Anti-War Films Flop For One More Reason: The Blog
LIBERTAS
When liberals made great films…
There's at least a half-dozen good reasons these anti-war movies are failing and most of them have already been written about by myself and others: No one wants to see defeatist films, they're lousy, etc… But I think there's another factor, and that's the rise of the alternative media.
Starting twenty-years ago with Rush Limbaugh, Hollywood's been taking a beating of ridicule it's never experienced before, and the reason the criticism has been so damaging is because most of it's true. After all, you can't make a charge stick unless there's some element of truth to it. No one's trying to call Hillary Clinton stupid — because no matter how many times you repeat it no on will buy it. But you can call Hollywood anti-American, untalented, out of touch, elitist, hypocriticial, etc… because of the piles of evidence presented every year to back that up.
When liberals made great anti-war films…
Since the beginning of the movie trade word of mouth has been crucial to a film's success. But until recently, word of mouth could only happen after a film had been released. Today, because people have options outside of a liberal media enamored, in bed, and in sympathy with Hollywood, word of mouth is getting out before the film's released and killing it on the launching pad.
Lions For Lambs did everything it could to paint itself as a down-the-middle polemic both in its trailer and where it advertised. Many conservative websites have Lambs banner ads because Lambs clicked "conservative" in the "describe yourself" box to get on those sites. They also advertised for months during NFL football, probably the most heartland-watched and patriotic programming on television. In other words, they spent gajillions trying to get ahead of conservative critics to say, "No, we're this!" But it didn't work.
The insufferable smug look of today's Hollywood liberal…
Ten-years ago the star power of Redford, Cruise, and Streep combined with a dishonest advertising campaign and dishonest critics calling it "patriotic" would've at least guaranteed Lambs a strong opening weekend, but those days are over for two reasons. First off, after ten-years of alternative media scrutiny the public's lost faith with Hollywood and no longer trusts them. Secondly, with a few clicks from the comfort of their own home people can visit people they do trust and read what they're saying about the film, and they can see what every critic in America is saying from sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic.
A couple of decades ago Hollywood figured out that with a star and a concept they need only drop the film in 3,000 screens to make their money back. Since, the quality of films has suffered because the wide release negated the need for decent word of mouth to create a hit. Maybe those days are over? That can only be a good thing. Especially for Hollywood; even if they don't know it yet.
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