October 12, 2008
Myths about Hollywood Liberals
Writer Andrew Klavan has a devastating piece in today's Washington Post that lists the 5 myths of Hollywood liberals.
A sampling:
Hollywood used to be called the Dream Factory, but nowadays it seems to be grinding out as much propaganda as anything else. Next off the weary assembly line: Oliver Stone's "W.," which opens on Friday. If the trailer is any indication, this movie will depict our current president's life as an evolution from drunken loser to dangerous idiot -- and just in time for the election, too.The director of "Nixon" and "JFK," Stone has shown himself to be a master of rewriting reality until it resembles his left-wing ideology, but he's by no means alone. For the past 30 years or so, Hollywood storytelling has been guided by a liberal mythos in which, for example, blacklisting communist screenwriters during the '50s was somehow morally worse than fellow-traveling with the Stalinist murderers of tens of millions ("Trumbo"); Che Guevara was a dashing, romantic liberator instead of a charismatic killer ("The Motorcycle Diaries"); and the worldwide violence currently being waged by Islamo-fascists is either a figment of our bigoted imaginations or the product of our evil deeds ("V for Vendetta").Hollywood moviemakers, in other words, have been telling lies -- loudly, constantly and almost always in support of a left-wing point of view.
Does Hollywood only care about making money? Do Hollywood liberals speak truth to power? Are Hollywood liberals really liberal.
Klavan makes a great case that these and other myths about the far left in Hollywood help perpetrate the notion that Hollywood reflects American values and American themes. In fact, Hollywood may feature the biggest population density of anti-Americans who hate their own country and who are determined to show America in the worst possible light.
Lately, the moviegoer has been rejecting these thematic travesties at a record pace, refusing to go see all of the films that trash the military and our efforts in the war on terror. Not a single film depicting the United States as evil or the bad guy in Iraq and elsewhere has even come close to breaking even much less making any money.
You'd think that would stop this spate of hateful films from being made but Hollywood continues to churn them out. The question is will they ever learn their lesson? Probably not as long as they believe they're "doing the right thing."
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky