Old-fashioned entertainment once again emerged as the strong preference of American moviegoers as National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Alvin and the Chipmunks again dominated the U.S. box office this past weekend. The two fluffy and cheerfully entertaining movies again finished 1-2 in weekend movie ticket sales for the second weekend in a row.
Lee Harris, a very intelligent man who writes thoughtful books and contributes insightful articles regularly to TCS Daily, recently wrote a very interesting and well-informed article about Christmas for that online publication. Harris is clearly sympathetic to the celebration of Christmas while being fully cognizant of the pagan foundations of both the date chosen and the various traditions associated with the day. In contrast to many complainers on both sides of the arguments over whether public celebrations of this great holy day should be encouraged or even allowed, Harris points out that these varied foundations are not faults but strengths. He correctly characterizes Christmas as "a great multicultural festival" good not only for Christians but indeed for everyone. His conclusion is particularly interesting and sensible: not only should Christians embrace the celebration of Christmas wholeheartedly, so should non-Christians as well.
William F. Buckley’s latest column (published in National Review Online here) is devoted mainly to pointing out that the United States is not responsible for current conditions in Pakistan. This should be obvious to anyone with a brain, but alas it is not at all so to the mainstream media types who delight in blaming the United States for all the ills of the world. Buckley is right. Although Buckley does not make an argument based on any principles laid out overtly in the piece, he does close with a strong statement that applies not only to Pakistan but in fact to all of international affairs. To wit: The Bush administration should announce to the waiting world that the United States cannot be charged with responsibility for maintaining order in Pakistan, and does not accept responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Yes, and not only that, we should adopt and articulate a classical liberal approach to international affairs that places the protection of U.S. citizens within U.S. borders as its paramount concern. It’s never too late to take the wise course.
The NFL is making football fans around the country happy tonight by showing the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots game not only on the NFL Network station, which has limited availability on cable systems, but instead also running it on two over the air networks, CBS and NBC. A happy ending? No. Decidedly not. The league made the decision only after pressure from Congress which included overt threats to take away the league’s antitrust exemption—an exemption that should be unnecessary anyway because the league does not have an unfair monopoly on anything. This is just the latest example of overweening, overpowering, stifling government regulation of the economy, the society and the culture.
New The American Culture correspondent Mike Long has put together a very contrarian and very good list of the best movies of the year for National Review Online, and he has been gracious enough to allow us to reprint it here in its entirety. Contrary to most critics, Mike claims this was a good year for the movies. I agree. Another thing I strongly endorse about the article is that it does not succumb to political shibboleths of either left or right. That’s our approach on The American Culture. And there’s more. In an exclusive for The American Culture, Mike informs us that since he wrote the article, he saw Sweeney Todd and would move it to number 4 on the list. Instead of altering the article, however, we’re leaving it as is, so that you will not miss the number 10 movie, which is well worth seeing. Here’s Mike’s "2007 at the Movies":
Here’s a charming Christmas program for your enjoyment: from the Charlie Chan radio series, "The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus." For more information on Charlie Chan, a great and underappreciated part of American culture, see my Weekly Standard article and most recent National Review Online piece on the subject.
Merry Christmas!
The weekend U.S. box office totals once again show American audiences as having a strong preference for escapism and likeable, well-meaning protagonists. That is actually the natural position for U.S. audiences, although most critics would very much prefer the masses to support more "edgy," arty fare that distrurbs them and questions bourgeois values. Given that audiences are bourgeois, of course, it is absurd to expect them to want to pay to have their values questioned and denigrated, but most mainstream media denizens are sure they know what people should want, and that the hoi polloi should just line up and take it. That’s not happening. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Planned sequels to failed pro-atheism children’s film are increasingly unlikely. The controversial children’s film The Golden Compass, which has accomplished only very weak box office appeal in the United States, has fallen off in foreign appeal as well, landing in second this past weekend, behind I Am Legend. The Golden Compass has earned $130 million in non-U.S. markets and is fading. None of this foreign money will go to the studio that made the film, New Line, because the company sold off the foreign rights a couple of years ago in order to raise enough money to produce and market the film. It has earned only $48 million in the United States since opening three weekends ago. As a result of the poor U.S. showing, it is unlikely that any sequels will be made.
Somehow I missed this year’s celebration of the Great American God-Out. A group of undoubtedly amiable fanatical nitwits decided to start an annual celebration of godlessness, the first of which occurred this past November 15 and raised absolutely no fanfare at all:
Comedian-actor Sacha Baron Cohen is retiring two characters that made him famous—and notorious. He has announced that he will no longer portray the characters of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist notable for his amazing ignorance, anti-semitism, lack of respect for women, and overall vulgarity, and Ali G, a young English yobbo version of the same character. "I am never going to play them again," he told the London Daily Telegraph.
In an essay provocatively called "The Slow and Agonizing Death of the Private Detective", crime novel fan and critic William Ahearn argues that private-eye detective fiction is dead: The private detective is as dead as a two-dollar steak and would somebody please get a shovel and bury the stiff. That’s an incendiary way of putting it, and I’m sure that devotees of contemporary private eye fiction will be scandalized by both the content of the claim and Ahearn’s dogmatic expression of it. However, in the main I agree with his statement and endorse its tone.
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