Hollywood Goes Mad

Don’t miss this shocking Townhall column by filmmaker Jason Apuzzo. Hollywood is even more far gone than I had imagined. Apuzzo begins:

Slow to awaken after the 9/11 attacks, Hollywood has finally come around to contributing what it can in the War on Terror: namely, glossy, star-studded movies that sympathize with the enemy.
Hard to believe? Here’s the pitch: with box-office numbers trending down, studio executives are suddenly greenlighting movies they can describe to shareholders as ‘controversial’ or ‘timely.’ Whether the films are anti-American or otherwise demoralizing to the war effort is apparently immaterial. Its appetite whetted by “Fahrenheit 9/11″‘s $222 million worldwide gross, Hollywood thinks it’s found a formula for both financial security and critical plaudits: noxious anti-American storylines, bathed in the warm glow of star power.

Apuzzo cites chapter and verse, and the films he describes, now in production or on the drawing board, are sickening. I was completely unaware of most of them, like for example, Syriana:

Starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, this Warner Brothers film – set during the first Bush administration – features a plot by American oil companies and the U.S. government to redraw Middle East borders for greater oil profiteering. The film even depicts a handsome, ‘tragic’ suicide bomber driven to jihad after being fired by an American oil company! The film’s climax comes with the jihadist launching an explosive device into an oil tanker as American oil barons and Saudi officials look on.

The tide of anti-American, anti-military, anti-Bush, anti-conservative, anti-Israel movies–Apuzzo describes ten, but notes that his list is incomplete–is simply numbing. It is hard to see how such a massive assault on American and conservative values, not to mention truth and history, can fail to have a devastating impact.
Apuzzo’s solution is for conservatives to abandon Hollywood and its studios, raise their own money and make their own movies. I don’t have a better idea. Once again, it seems that the liberals have succeeded in capturing a key component of our culture, leaving conservatives to fight a guerrilla campaign from the outside.
UPDATE: Jonathan Last says that things may be bad in Hollywood, but they aren’t that bad. Last questions Abuzzo’s credibility, and says that his descriptions of several of the films are at odds with what has been reported elsewhere.
FURTHER UPDATE: Jason Abuzzo wrote to respond to Jonathan Last’s comments, as follows:

Thanks much for posting my Townhall article. I very much appreciate your giving it such attention – and your kind works.
I happen to be the co-director of The Liberty Film Festival (http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com), Hollywood’s conservative film festival, and editor of the conservative film blog LIBERTAS
(http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas), where we discuss these issues all the time. LIBERTAS has been covered in Variety, USA Today, CNN, etc. – and you might at some point want to let your
readers know about it. We break stories, do interviews, and otherwise offer commentary on Hollywood and filmmaking from the perspective of conservatives within the industry.
A few words about Mr. Last’s ‘response’ to my article. The films and/or controversies I mention in my article – particularly those concerning the new Spielberg film and “V For Vendetta” – have been well covered in the NY Times and other publications. He doesn’t seem to be aware of this. As for George Clooney’s “Syriana,” a friend of mine has seen a rough cut of the film – so I’m using different sources than the public ones Last is reading.
I’ll be posting a response to Mr. Last at LIBERTAS (http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas). Many thanks for your attention.
Best,
Jason Apuzzo
Editor, LIBERTAS
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com

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