If I were a hardcore Leftist like Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir, I’d be a little freaked out over what I’m seeing in Hollywood these days, as well. Every smurf-less left-wing film released over the last few years has not only failed miserably at the box office, they’ve also been artistic embarrassments of the highest order. And yet, a good number of openly conservative films and those openly embraced by conservatives have been monster hits: “The Blind Side,” “300,” “The Dark Knight,” “Fireproof,” “Taken,” and both “Iron Man” films have grossed more than the production costs of all those anti-war flops combined. “The Expendables” is currently thisclose to crossing a quarter of a billion dollars worldwide. Then there’s “Salt,” the “Twilight” saga, “The Book of Eli,” “Grown Ups,” “Gran Torino,” the Narnia trilogy, and the Pixar collection — all of which appealed to the right side of the political spectrum and have, to say the least, done better than respectable business.
Lit by the warm glow of a burning cross
In the world of documentaries, there’s a similar disturbance for those currently residing within the darkside of the force. You have Steve Bannon launching a full-frontal assault on the medium, Citizens United winning the most important Supreme Court free speech case in generations, Davis Guggenheim seeing the light, and Michael Moore becoming less relevant than a Sunset Boulevard lunatic screaming about capitalism as he tries to pull his pants off over his head. And do I really need to cite specifics on the utter collapse of the “edgy” nihilism that now represents the indie marketplace?
Whether the intent with some of these successful titles was to produce a conservative movie or not, there’s just no mistaking the fact that the films we “teabaggers” love and champion are not only good box office, but in many cases, on some level, they’re also artistic achievements the people behind them can be proud of.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not declaring victory. What I am declaring, however, is Reality — a reality similar to what the Left is rightfully panicking over as they lose control of the news media and hopefully both Houses of Congress come this November. And now, it must be more than a little unsettling for Salon-style Leftists to watch helplessly as popular entertainment culture — the most powerful propaganda device ever created — starts to slip just a little from their entitled, totalitarian grasp — and judging from his outrageously stupid and mean-spirited review, the writing O’Hehir sees on the wall with “Secretariat” has him completely unraveled.
Some snips of madness:
[T]he movie itself is ablaze with its own crazy sense of purpose. (Or as if someone just off-screen were burning a cross on the lawn.) …“Secretariat” is a work of creepy, half-hilarious master-race propaganda almost worthy of Leni Riefenstahl[.] …
Although the troubling racial subtext is more deeply buried here than in “The Blind Side” (where it’s more like text, period), “Secretariat” actually goes much further, presenting a honey-dipped fantasy vision of the American past as the Tea Party would like to imagine it, loaded with uplift and glory and scrubbed clean of multiculturalism and social discord. In the world of this movie, strong-willed and independent-minded women like Chenery are ladies first (she’s like a classed-up version of Sarah Palin feminism)[.] …
[Randall] Wallace, also the director of “We Were Warriors” and the writer of “Pearl Harbor” and “Braveheart,” is one of mainstream Hollywood’s few prominent Christians, and has spoken openly about his faith and his desire to make movies that appeal to “people with middle-American values.” …
But it’s legitimate to wonder exactly what Christian-friendly and “middle-American” inspirational values are being conveyed here, or whether they’re just providing cover for some fairly ordinary right-wing ideology and xenophobia. …
[Secretariat] himself is a big, handsome MacGuffin, symbolic window dressing for a quasi-inspirational fantasia of American whiteness and power.
Wow! Cross burning, xenophobia, Leni Riefenstahl, master-race, and whiteness and power, all in a review of a harmless little family flick about a horse. There’s part of me that admires O’Hehir’s ability to summon that kind of rage. Where was he when I couldn’t pull those grocery carts apart?
You can read the whole write-up but the full rant and rave won’t make any more sense … because it’s not supposed to. The buzz words are all that matters, the tainting as Hitler-ish those apostates in Hollywood who dared produce a film for the everyday Americans O’Hehir so obviously despises and fears.
Unlike this year’s Oscar ceremony, you’ll see Black people in “Secretariat.”
If anything O’Hehir is most disturbed by the fact that he enjoyed “Secretariat.” I know of what he speaks; that sinking feeling I felt halfway through Stephen Soderbergh’s “Che.” Unlike “Secretariat,” though, there are parking meters in Burbank that will make a bigger profit today than “Che.”
O’Hehir’s divisive, race-bating language should look familiar to you. This is what the Left does when they’re losing power and out of attractive ideas to launch any kind of comeback. It’s the language of desperate left-wing politicians and their media allies when facing everyday Americans with the temerity to speak out against ObamaCare and a failed stimulus in townhall meetings; it’s the language of White House surrogates desperate to dishonestly shame into silence the millions who organized Tea Parties after waking up to the nightmarish realization that Obama wasn’t kidding about fundamentally transforming America, and now O’Hehir has opened up this new front.
Keep in mind that the Salon writer’s hysterical screed is not about bringing attention to himself or even trying to be being cute. He’s obviously scared and angry and in order to strike back he’s decided to put a chill down the spine of director Randall Wallace, Disney, and more importantly, anyone else who dares consider making a similar film.
This is how today’s Hollywood blacklist works.
This is also the Left’s cruelest tactic, but thankfully this kind of racial blackmail’s no longer effective. We see through them now and are fully aware that it’s mostly famous Leftists like Oliver Stone, Rick Sanchez and Helen Thomas who are always caught with their intolerant Jew-hating pants down — or Obama’s union thugs committing racially-motivated crimes and spewing gay slurs.
O’Hehir’s right about one thing: he should be worried. For years I’ve used the fact that Hollywood refused to reproduce conservative box-office hits as proof of their intolerance towards our ideas. Suddenly, there’s an exception to that rule. Disney’s made no secret of their desire to reproduce the phenomenon that was “The Blind Side.” We conservatives should be cautiously optimistic about this crack in the door. But if I were one of Vader’s stormtroopers, I’d be freaking out on the pages of Salon too.
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