Could Hollywood Slump Provide Opening for Conservatives?
The Depression inspired a wave of patriotic films. History might just repeat itself.
During the Depression, Hollywood was certainly not immune to the realities of the broken economy and had to drastically cut costs in order to stay afloat. Initially the movies they made reflected the despair felt by so many. But things changed, and for the better:
As Andrew Bergman has shown, the fantasy world of the movies played a critical social and psychological function for Depression-era Americans: In the face of economic disaster, it kept alive a belief in the possibility of individual success, portrayed a government capable of protecting its citizens from external threats, and sustained a vision of America as a classless society. Again and again, Hollywood repeated the same formulas: A poor boy from the slums uses crime as a perverted ladder of success. A back-row chorus girl rises to the lead through luck and pluck. A G-man restores law and order. A poor boy and a rich girl meet, go through wacky adventures, and fall in love. Out of these simple plots, Hollywood restored faith in individual initiative, in the efficacy of government, and in a common American identity transcending social class.
These simple formulas, even when updated, no longer seem to appeal to producers, directors, and A-list stars who would rather be telling stories that reflect how they think life is and should be. Think of how many films you’ve seen that feature a stagnant, fetid suburbia or a backward, rural outback and — lest we forget — those evil corporations, populated by pathetic losers and horrible bigots. This is how many in Hollywood view America from their bubble. Perhaps it’s no wonder that ticket sales declined five percent in the United States last year, although home-based entertainment options like cable movie channels and DVDs may well have had an impact.
But don’t look to Hollywood to see, much less understand, the plight of the average American anytime soon. Andrew Breitbart reads the writing on the wall in the wake of the annual celebrity self-love fest known as the Oscars:
If “the medium is the message,” as Marshall McLuhan formulated 45 years ago in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, then Hollywood-style liberalism is America’s current and future message. And conservatives have no one to blame but themselves for not investing their collective efforts in the pop cultural and the greater media experience.
Breitbart exhorts conservatives to take Hollywood on, but it’s not up to just those who have the cash to back those film ventures that “nurture culture” rather than beat it to a pulp. It’s up to us, the movie-going public, to support the films that reflect our values.
Are we up to the task?
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Pam Meister is the editor for Family Security Matters and a contributor to Big Hollywood. Her work can also be seen at American Thinker. The views expressed here are her own.
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25 Comments
1. John the Libertarian:This is bigoted and narrow-minded. Track the top-grossing films of last year, or any year, and you’ll find solid conservative values.
Feb 26, 2009 - 7:32 am 2. Phoenix48:‘Are we up to the task?’ It’s a very important question Pam. Breitbart’s success with Big Hollywood proves his basic premise – that until conservatives recognize promoting pro-American values by participation liberals will continue to rule culture by fiat and inertia. Spend some time on the site and it’s pretty uplifting. There is a lot of folks who want to ressurect Frank Capra & George Stevens brand of Americana – and end-run Hollyweirds monopoly on nihilistic crap.
Feb 26, 2009 - 7:57 am 3. rocketeer:It would be fine if Hollywood responded to the viewers of these films by producing movies that they want to see. The highest grossing films typically tend to be the ones that have some sort of family values or that are generally positive about things. The problem, as I see it, is not that Hollywood doesn’t understand what films make money, but that they have an agenda that they want to put out there, and that trumps their desire to make the money.
I do agree, that it is up to conservatives to get in the fight and start to engage in the battle for the social culture. We’re going to need some big $$ people to get the idea and start their own pictures. Directors like Mel Gibson are a prime example of this. When no one in Hollywood would consider “The Passion” as a project, he funded it and produced it himself. Hollywood producers knew this movie would be a financial giant, but their agenda came first. Can’t be show Christians in any sort of positive light, or try to film something religious unless you’re bashing the religion.
Feb 26, 2009 - 8:01 am 4. Gordon:I really do not see how the reversal of nearly four decades is going to be swept away with a few years of poor box offices.
Feb 26, 2009 - 8:05 am 5. Craig:“The Depression inspired a wave of patriotic films. History might just repeat itself.”
I applaud your wishful thinking….but I seriously doubt it.
