Hollywood leans left: why?

Great Debates
41

Somehow I doubt that the makers of Hostel or Dumb and Dumberer or Dude, Where’s my Car know, care, or need to know much about the human condition. Nor do they have much empathy with their subjects.

Hollywood is left leaning because that’s the fashion there. It’s as simple as that. It’s odd that an industry as venal and as concerned with the bottom line as Hollywood should be left leaning but there you are. The same executive who screws his screenwriters and strong-arms his competition will donate to the Democratic Party or some Save The Rainforest group. And he’ll also greenlight a script in which the chief villain is a venal corporate executive only concerned with the bottom line who screws his employees and strong-arms his competition. Hollywood leans left in the same way the fashion in rural Kansas is right leaning. It’s just what people do.

Of course this is all pretty broad brushed. There are plenty of conservatives in Hollywood, some quite famous. Mel Gibson, Ron Silver, and Arnold Shwarzenegger come to mind. And I’m sure there are liberals in rural Kansas as well.

42

It’s not a matter of opinion. When I made that post I was citing a reputable box office tracking site which stated that Brokeback was number one that day. Quibbling and equivocating about weekly totals does does not really erase the salient point that it’s a commercially successful move and that it was intended as such.

Yes, I’ve seen both movies. Neither one is political in a partisan sense. Good Night is about journalistic obligations, not specific politics (and since when is being opposed to McCarthyism a “liberal” position anyway?). Syriana is about how the need for oil causes corruption across the board. It’s not partisan in any way. If anything the message is simply about the need for humanity to eliminate its abject dependence on a vanishing natural resource. Is that a “liberal” position? Would conservatives disagree with that?

43

I think just about every assumption in the OP is flawed.

What is “Hollywood”? Actors? Technical personnel? Corporate directors? Deal makers? Lawyers?

What is “left-leaning”? I think the one definition given here – desirous of a “centrally planned economy” is just about the worst descrption I’ve ever heard of the American left.

Pretend we’ve defined those things, where is the data that shows that “Hollywood is left-leaning?” There are a ton of performers who have come out as being pretty conservative, especially ones that have entered politics or spoken out politically – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Clint Eastwood (although there are indications he might be in transition), Fred Grandy (“Gopher”), occasional U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, Frank Sinatra, Kid Rock, all four of the stars of The A Team (George Peppard, Mr. T, Dirk Benedict, and Dwight Schultz), Stephen Baldwin, Ron Silver, Star Trek’s Max Grodénchik – and that’s just off the top of my head.

Of course, you could also pretty quickly come up with a long list of Hollywood types who have come out as pretty liberal. But are these competing links anything beyond anecdotal evidence?

I think the real questino is “Why is Hollywood perceived as being left-leaning?” And we have to go even deeper to find important questions, such as “Why do we even have a concept of an entire industry leaning one way or the other politically?”

The significant thing here is that there are people on a particular region of the U.S. political spectrum that has a need to demonise “Hollywood” (whatever that means) and the need to demonise the left, and they have found a very effective way of putting that together.

44

OK, one more post on this hijack and I’ll quit. Look at the numbers for all the movies for Tuesday last week. They’re still MUCH higher than the numbers for Tuesday this week. It wasn’t just a dropoff compared to Monday-- compare it to any day in the last 10 days and it’s only about half.

At any rate, even if it’s not #1, it’s still successful, and it is hampered (as you say) by limitted showing. However, that limited showing is a function of the subject, not just some random anomaly.

45

In 2000, I voted for Harry Browne, and in 2004, I voted for the Democrat (whose name I cannot now recall). But my sister voted for Bush both times, and she is not a dumb fuck either. Why a person cannot be both rightwing and intelligent — or at the very least, deserving of respect — is unclear.

46

I don’t think Hollywood leans any direction. It’s like the “liberal Media”. It’s a myth, and it’s hard to kill a myth.
That said, there is a “production company” that has a political agenda. Participant Productions
Their films include Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, North Country, Murderball, Fast Food Nation and others.

They produce the films and then they get a ‘studio’ to distribute the film to theatres. They work with Warner Independent Films a lot. Thought if the studio thought something was too hot, they would pass on it.

Anyone can make a film, it’s getting a distribution deal that is is the tricky part. The only recent example of “hollywood” being one way or another is Passion of the Christ. Mel made it, but no major studio wanted to touch it. The reason was all the controversy over The Last Temptation of Christ, a film that Christians rejected. Not knowing if the public would take to another Christ film, in a strange language, the studios decided to pass.
Most studios have one thing in mind with movies, “Will it make a profit?”

Last weekend we got…

Last Holiday
Glory Road
Tirstian and Isolde
Hoodwinked

What are the politics of any of these films?

Last Holiday does have a corrupt senator, with no party affiliation and a corrupt big business man.

