More Message Movies

The Brat tells me her housemates and she watched Srash this weekend and pronounced it "aweful" in the first half hour, an opinion which did not change. Most people don't go to the movies to thing or be preached to, they go to see the good-guys kick the bad-guys butts, which is why George Bush is president, in a round about way.

Lest we hear too much more about Hollywood liberalism and how out of touch the industry is, here's antoher note about Oscar and "message Films." The last great year for message movies was probably 1976. It might be the best year for film since 1939. A lot of good message movies were made that year and two of them, *All The President's Men* and *Network* were nominated for best picture, along with two other serious films, *Taxi Driver* and *Bound for Glory* (i told you it was a good year), but the best picture oscar wen to the ultimate feel-good melodrama, *Rocky*.

As for new message movies: the other night we went to see *V for Vendetta*, and how its messae is going to play interests me, because it clearly, on one level. glorifies terrorism ad stronly suggests that President Bush is leading America toward a fascist police state. The republican blog TownHall.com in a review titled "V for Vendetta, T for Terrorist" is dismissive and flippant in it's disgust at the movie's themes. The CNN review "V for Vendetta, O for OK," (I sense a theme) notes that it's hard not to hear undertones of Osama bin Laden in V's call to arms, bt it also notes that this is hardly a subversive film in a land where subversion is marketed by coporations as a cultural identity. I'm with CNN on this one. I liked the movie more then the CNN critic did, but I think both the lefties and the neo-cons, boh sides calling it "radical" and "subversive," are naive. This is a fun movie that does make a few statements--like it or not--about current world affairs, but it gave up any pretense to subversion the minute it was optioned by Warner Brothers (which is why anarchist Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel, has asked to have his name removed).

But Naive or not, I really liked it, and it did $26.1M at the box office.