Posts Tagged ‘ Hollywood ’

Hollywood’s Antiwar Investment—Wasted!

September 25, 2007
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Hollywood’s Antiwar Investment—Wasted!

Here’s a big non-surprise: the spate of antiwar films Hollywood has begun to release in recent months has laid a big egg at the box office. David Kahane has outlined the situation in National Review Online, documenting the painfully obvious "antigun, antiwar, anti-Rethuglican" messages in Shoot ‘Em Up, In the Valley of Elah, Redacted, and Grace Is Gone and mentioning the the upcoming The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs and Rendition, and recent films such as Syriana, Shooter, Jarhead, and A Mighty Heart, "all passionate indictments of one thing or another vaguely connected to the military-industrial complex and the so-called “War on Terror.” Kahane observes: Now, what do all these films have in common—besides being passionate indictments? They all flopped. Or will, soon enough. (Except for, maybe, The Kingdom, which apparently has an appalling whiff of vigilantism.)

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Fired Actor Plays Race Card

June 28, 2007
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Fired Actor Plays Race Card

Fleeing headlong to the last refuge of a particular type of scoundrel, actor Isaiah Washington, fired from the high-rated ABC-TV program Gray’s Anatomy for referring to a fellow actor as a "faggot," claims that he was dumped because he’s black, not because he said something—twice—almost guaranteed to get him in trouble in today’s extremely sensitive, pro-homosexuality Hollywood environment. In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Washington said that his refusal to act submissively was what really got him fired:

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Why Movie Characters Smoke So Much

May 15, 2007
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Why Movie Characters Smoke So Much

In a comment on our entry on Hollywood censorship of smoking, Lars Walker points out that "from an actor’s point of view–a cigarette gives you something to do with your hands." He’s quite right, and there’s more interesting cultural material to mine from this subject. To wit . . . 

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Hollywood to Censor Smoking

May 15, 2007
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Hollywood to Censor Smoking

  The Motion Picture Assoociation of America has announced that portrayals of smoking will be considered in rating movies, along with depictions of sexuality and violence. Glamorization of smoking will bring on a more restrictive rating, and tobacco use will be added to the increasingly elaborate descriptions of movie content the industry’s rating system is incorporating. Given that nobody is allowed to smoke anywhere in the previously free United States, simple realism would seem to require filmmakers to stop showing people smoking. Of course, reality hasn’t been an interest for Hollywood for several decades. Witness, for example, Hollywood’s support for global warming myths and leftist politics.

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Why the Oscars Don’t Matter at All

February 26, 2007
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The AP story recounting last night’s Oscar ceremony goes right to the heart of why the Academy Awards no longer matter the industry has become so insular, complacent, and distant from its audience that it regularly nominates for award mostly movies that hardly anyone has seen. The AP story mentions only the Best Picture nominations in this regard, and does so only at the end of the article, a destination to which few people will persevere, but this fact is, if anything, even more true of the other major awards, for performances, directing, screenwriting, etc. The message to the audience: we’re smarter and better than you. AP writes, Collectively, the five best-picture nominees had drawn a total domestic theatrical audience of about 38.5 million people, about a third the number of fans who have gone to see the contenders in recent peak years when such blockbusters as "Gladiator" or "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" have won. The day when Hollywood and its audiences largely agreed on what is good is long gone. Hollywood is still humming along because it continues to make audience-pleasing films while its best and brightest talents fool about with their arrogant,

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Mr. Capra Goes to Hollywood

December 1, 2006
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Mr. Capra Goes to Hollywood

Turner Classic Movies is showing a five-movie tribute to director Frank Capra tomorrow beginning at 8 pm EST. Capra, whose career spanned the end of the silent era to the early 1960s, was one of the great American film directors. He’s best known for his classic film It’s a Wonderful Life, and he made numerous other fine movies such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (another real classic), Meet John Doe, the Oscar-winning It Happened One Night, Dirigible, Lost Horizon, the poignant Lady for a Day, and the delightfully screwy comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. The five films to be shown tomorrow night are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (interesting and good but not nearly as fine as Mr. Deeds), You Can’t Take It with You (yuk, even though it won an Oscar—see below), American Madness (very underrated film starring Walter Huston), Lady for a Day, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Capra was a very patriotic immigrant from Sicily who supported the Republican Party, which was just as unpopular in Hollywood then as it is now. His political and cultural instincts were a populist conservatism, and his usual cowriter was more of a leftist populist. (Capra generally did not get

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Demise of Studio 60: The Social Reality Behind It

October 31, 2006
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Demise of Studio 60: The Social Reality Behind It

In a comment on yesterday’s report on and analysis of the ratings woes of NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Missy makes the following observations: Studio 60 is very like West Wing when Sorkin was involved. Since I liked West Wing then, I like Studio 60. The pace, the characters, they’re very similar. . . . I’d hate to see it go, if these rumors end up being true. If nothing else, I love watching these actors work together. I think that Missy is right about the production quality of the show. The interesting thing, in my view, is that the producers failed to give audiences a central character or two who is/are somewhat like the audience members themselves, someoone who looks at the other characters from a sort of bemused, outsider perspective. That would have given the audiences much more with which to identify. It’s a pity that they failed to do that. I think that this situation is another instance of what comes from the social isolation of many wealthy Hollywood artists. They live lives quite distant from the hoi polloi toward whom their products are directed, and they can all too easily lose any emotional and

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Newswire

The Grown-Up's Guide to Summer Movies: Amid the superheroes and sequels, there are more and more alternatives. How to navigate the season

In U.S., Nearly Half Identify as Economically Conservative

Bald Eagles Fall to Green Energy

Phillips: Movin' Out

‘American Idol’ Posts Lowest-Rated Finale Ever

Phillip Phillips is the new 'American Idol'

Cooling Global Warm-Mongers

Boy Jesus, Big Screen: Anne Rice's 'Christ the Lord' to be Made into a Movie

Ross Douthat: What Has Jerusalem To Do With Athens?

Is TV Destroying U.S.?

Confessions of an Atheist Darwin-Doubter

Secularization and Christian Institutions

Biggest Religious Lawsuit in U.S. History Launched, Liberal Evening News Shows Ignore It

Government is Force!: Why individual rights demand limited government and constitutional democracy

A New Dark Age

Media Works To Suppress Obama 'Born in Kenya' Bio

"Freedom's Forge" tells the story of how U.S. business leaders were mobilized to build ships, tanks and weapons faster and better than the enemy, to win World War II

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