Hollywood’s fear of controversy
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You’ve probably gotten used to hearing movie industry types say, as George Clooney basically did with his “proud to be out of touch” Oscar speech, that they’re groundbreakers when it comes to hard-nosed social commentary. Their usual explanation for why movies like “Brokeback Mountain,” “Munich,” “Syriana,” and “Crash” don’t do well (the Narnia movie has made $48 million more to date than all four of those others put together) is that ordinary schmucks like us can’t handle all that hard truth. I’d say it actually has more to do with not wanting to be witness to and promoter of destructive behaviors, politics and worldviews, but of course a schmuck like me would say something like that.
In any case, that’s a defensive argument. It didn’t occur to me to question the basic premise. But this article takes issue with the idea that Hollywood is even really dealing with current controversies:
That’s why Hollywood prefers to make “controversial” films about controversies that are settled, rousing itself to fight battles long won. Go back to USA Today’s approving list of Hollywood’s willingness to “broach the tough issues”: “Brokeback and Capote for their portrayal of gay characters; Crash for its examination of racial tension …” That might have been “bold” “courageous” movie-making half-a-century ago.
And the recent flap over a movie that really is recent news is showing that it’s the Blue areas of the map that can’t handle the truth:
If movie trailers are supposed to cause a reaction, the preview for “United 93″ more than succeeds. Featuring no voice-over and no famous actors, it begins with images of a beautiful morning and passengers boarding an airplane. It takes you a minute to realize what the movie’s even about. That’s when a plane hits the World Trade Center. The effect is visceral. When the trailer played before “Inside Man” last week at the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, audience members began calling out, “Too soon!” In New York City, where 9/11 remains an open wound, the response was even more dramatic. The AMC Loews theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side took the rare step of pulling the trailer from its screens after several complaints. “One lady was crying,” says one of the theater’s managers, Kevin Adjodha. “She was saying we shouldn’t have [played the trailer]. That this was wrong … I don’t think people are ready for this.”
Not ready for it? But this is what really happened. It’s not a fabrication like “Syriana” and “Brokeback.” It’s not based on 50-year-old events like “Capote” and “Goodnight and Good Luck.” Is it that horrifying for the Blue State crowd to look at what really happened less than five years ago? This is the same crowd that couldn’t wait to see “Fahrenheit 9/11,” so apparently it wasn’t “too soon” in 2004 to run a propaganda hit piece accusing the president of negligence and complicity.
The trailer is here.
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