On The Hunt, Trump Gets Results [Updated]

I wrote here about the bizarre movie The Hunt, in which liberal elites hunt and murder red state “deplorables.” Sort of a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the left. The film was to be released next month, even though advertising was pulled after the El Paso and Dayton shootings. But that was before President Trump weighed in on Twitter:

That was enough, apparently, to cause Universal Studios to wilt:

A controversial soon-to-be released movie trashed by President Trump on Twitter Friday has been canceled entirely, Universal Studios announced Saturday.
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The backlash forced the studio to change its plans.

“We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller,” the studio said in a statement to The Hill. “But we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.”

I will go out on a limb and guess that Universal executives shelved the movie because of Trump’s suggestion that film violence contributes to real violence, for which Hollywood liberals “then try to blame others.” The executives, I suspect, didn’t want to do anything that might compromise the Democrats’ ability to blame President Trump.

STEVE (maybe) dissents: Without actually seeing the movie, it is hard to know whether withdrawing the film isn’t a blunder. If it is true that the hunters are the bad guys—with an EU connection!!—and the hunted “deplorables” the good guys who win revenge in the end, then maybe this movie would have been slightly pro-Trump. It wouldn’t be the first time that a film or TV show made by liberals backfired on them. One thinks of All in the Family, where Norman Lear’s intention totally flopped, or Joss Whedon’s Firefly series and Serenity film. Although Wheedon is a big leftist, his TV show and movie are hugely popular with libertarians and conservatives generally.

It could be that Universal decided to shelve the movie because they figured out that they had blundered and might actually help Trump.

JOHN responds: I’ve wondered about that, too. Whatever would possess a group of liberals to make a film that shows liberals as the ultimate villains, hunting down and murdering innocent conservatives? It’s a puzzle. In any event, I don’t think it matters who made the film or which side gets a worse portrayal. I think it is totally inappropriate to make or release a film that depicts liberal and conservative Americans slaughtering one another. And calling it a “satire,” as Universal insistently does, doesn’t help. So I am glad Trump got the film killed, if that is what happened, or alternatively that Universal thought better of it, even if the company’s motives were political.

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