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Thursday, December 29, 2005
He lost it at the movies
Speaking of "sloppily dressed" 
Victor Davis Sam Peckinpah Was A Pussy Hanson goes to the movies and cherrypicks a few to prove that Hollywood is failing us and that is why their profits are down and the terrorists have won.
When terrorism goes to the movies in the post-Sept. 11 world, we might expect the plots, characters and themes to reflect some sort of believable reality. But in Hollywood, the politically correct impulse now overrides all else. Even the spectacular pyrotechnics, beautiful people and accomplished acting cannot hide it.
Instead, moviegoers can anticipate before the opening credits that those characters who work for the American government or are at war with terrorists will likely be portrayed as criminals, incompetents or people existing on the same moral plane as killers.
Take this fall's "Flightplan," in which the U.S. air marshal on board and a flight attendant turn out to be the true terrorists. Meanwhile, four Middle Eastern males are unfairly put under suspicion in the lynch-mob atmosphere on the plane.
The film warns us that the real threat after Sept. 11 is certainly not young Middle Eastern males on planes who might hijack or crash them into iconic American buildings. No, more dangerous in Hollywood's alternate universe are the flight officials themselves — who in reality on Sept. 11 battled terrorists only to have their throats cut before being blown up with all the passengers.
Because the film would have been so much more thrilling if only they had gone with the obvious choice and not kept us guessing and then we could have left early and gone home and boned up on our Aeschylus. Afterall, surprises in movies suck...at least they do in M. Night Shyamalan films.
A slickly filmed "Syriana" is the worst of the recent releases. The film's problem is not just that it predictably presents the bad, ugly sheik as a puppet of American oil interests while the handsome and good independent crown price is assassinated for championing his oppressed people against Western hegemony. Or that the conniving corporate potentates have big bellies and Southern accents while the goodhearted, sloppily dressed George Clooney is double-crossed by his stylish, pampered CIA bosses safe in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.
"Syriana" also perverts historical reality. Everything connected with the oil industry is portrayed as corrupt and exploitative, with no hint that petroleum fuels civilization. Hollywood producers might not see many oil rigs off the Malibu coast, but someone finds and delivers them gas each morning for their luxury cars.
So, really, oil companies are actually the (choose one):
A) Mother Teresa
B) Jesus
C) Harvest God Who Feeds The Little Children
...of Western Civilization and the ivory tower elites with their fancy tree farms should just bow down in the oil companies general direction and thank them all the sacrifices they make.
Actors, producers, screenwriters and directors of Southern California live in a bubble, where coast, climate and plentiful capital shield the film industry from the harsh world. In their good intentions, these tanned utopians can afford to dream away fascist killers and instead rail at Western bogeymen — even in the midst of a global war against Middle East jihadists who wish to trump what they wrought at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Because, if the jihadists want another shot at us (and they are coming because Hollywood refuses to unleash the Movie Of Mass Destruction on them) they're not going to come through LA or New York or Chicago or Washington DC. Oh no, that would be too obvious. They're coming straight after Fresno.
Now that would be a surprise.
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