Blogger Andrew Breitbart has a new group blog called Big Hollywood, and he says the objective is to "change the entertainment industry" and make Hollywood "something we can believe in again."
I’d love to see that happen, and I even have a suggestion for a movie. Wouldn't it be great to see Charlton Heston's life story on the big screen? From his service in World War II, his days as a struggling actor in New York while supporting a wife and family and the leadership he provided in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s to his fight to clean up the entertainment industry in the 1990s, and of course, his time as president of the National Rifle Association!
Chuck Heston was an American hero, and even though he's no longer on the silver screen, his story could be. If we want to make Hollywood someplace we can believe in again, let's look back at the men and women who made it that way in the first place.
Realism in Hollywood. I'm not holding my breath. Hollywood's "dramatic license" with firearms is the greatest propaganda weapon for anti-gunners there is.
One - the industry is overwhelmingly against any form of censorship, restraint, outside approvals, and so on.
Two - California is in very bad shape financially so the state needs all the jobs and tax revenues it can get from the motion picture industry.
Three - Unfortunately, the bulk of paid tickets for films go to low quality
writing and acting propped up by special affects. You would have to
develop an audience for high quality films.
I remember many years ago when I lived in New Orleans. A movie theater was bought out for the purpose of showing the high quality films from the past as well as any new ones that came out. It bombed due to lack of customers then changed to a porn theater, or, as they liked to call it in New Orleans a "blue theater".
Much as I dislike the fact, "Hollywood," meaning the big motion picture studios, is like any other business: the studios exist to make money. The studio heads only greenlight projects they believe will make money for them, based on their perception of the tenor of the times, what the public wants to see, who the public wants to see, what the public wants to see the whos in, and the drawing power of the stars and the director, at that time. They aren't always right.
Example: Orson Wells' The Magnificent Ambersons. Students of film rightly regard it as one of the most important films Hollywood ever made. But it bombed at the box office when it was released, because the tenor of the times had changed from when Wells began filming it, and people didn't want to hear a film with a peaceful message right after Pearl Harbor. It bombed at the box office.
Example: The Philadelphia Story. When we think of Katharine Hepburn today, the first words that come to mind are "magnificent actress." But in 1940, when Hollywood thought of her, the words that came to mind were, "box office poison." Hepburn saw the play in New York and bought the film rights, hoping to use it as a vehicle to jump-start her career. When MGM went to buy the play, they found Hepburn already owned it, and if they wanted to film it they'd have to cast her, with her having some say in what was done with the material. She insisted on a top-flight director who could handle comedy, and got him. She insisted on a sold cast, and got it. And she insisted on playing Tracy Lord, the female lead, or no deal. The film version of The Philadelphia Story is a marvelous comedy without being slapstick. The public loved it. It was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director; and won two - Jimmy Stewart for Best Actor, and Donald Ogden Stewart for Best Screenplay. Hepburn got a Best Actress nomination out of it herself, and her career never went off-track again.
Example: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hollywood thought that the American film public was ready for a cerebral science fiction movie that did not depend on ray guns and bug-eyed monsters from another world. Hollywood was wrong. Though it won one Oscar for Best Special Effects, it did not win any of the big Oscars like Best Director or Best Original Screenplay (though it was nominated for both). As far as making money, don't make me laugh! It took something like 15 years for it to make back what it had cost to produce 2001. The lesson, "Don't make big-budget sci-fi movies, they don't do well in theaters" was so well learned by Hollywood that when a guy came along 8 years later with a sci-fi script, he had an awful time getting the financing to make his movie. The studio was so sure it would bomb at the box office, they didn't even ask for rights to produce action figures, novelizations, soundtrack albums and things like that, and let him keep them. I'm sure you've heard of that movie: a little epic called Star Wars.
As you can see, Hollywood can't always pick 'em. But that doesn't mean they would go for a biopic of Charlton Heston, either. If he'd been involved with the Brady Campaign, there wouldn't be a problem here. But because he went from liberal to conservative and not the other way around like Ebenezer Scrooge, there's no way they'd fund it. The last Hollywood biopic I can recall that made money was Gandhi, and that is a four hour long crashing bore of a movie.
Watched a show on AMC called The AMC Project: Rated "R" Republicans in Hollywood.
This is from the AMC Project website which gives a breif description of what it was about. But I found it pretty interesting.
"An examination of conservatives in Hollywood includes interviews with Patricia Heaton, Drew Carey, Vincent Gallo and John Milius. Also: on the campaign trail with Arnold Schwarzenegger during his California gubernatorial bid; a reception for the Hollywood Congress of Republicans. Directed by Jesse Moss.."
What I didn't like about it was when they talked about Arnold, they made it seem as if he was a true Republican, though there was one person they interviewed that did say something about him not being, and personally, I feel he's more Democrat then Republican. He's definitely got Democratic influence surrounding him that's for sure.
But it was pretty interesting as I said. There is a movement in Hollywood and the hope is it will bring out more closet Hollywood Republicans. But I highly doubt Hollywood will ever change. But it's good to know some aren't afraid to speak their mind. Many simply don't for fear they will get ostracized and not get work. And it's that fear that keep many from speaking up...
__________________ "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms" - Thomas Jefferson
Last edited by GlockMeister; 01-20-2009 at 04:02 PM.
Hollywood is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Liberals.
Hollywood is a for-profit industry. If being a mouthpiece for LarryO paid better than making movies the public will pay to see, they'd be doing that, instead.