Feb 26, 2009 - 8:24 am 6. Michael Mandaville:Hollywood studios and other companies (distribution, production, etc.,) have overhead, are freaking out about the growing Do It Yourself Distribution like Digital downloads, Createspace, etc., Film companies will go the way of Nuevo Yorko Tiempo (NYT recently purchased by a Mexican billionaire) and into massive decline due to the internet. Here’s where conservative need to step up. They need to see the economic model on low budget films distributed to niche audience that can realize a profit and make money.
Progressive Socialists (never just say progressive!) know that you must Capture the Culture. That’s what they’ve been doing for years. Capital plus creativity and new distribution methods can break up this pathetic monopoly and will.
Taking Action is what counts.
Feb 26, 2009 - 8:34 am 7. Spark22:Michael
Author
“Citizen Soldier Handbook: 101 Ways For Every American To Fight Terrorism”
http://www.CitizenSoldierHandbook.com
Looking on Google, Ayan Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is supposedly in the works, and scheduled for release in 2011… seems to be on hold, but I wonder if the story of capitalism and the obvious negative impact of socialism will make it to the theaters during a time when our own president appears to be making ‘fair’ decisions, parrellel to the stories in the book?
I would love to see the production of a good conservative movie that supports traditional American ideals and how they really do still exist, despite the imagery of poverty, doom and gloom, wicked power/money, and the end of the world, as the USA is portrayed by the MSM and Hollywood.
Feb 26, 2009 - 8:43 am 8. rammingspeed:Hollywood began in earnest it’s palpable leftward trip during the fabulous 1960’s, when the American version of The Enlightenment began (sarcasm). You know, the trippy dippy hippies being informed by the newly existentialist Beatles, etc.
It’s gone downhill from there, to the point where the most important films, from the Hollywood insider’s point of view, ARE the ones that bash America and capitalism and all that. These filmmakers are doing what Karl Marx exhorted the artists of his time to do…create socialist realism, whereby they can indoctrinate the masses.
Sorry, despite the current threat to democracy by the dominate Democratic Party, this is still a free country. And people won’t buy that crap.
Feb 26, 2009 - 11:00 am 9. anonguy:What films support my values? I haven’t seen much. For the most part, I’d rather have films that don’t mock my values, which is a better distinction.
Going to movies solely for values is a bit boring. It’s like assigned reading or eating vegetables. I like to be entertained. Even this is tough for Hollywood. They rather make preachy leftwing propaganda than non-threatening money making wholesome entertainment. SHAME.
Feb 26, 2009 - 12:48 pm 10. Alex:I was watching Star Wars (the 1977 one) and realized that not only did I still like it it and it’s two sequels are one of the few films I can watch again. As for todays films, they’re not greatly inspired, though greatly insipid. Yes, they have those based on comic books, which means I’d rather read comic books than go to the movies. But I really realized that the movie industry is still policitically in the 1970s, in a lot of ways anyway.
Look at what happened to them after 9/11, they couldn’t handle it, they didn’t know what to think. THe best they could do was do a ‘documentry’ about how the United States is supposed to be the country with the highest murder rate (which we don’t have)and said nothing when that Dutch filmmaker was murdered, quite brutally I may add. It’s sad, because it destroys any illusion that they had any guts.
Man, films are so boring now.
Feb 26, 2009 - 1:26 pm 11. Gail:I feel like I did my part in the last year. I can’t remember the titles, but I saw the movie that spoofs Michael Moore and the one where Owen Wilson bought the house with the image of Jesus in the stucco. But those didn’t turn out to be blockbusters.
Feb 26, 2009 - 2:31 pm 12. Cato:“It’s up to us, the movie-going public, to support the films that reflect our values.
Are we up to the task?”
Short answer: No.
Just look at how “An American Carol” did at the box office, which was poorly. Sure, it wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was the most conservative, pro-American comedy probably ever made, and had the David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun) humorous stamp on it, and even an impressive cast (Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Leslie Nielson, etc.).
This movie wasn’t like “eating vegetables,” it was funny and entertaining. And they advertised it ad naseum on Fox News. Every conservative in America should have gone to see that movie. But they didn’t. And it is going to be a looong time before anybody steps up to fund another project like it.
Feb 26, 2009 - 4:34 pm 13. huxley:I saw “American Carol” on DVD and I wanted to like it, but aside from the Jon Voight segments, it was truly wretched.
Feb 26, 2009 - 5:40 pm 14. Richard:I wouldn’t see a premier movie, if a Hollywood actor(guffaw) paid me to see one. I hope their box office plummets through the mantle of the earth and they all have to become the car sales persons. For Chrysler.
