OK, it's probably gonna stink, but I think I'm gonna slip in to a showing of An American Carol. Zucker's latest stuff has been so-so, though I am, like, the only guy in the world who liked Baseketball. I don't see this movie--even if it's the funniest movie ever made--having even half-a-shot at success.
Yet, it's the first and only time in my life time I've ever seen an overtly politically conservative movie made and released into theaters.
Consider that for a moment. First. Only. Not talkin' documentaries, although I can't recall any of those either. (They get made, but they don't get released here.) Passion of the Christ? Religious, not political.
Action movies tend to be conservative, of course, because action generally requires the designation of good guys and bad guys, and swift action to be dealt to said bad guys. I think the "liberal" subtext of a lot of modern action movies have undermined them in serious ways.
(The recent Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake, for example, couldn't decide if an alien takeover was a good thing or not. Sorry, guys. Just because you can't make up your mind doesn't make you Hamlet. I understand they've similarly perverted the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.)
Where was I? Oh, yeah. Inundated as we are with propaganda, it's sort of a curiosity to see people risking their careers over a movie.
I had a discussion with a lefty pal of mine once pointing out that Charlton Heston had, essentially, been black-listed. His rebuttal was that it was one thing for people to reject Heston for his political views and another for the government to hunt people down for them. While this is true, it should be noted that the blacklists were initiated by Hollywood and carried on long after the government had gone to the Great Society. (At what point does it stop being okay to blacklist people, I wonder.) But as we saw in Trumbo, it was really cutting them off from their livelihood that had the longest lasting effect.
Anyway. Since there's no way to get a fair review of Carol, and it's a singular event, I'm going to give it a shot. Wish me luck.
(Far more promising is How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which I'll check out soon, too.)
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Since there's no way to get a fair review of Carol,
ReplyDeleteNo kidding. I was going to go to Rotten Tomatoes this morning, and stopped myself. What's the point?
Hey you should review the best show on television this week. What Not to Wear starring Lee Lee's Valise.
ReplyDeleteI've learned to suss out certain biases that I don't agree with online.
ReplyDeleteWoody Allen, Tarantino, Peter Jackson, Lucas--are all going to be rated a lot higher than I would. Liberal leaning stuff is all going to be rated higher.
It's a shame because I remember avoiding Dead Man Walking as a "message" film, and that doesn't really do it justice. It's actually pretty straight-up, as far as I can tell.
Contrast that to "Law and Order" where a death sentence ends up with one of the characters cheating on his wife, another falling off the wagon, and a third getting killed.
I think they're trying to tell us something there.
Hey you should review the best show on television this week. What Not to Wear starring Lee Lee's Valise.
ReplyDeleteI feel so cheap.
I love cheap.
ReplyDelete