Stand-up comic turned auteur Bobcat Goldthwait no longer talks in that shrieking pitch he employed in three “Police Academy” films and “One Crazy Summer.”
Now, Goldthwait’s more reasonable tones help him decry conservative media icons like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly – even though he admits he avoids listening to them whenever possible.
Goldthwait is currently promoting “God Bless America,” available now via Video on Demand and hitting theaters May 11. The film follows a middle-aged man (Joel Murray) who decides to kill everyone debasing our culture after learning he has an incurable condition. That means taking aim at the conservative media as well as fluff like “American Idol.”
The writer/director told The Syracuse New Times he wants to change hearts and minds, but his own rhetoric is hardly healing:
You can’t hug a Glenn Beck fan into reason. I could have made a documentary about our culture but it would have been preaching to the converted. And why would I want to do that? I saw a Tea Party member holding a poster that said, “We came unarmed. . . This time.” That’s an aggressive threat.
Goldthwait can’t understand that conservative media outlets might look unkindly at a film which literally targets a Bill O’Reilly stand-in for death:
Before the movie came out some of the right-wing websites totally bashed it and hated it, and I thought that was really funny. It’s like when Frank {the main character} says to the conservative commentator that he agrees with some of his ideas. I agree with Bill O’Reilly on the death penalty: I oppose it just like him. But he and I can never be on the same side. He’ll never try to reach for me. He will just say anybody from Hollywood is a pinhead. He’s not interested in change and he doesn’t care about America. He’s interested in being famous.
He also admitted that he tries to avoid conservative media types like Limbaugh, and it shows in his work. O’Reilly is nowhere near the stereotype portrayed in the film, meaning that Goldthwait probably received his ideological marching orders from liberal-approved news outlets and scurried to his word processor to write the script.
Yet he longs for the lost art of discussion, even though his fellow liberals are typically the ones trying to throw people off the air like Rush Limbaugh or disrupt public speakers who don’t agree with their worldview.
That’s the thing–there’s no discussion anymore. Just because I’m a progressive or a liberal I’m not supposed to have a gun. We’re not allowed to figure out what works for people. You’re either this or you’re that. How can you be a vegetarian atheist and own a gun? Well, that’s who I am. Mostly I’m just tired of the fact that there’s no more conversation or logic or reason. It’s just an “us vs. them” mentality. And that’s what this movie is ultimately about.
Goldthwait is a genuinely funny fellow. His 2009 film, “World’s Greatest Dad,” was a dark comedy masterpiece. But his new film and media tour show he not only ignores all the hate spewing from the Left, he doesn’t have time to actually listen to folks on the Right to get their side of the story.
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