In March of 2008, Stop-Loss was about to open, but the Washington Post had already its obituary written:(via reader Doug J.)A spate of Iraq-themed movies and TV shows haven’t just failed at the box office. They’ve usually failed spectacularly, despite big stars, big budgets and serious intentions.The Post, as you can see, followed the studio narrative in lamenting the box office failure of “Iraq-themed” films, as opposed to what they really are: pro-defeat films that in some cases are outright anti-American and too often defame the troops. This focus on the term “Iraq-themed” to explain box office humiliation is still in use by the left-wing media for reasons obvious to anyone interested in what audiences are truly interested in seeing.
The underwhelming reception from the public raises a question: Are audiences turned off by the war, or are they simply voting against the way filmmakers have depicted it?
Had the media (and Hollywood, for that matter) broadened their focus from “Iraq-themed” to “War on Terror-themed” films this would have forced them to talk about the single war film that made a profit: Vantage Point, a little Islamic terrorist thriller starring Dennis Quaid and William Hurt. This $40 million film was released the month before the Washington Post piece was written to lukewarm reviews, but still it managed to make a respectable $73 million here in America and another $78 million overseas — making it by far the biggest moneymaker of all the war-themed films to come out this last year.
No one wants to talk about the standalone success of Vantage Point because it’s a pro-American film that portrays the American President (Hurt) as a noble, brave, and selfless man. Imagine the denial some would be forced to overcome in reporting that a dozen pro-defeat films failed miserably, but the one pro-American one didn’t.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
QOTD
John Nolte in Pajamas Media on July 20th:
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1 comment:
I find it interesting that The Dark Knight is doing so well. The association between The Joker and people like Ahminajad is quite unavoidable, if you have your eyes open:
. Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
A shame certain political groups cannot grasp the existence of these kinds of people.
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... an excellent, though very dark, movie, BTW. If Ledger weren't dead, he'd definitely have been a front runner for the Best Actor Oscar come February (dead actors cannot be nominated, period, by Academy rules -- despite the commentary from many sides, he is thus ineligible for consideration).
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