Glory Road has “intergration is a good thing” message.

Tristian and Isolde has a “nobody knows how to pronounce the title” message.

Hoodwinked has, well, I don’t know what it has.

This week

Underworld Evolution, Yeah, that a big lefty movie.
Why We Fight, now that’s a lefty movie but it won’t have nearly as many screens as Underworld Evolution.

After that we get Annnapolis, is that a lefty movie?

47

More specifically, the question should be, “Why is Hollywood perceived as being left-leaning by the Right?” I don’t believe this view is held by the left, or even political moderates; it is common only to the right-wing who see diversity of opinion as a threat to their philosophy. Look at the way they consider such diversity, and you will see a common thread of intolerance: sex education cannot mention condoms, even if it also promotes abstinence; news programs are “left-leaning” if they portray the Right in a negative way, even if the do the same to political figures on the Left; moderate Republicans are cast as RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only) if they do not drink the extreme Right kool-ade. The whole “Hollywood is Left” is just more of the same groupthink, designed to fuel the us-against-them mentality and distrust of anything that smacks of the Liberal Bogeyman, in order to scare the sheeple away from the sweet grass of individual thought.

48

I didn’t realize that the right wing consisted of 68% of Americans:

49

:mad: Hey, dude! Spoiler box! Use it!

50

I might have misunderstood the OP, but I got the feeling (especially after a couple of responses) that the premise was that the artists tend to lean left, but not the producers and sales/marketing departments. Susan Sarandon, for example, could very well be in an apolitical film, but her politics is decidedly left. (Assuming that we are to draw the typical associations of left with Democrats and right with Republicans.)

51

I think people of all political stripes deserve courtesy as a matter of course, but respect you have to earn.

52

leaving aside all of the squabbling and quibbling here, and talking only about the “big stars,” I think many of them do lean leftward. There are a fair few who lean right, and they may actually do more politically, but they are also usually private about it. Hollywood Righty’s tend to keep their politics to themselves. If they want to express themselves poltically, they do so professionally, not as a star. Hollywood Lefty’s don’t seperate themselves so much. They also tend to be involved on the periphery of politics; more constant but less important. Hollywood Lefty’s go in for big fundraising efforts, or make guest appearances at lefty causes, or give money.

Now, (and to be up front I’m biased; deal with it) I think that the most visible Hollywood Lefty’s tend to be fairly shallow about it. of course, I think most Hollywood stars tend to be shallow anyway. They tend to identify with causes that are not really very deep, at least from my perspective. They often don’t think about the real consequences of the causes they support.

This does not apply to all Lefty’s by the by. The aforementioned Tom Hanks is beloved by conservatives and liberals - because he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I’ve met him, and even years later I’ve still impressed by how kind he was to a me (just an ordinary little boy) at the time. He may disagree with me - perhaps dramatically. But I can still repsect him as a human being and a man.

From what I see, the ones whom I dislike favor causes not for any real interest, but simply to promote their fame. They want to be seen.

53

Yeah, that E-Poll has a real scientific way of gathering data; they pay for it:

That poll is meaningless.

54

I don’t understand what this means. We’re all members of this society; we’re all political. It doesn’t make a difference whether you express your politics by running for office or by supporting campaigns or just by speaking your mind. It’s all citizens’ work.

I think most people tend to be pretty shallow, especially “regular” people.

And how deep are other people’s opinions? People have the right to have opinions, and, in my view, they have the civic responsibility to make their opinions known, if they feel strongly enough. If they happen to be so lucky as to be famous, then all the better for them.

Seems and seems. It’s a public persona. Most of us have no idea what Hanks is really like. And it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to agree with people whose work I like and I don’t have to respect people whose opinions I agree with.

It must be useful to have this ability to read minds.

And anyway, none of this really goes to the heart of the OP.

I still think “Hollywood is liberal” is a pretty dubious premise.

55

Because Producers, Actors, and Rock Stars like to smoke pot and fuck hookers.

56

I’ll end my hijack here, with this last thought: The point is that there is a standard industry guideline for calling a movie #1. None of the industry rags or shows will claim Brokeback Mountain as #1. Commercially viable/successful is mutually exclusive of being #1. IIRC, Coming to America was number 1 when it came out (making something like 20M). It also proved to be a losing venture. I won’t agree that Brokeback was a financial success until I see the numbers (but I would be suprised if it weren’t a success, especially since early reports seem to tout a $15M production cost.)

57

:confused: Doesn’t everybody?

58

It is also “generally accepted” that ID is a scientific theory.

59

All movies all losing ventures; ask any writer with a piece of the back end.

60

As clearly evidenced by Arnold running for governor and leaning heavily on lines from his movies during the campaign, and Ron Silver giving a speech at the Republican National Convention (and as an actor! Not “professionally”!).