Oscar Nominations & Hollywood's Anti-American Bent

Tonight is Oscar night and Osama bin Laden would love it. So says Charles Krauthammer, who rightfully hammers Hollywood for the pro-terrorist, anti-Western bent of many of the nominated films. From Steven Spielberg's paean to appeasement Munich, to the terrorist-sympathizing Paradise Now, to the blame-the USA oil conspiracy tale Syriana, this year's Academy Award showcases are textbook examples of leftist anti-Americanism. A large portion of Tinseltown has sunk farther than ever into radical leftwing beliefs, and it's no surprise that mainstream America continues to ignore their work.

The article linked immediately above, meanwhile, provides some perhaps unintended insight into the roots of the doldrums. Written by prominent film critic Richard Schickel, the piece acknowledges Hollywood's downturn, but refuses to admit any liberal culpability. Says Schickel:

I'm convinced that last year's downturn in attendance is almost completely attributable to the fact that it is cheaper and more convenient to wait and see routine films at home, on DVD, than it is to see them theatrically.

Moreover, it has never been proved that the perceived liberality of Hollywood's morals or politics has any large effect on movie going. Decades ago, people went right on seeing racy movies, no matter how much the religious fundamentalists railed at Mae West.

Well, he may think there's no correlation, but reality dictates otherwise. Having been around for almost a decade, DVDs are not just a suddenly popular phenomenon, and over the past year, sales have actually begun to slow. Furthermore, racy films and anti-American films are two very different beasts; filmgoers may have flocked to see Mae West in a bikini, but you can bet they would have been repulsed by a story sympathizing with Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia against America.

Schickel's article is highly symptomatic of the mainstream movie industry's problems; faced with a clear decline largely due to their out-of-touch politics, they merely attempt to deflect the blame.

If Hollywood wants to recapture its former box office gold, it needs to move more in line with its target audience's tastes. Here's to Superman Returns for Best Picture in 2007.