PrintApril 9, 2009
Conservatives who deserve their own biopic
Matt Lewis over at AOL's Political Machine has an interesting post today about which conservatives he would pick as a subject for a biographical, big budget Hollywood film.
He was referencing the film "Milk" about the life and times of Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco member of the Board of Supervisors and first openly gay man elected to public office in California. The movie was nominated for 8 Academy Awards©, winning 2. But Lewis points out there have been a few movies in recent years with conservative themes:
Lewis speculated on which conservatives might be the subject of a biopic and chose Whittaker Chambers, William Buckley, and the Duke LaCrosse team. While these are excellent choices, I'm sure you and I could come up with a few others.
Here are my 3 choices:
1. Milton Friedman
2. Ayn Rand
3. Jerry Falwell
Friedman led a fascinating life beyond academics while Rand was founder of an entire philosophy. Fallwell's movie would have to be done by someone who wouldn't be a knee jerk anti-Christian but might be the best subject due to his extraordinary rise from literally nothing to a conservative force.
I'm sure you have your own suggestions. Fire away.
He was referencing the film "Milk" about the life and times of Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco member of the Board of Supervisors and first openly gay man elected to public office in California. The movie was nominated for 8 Academy Awards©, winning 2. But Lewis points out there have been a few movies in recent years with conservative themes:
In truth, despite Hollywood's liberal bent, conservative messages do manage to occasionally get out. For example, both "Juno" and "Knocked Up" subtly advanced a Pro-Life message. "Team America: World Police" was a solid example of a mainstream movie which advanced some libertarian/conservative messages (though certainly not socially conservative values). Other recent films worthy of conservative praise were "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Chronicles of Narnia". Of course, none of these movies seek to turn a modern conservative activist or politician into a hero.
... My theory is that overt political movies and documentaries are much less influential than movies that are presented as pure "entertainment", and while Hollywood lionizes liberals like Milk -- and makes a 1st Amendment crusader out of pornographer Larry Flynt -- conservatives are typically portrayed in a negative light.
One exception to this rule is the wonderful movie "Amazing Grace" about the life of William Wilberforce. I am also optimistic about the prospects of Angelina Jolie starring in an Atlas Shrugged film. There are some other bight spots (I should also mention that my friend Andrew Breitbart is dong terrific work over at Big Hollywood regarding this very subject.)
Lewis speculated on which conservatives might be the subject of a biopic and chose Whittaker Chambers, William Buckley, and the Duke LaCrosse team. While these are excellent choices, I'm sure you and I could come up with a few others.
Here are my 3 choices:
1. Milton Friedman
2. Ayn Rand
3. Jerry Falwell
Friedman led a fascinating life beyond academics while Rand was founder of an entire philosophy. Fallwell's movie would have to be done by someone who wouldn't be a knee jerk anti-Christian but might be the best subject due to his extraordinary rise from literally nothing to a conservative force.
I'm sure you have your own suggestions. Fire away.
