Iraq's Other Bombs
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007 4:20 PM PT
Hollywood: Are falling box-office receipts from anti-war offerings enough of a message for Hollywood's liberal filmmakers? Or is the industry so stuck in an anti-U.S. rut that not even money talks anymore?
Related Topics: Media & Culture | Iraq
Why doesn't Hollywood cut to the chase the next time it wants to insult the public with a new war-on-terror film and just call it "Bombs Away"? As movies depicting U.S. troops as bad guys and terrorists as sensitive, misunderstood souls continue to crank out, the industry needs to take its puny box office returns as a wake-up call from the public.
Despite top star billings, big-foot directors, the best publicity money can buy and critical acclaim, the public just isn't biting. The problem is the content.
"Redacted," gave us the Christmasy theme of Iraqi rape starring U.S. troops as rapists. It drew just $10,039 over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to BoxOfficeMojo, and $34,000 at its open.
Meanwhile "Rendition," which showed terrorists as pensive souls, bombed too. "A Mighty Heart," depicting terrorists' war on the West as "understandable," was a dud. "Syriana," portraying U.S. intelligence officers as crooks in bed with Big Oil, also fared poorly. "Lions For Lambs," a long anti-war monologue, bored people out of the Cineplex.
Critics say the lousy returns show the public is fatigued with the war. But name one film supportive of the U.S. war in Iraq, making heroes of the war's real heroes, such as our troops or even Iraq's democrats. Name one that portrays al-Qaida terrorists as the cold-blooded Islamofascist killers they really are.
The public isn't sated on good Iraq films; in reality, it's famished.
What's offered is an insult. Hollywood imagines it can educate the rubes in the heartland with its propaganda.
But the U.S. war effort is a vast enterprise that touches the lives of millions of moviegoers who know what's going on in Iraq. They're actually the experts. The public is not fooled by leftist propaganda.
What's more, good movies still make money. Disney's fun kid flick, "Enchanted," packed them in this weekend with $34.4 million in box office receipts. Not one anti-U.S. note in it.
Then there's the argument that Hollywood has gone global and anti-U.S. movies are just catering to world tastes. Really? Foreign box office sales account for only 15% of Hollywood's returns.
What's at stake is whether Hollywood really respects its audience. Unless it can shake its left-wing preachings, it's going to keep getting empty Christmas stockings from a disgusted public. Hollywood better start getting that straight.
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