This site used to look down on this kind of crap, we used to punch down on pop culture.
It's just senseless, what has happened to this website while its founder lies suffering in a hospital bed.
Lighten up, Francis.
A few people still support the Anti-American deviates in Hollywood. These people could defecate on the American flag during the academy awards, and some people would still support and watch them.
Similar to NFL toadies.
You’re free to participate on the thread or not. It’s up to you.
What's the matter with JimRob?
Wait, what? I didn't hear anything about this! What happened?
Um ... Isn't this exactly what you're doing? Enjoy punching down on it if you want to!
This has always been a true Free Republic. We don't all think alike like the goons at the DUmp.
Since you ask:
FR has always featured threads on myriad non-political topics, some of them quite quirky. Many of us find these interesting and fun. There is sometimes harrumphing about where to post such threads. I keep a movie ping list and post on films from time to time. (It’s been a while since many others post on films as well, and I don’t want to double up.) I always post to General/Chat, not News/Activism. I’m not sure that makes any difference, but I try to mind the proprieties.
Anyhow, movies are fun. Many of us enjoy them. Yes, the film industry tilts heavily left. So I always appreciate conservative recommendations on our kind of films.
That said, I think you are overlooking a big point. We are engaged in a culture war. It is being waged on all fronts. I think conservatives need to be engaged on all fronts. And we need to climb out of our own little siloed ghettos and take the fight to the enemy.
If we say, “The left has taken over the news media, so let’s walk away from the news media. The left has taken over the universities, so let’s walk away from the universities. The left has taken over the public schools, so let’s homeschool our own kids and write off all the kids in public schools. The left has taken over social media, so let’s walk away. The left has taken over the film industry, so let’s walk away” ... well, if that’s our reaction, we will lose the culture war by default.
Movies are culturally and politically important. We are raising a generation that is absorbed in media of all kinds. We should try to break that addiction, yes, but we should also make sure that the cultural industries aren’t ceded entirely to the left. We can’t beat something with nothing. When the left produces garbage, we need to be able to point to something better, and laugh at their trash.
How to engage constructively in different domains is a big topic. But put most of the big picture strategery aside. We’re talking about movies here. My attitude is simple. We should at least begin by supporting good films when we find them. The film industry will make more of what people pay to watch. If we want more of our kind of movies, we need to get off our butts and go watch good movies when we find them. Hollywood will chase the money. If the big studios have gotten too politicized — and they have — there is room for smaller studios and independents to fill the gap. But they need audiences.
Good movies are still being made. With the rise of the streamers, more movies are being made than ever before. Very often, the good movies — by this, I mean our kind of movies — are lost in the clutter. Finding them can be a trick. That’s one of the reasons I started the movie ping list. We spend a lot of time at FR complaining about Hollywood c**p. There’s plenty to complain about. But we should also acknowledge and support the good stuff when we find it. The scattering of conservatives in Hollywood need all the support they can get. And honest storytellers need all the support they can get.
I won’t relate the whole story here, but I was a “nuke Hollywood from orbit” type until a couple of years ago. Then I chanced entirely by accident on a remarkably good film on a subject of considerable interest to me, about which I already knew the backstory but about which I had never heard. My reaction was, “How does a movie this good get made on a subject of interest to me, and I never heard about it?” I realized I had a huge blind spot. That led eventually to the movie ping list.
For the record: even very liberal filmmakers can and do make very good, culturally conservative films from time to time. The key is honest storytelling. Reality is conservative. (That’s my position, and I’m sticking to it.) If writers and directors tell honest stories, if they’re true to the realities, complexities and conflicts of human psychology, if they don’t cheat on the history and don’t resort to gimmick plots and freakshow weirdness to dodge the hard questions ... well, conservative characters and principles will at least get a fair shake.
Here’s a challenge. Imagine that you have a high school aged kid. (Climb into your time machine if you have to.) Now and then, films may get suggested in connection with courses in various subjects. Maybe history. Maybe literature. Maybe psychology. Maybe the class is studying alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, family breakdown, or crime. Or race. Name your subject. What are some films, preferably current films (say within the last five years) that you would recommend to teachers? And what films (or tv shows) would you recommend to fellow conservatives?
I’ve not seen Top Gun: Maverick yet, but I will get around to it. Action movies aren’t currently my thing, but they’re at least something I can watch with the whole family. One of the reasons that action films are so durable is that they have broad, common denominator appeal as family entertainment, which is a good thing. And if they’re well done, they’re sometimes pretty good.
Lighten up, Francis.
So we're supposed to ignore real life and just keep repeating, "Trump good, Biden bad?"
Take your Thorazine.