the same old lib hacks, and throw fifty million dollar marketing campaigns at their latest piece of trash to see what suckers turn out opening weekend.

With the ALAMO bombing, it would seem even this lazy, monopolistic PC groupthink is backfiring on 'em.

What Eisner and these other aging executives and marketing hacks haven't realized is that the internet and Fox and talk radio and even cell phones have changed everything. Their demographic has gotten smart. And informed. And picky. And hard to cattle prod into theaters.

Teenagers with cellphones inside a theater can ruin that big first weekend.

The internet exposes bad scripts or pc tendencies in a project before it gets to theaters.

Talk radio exposes Hollywood's anti American and Anti Christ bias before potential ticket buyers pony up.

Eisner and Lansing and Spielberg and everyone else better wise up: people expect to get their money's worth at the movies today.

That means writers have to DO THEIR JOBS in their scripts, filmmakers have to attempt to uplift, entertain, and encourage their audiences, NOT debase, degrade and discredit an audience's ideas and beliefs.

Craftily constructed evil and blatant sedition will only titillate for a moment; THE PASSION shows that audiences want something deeper and lasting than the tripe being churned out today.

Where are the new Walt Disneys? Where are this generations John Fords? Or Alfred Hitchcock? Or Frank Capra? Or Orson Welles, or Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks, or Preston Sturges?

A famous critic once wrote that "myth is on the right".

He meant that the deeply seeded ideas of heroism and self sacrifice and love of others are politically and mythically on the right of the political spectrum. This is because the left champions the faceless masses while the right champions the individual.

The old soviet Sergei Eisenstein proved once and for all that you just can't make movies about "the faceless masses". You gotta have an individual who does something extraordinary and heroic.

This is the inherent problem that Hollywood doesn't want to understand. The more left wing they get, the less money they will make and the more alienated their audiences will become.

People go to the movies to be uplifted, not debased.

Even Charlie Kaufman, the film community's latest darling, can't hit big box office. His latest ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is actually his best film, a romance at heart but it is puttering along in the low 22 million dollar figure after a few week's release.

Big box office equals conservative values well told. There is no way around this for Hollywood.

[Huber]

Well put!

[SauronOfMordor]

I had a former A list screenwriter lecture me the other day that studios today are in collusion when it comes to buying scripts that are outside their clique of filmmakers. They have figured it is easier just to hire the same old lib hacks, and throw fifty million dollar marketing campaigns at their latest piece of trash to see what suckers turn out opening weekend.

Sounds like Mel's "Icon Productions" could do well in picking up excellent conservative scriptwriters.

[Blueflag]

I made a point to announce to our family weeks ago that this film was a PC "message" film and we would NOT be going to see it.

I took the boys to see "Walking Tall" instead. Not the best movie, but had a good moral theme underneath and a good hero figure.

[DeuceTraveler]

"You're dead right. If Disney could just realize that people want to see uplifting stories about heroism, truthfully told, instead of this PC garbage, they would be making a mint."

Once upon a time that's what Disney did. Used to make a bundle and have tons of business at their amusement parks from what I hear.

[Guenevere]

I haven't (& probably won't) see the new Alamo....

..but the version with John Wayne stands well through time, IMO.

Surprisingly (having just watched it again, recently)....

..it doesn't sugarcoat the personalities or character of Bowie, Crockett, or Travis, IMO.

It protrayed them as real, warts & all.....but in a respectful manner.

I found it showed them as imperfect people...(aren't we all)....who found courage & had the conviction to do the right thing when the odds were against them.

[Guenevere]

ps...I've been to the Alamo, as I'm sure many have...

.. and felt it an honor to be there....

..it held an aura of a very special place, in spite of the tourism and crowds of people...most of whom were very respectful.

[AlbertWang]

I took the boys to see "Walking Tall" instead. Not the best movie, but had a good moral theme underneath and a good hero figure.

I'm sorry, but for my family, without Buford Pusser, its not Walking Tall.

[arasina]

Eisner is toast. And as it so happens, so is Disney's non-executive chairman, former Democrat Senator George Mitchell. From tvweek.com:

Meanwhile, in a move that could signal his acknowledgement that his work as Disney's non-executive chairman won't be easy, George Mitchell said he won't seek re-election to the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide board when his term expires May 7. He has served on the hotel chain's board since 1997.

Mr. Mitchell was named non-executive chairman of Disney immediately following the Disney board's decision to strip Mr. Eisner of his chairman title after the no-confidence vote by shareholders. However, Mr. Mitchell's appointment hasn't been without controversy. He garnered a 24 percent no-confidence vote at the March 3 shareholders meeting.

[elli1]

[The Alamo] held an aura of a very special place...

If anything, you understate the Alamo experience. When I arrived at the Alamo, I was just a giddy tourist taking in the Alamo cause it was a ''must see'' when you visit San Antonio. That building cast a spell over me; it was a profound experience--one this hard-boiled cynic will never forget. It really is, as you said, ''a very special place.''

[Blueflag]

"I'm sorry, but for my family, without Buford Pusser, its not Walking Tall."

Oh I agree, it wasn't even close to the original, except for the use of a 4X4 as the baton of choice.

I live near Buford, Ga, and the original 'walking tall' is near and dear to Georgian's