Feb 26, 2009 - 5:47 pm 15. kywrite:Sincerely
Gran Torino. See it, if you really want to support old fashioned American values: self-reliance, independence, self-sacrifice, and a kind of real nobility. Learning to tolerate one’s neighbors, no matter how different or how disposed you are to dislike them. Understanding that racism exists on both sides. Plus it’s a great movie.
But I also noticed it was nominated for zip at the Academy Awards. It should have been.
Feb 27, 2009 - 4:07 am 16. RobertS:Is it just me, or is television (cable, in particular) not responding with fare that is more watchable than what we are offered by the traditional movie industry? “The Closer,” “Burn Notice,” “Monk,” -even the comedy “Psych.” These shows all portray good guys versus bad guys – and the good guys come out ahead. And there is a lightness about them that doesn’t dpress the viewer. We don’t go to the movies at all any more. (Too expensive and insulting to our values) – but there seems to be a growing number of entertaining TV shows to watch.
Feb 27, 2009 - 7:35 am 17. rachel:I don’t even go to the movies anymore…not for a long time. I don’t care for the culture of Hollywood and refuse to contribute a dime of mine to the dumbing down and/or the amoralizing of America. They can all go straight to hell as far as I am concerned.
Feb 27, 2009 - 4:53 pm 18. Gail S:Great article and great comments. Like the other Gail posting here, I also saw “An American Carol” and “Marley and Me”, no others.
I used to buy a lot of DVD’s, but have stopped. In fact I’m boycotting everything liberal. I used to have all windmill generated electricity, and paid the premium price because I believe in pursuing all energy sources. But after Pelosi refused to allow the American Energy Act to come to the floor for a vote in July, I switched to cheaper standard, fossil fuel energy. Next year, I will not buy season tickets for the theater. Nothing liberal, not a cent. I will be contributing to every conservative and/or Republican candidate running for State Governor, or national office. That is where my extra money and entertainment dollars will go. When I feel that our government is in American hands again, I will resume entertainment…but not the anti-American ka-ka that Hollywood has been foisting off on us for decades.
Maybe I will buy a new copy of Atlas Shrugged.
Best regards to all,
Feb 27, 2009 - 9:15 pm 19. anonguy:I’m sorry… “An American Carol” is the equivalent of eating vegetables. It’s a transparent political satire with a “Roger Moore” type as the protagonist. I don’t want to see this with my limited time and funds.
I also question the bashing of Mr. Moore, which is not my conservative value. I’d rather ignore him in my entertainment since he is plainly a demagogue.
Feb 28, 2009 - 9:46 am 20. Barbara:Remember when Disney meant wholesome family entertainment? Not any more.
John Wayne you knew what it was before entering the theater.
I miss those day. Last move I was was Marley and Me. It was over ten years before that.
Feb 28, 2009 - 10:53 am 21. Seerak:I hate going to the theaters, the surround a sound is way to high and I leave with a horrible headache.
Maybe I will buy a new copy of Atlas Shrugged.
You may have to hunt a bit for your copy, as “Atlas” is selling like ammunition these days.
Does anyone remember what was done to “Starship Troopers”? I’m hoping “Atlas” doesn’t get made by the current rights holders; I have every reason to believe they will screw it up. It’s only a question of whether it will be done from incompetence, or malice.
Feb 28, 2009 - 11:06 am 22. G Alston:Wierd, I just read in the paper that movie attendance is way up for the winter period, just like the depression years. And the boxofficemojo site seems to corroborate. Who knew?
So much for your premise, Pam. Tough to beat actual data with mere opinion.
Feb 28, 2009 - 4:59 pm 23. RAP:Hollywood made patriotic movies in the 30’s. Really. Hollywood was riddled with Communists in the 30’s. The patriotic movies they made were intended to drag the U.S. into the fight against Fascism and save Stalin’s butt.
Mar 1, 2009 - 12:15 am 24. Dave D:It will only provide an opening if they don’t suck. Propaganda is propaganda, be it conservative or liberal. We need less of it and more good films, period.
Mar 1, 2009 - 8:25 pm 25. David S:Your friend is wrong, as attendance is up at theaters.
Conservative movies don’t do well, which is why you see so few of them.
Peace.
DS
Mar 2, 2009 - 12:13 am