Hollywood as America's moral compass

[tongodeon]

George Clooney caught some crap for saying this at the Academy Awards last night:

[w]e are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. We were the ones who talked about AIDS when it was being whispered. We talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. I'm proud to be part of this Academy. I'm proud to be part of this

Comments

[rwx]

was f911 mainstream?

[tongodeon]

It played all over the place, was discussed nonstop for about six months, and got an Oscar in 2004.

[rwx]

good point. i was confused about what mainstream meant.

so the mainstream be whom again?

[drieuxster]

Just because he gave an answer doesn't mean that it was to the question you asked.

[dataghost13]

It may have had a bit of an agenda (how much of one depends on who you talk to) but Fahrenheit 9/11 did have a poin to make and I think that the point comes out crystal clear upon reflection of the evidence...America, for better or worse, will never be the same....

[tongodeon]

Its "point" was "George Bush is a doo-doo head". Which, granted, he is - but the film didn't really do a good job of making that point to anyone who wasn't already convinced.

[dataghost13]

I have a feeling that Dubya being a "doo-doo head" might be somewhat a genetic dysfunction in his family...think back to Barbara Bush's response to the Hurrican Katrina situation...She must be the dullest surgical tool on the tray!!

[rwx]

How about Red Dawn? Pretty jingoistic/propagandistic. It had a really strong moralizing bent through the entire movie, although it was hard to see behind the blantant stereotyping of both liberals, conservatives, communists, and russians.

[schwa242]

Did Red Dawn receive critical acclaim?

It got to Kult Status

[drieuxster]

for those who keep deciding that it is their patriotic duty to stay in the rear with the beer to protect us from the growing threat of Hollywood Red Sympathizers, and those east coast effemete social paracites who support radical leftist God Hating America Bashers like William F. Buckley Jr.

[magpiebofh]

According to the first review of it in IMDB, the artistic merits were seriously undervalued by a liberal elite hellbent on hating the message.

So it depends on the critic you ask, apparently. :)

[mmcirvin]

The "received critical acclaim" part narrows the field considerably, but then I think the statement says more about critics than about moviemakers. Absent that qualifier, Hollywood's made a lot of movies that were politically and/or culturally stupid, maybe most of them.

[zalriva1]

"The Green Berets" - John Wayne and Jim Hutton.

[tongodeon]

What was the flawed social message of this film, and did the Hollywood Liberal Limousine-and-Champagne Elite band around this flawed message?

the flawed message

[drieuxster]

that one can stand on the sand at China Beach and watch the sunset.

the big problem here is that the green berets was both a good movie, and a better discussion on how to manage a low intensity warfare scenario - and why John Wayne agreed with Ho Chi Mihn that when there were 500,000 troops in south east asia, they would win. A point re-iterated by Col. Corson in his book betrayal, dealing with the USMC's CAP programme - and remember they DID NOT lose a CAP Village during Tet '68.

but of course the real winner is the Stalone Family of Johnny Rambo Flicks, where Stalone, who dodged out to teach in a girls school rather than get ass in the weeds, but of course farted the party line that they could have won if only they had been allowed to Use Karl Rove's Super Secret Armoured Flying Saucer Corp... that or unrestricted submarine warfare...

[zalriva1]

Umm... I just saw the term "moralizing mainstream" mentioned...