Whippersnappers. Kids today, spoiled rotten, sez I. You don’t know from rotten Hollywood propaganda lest you view Green Berets with John Wayne. You also missed out Bob Hope’s truly hilarious “hippie” jokes, centering around themes of baths, haircuts and jobs.
On the gripping hand, what was that Clint Eastwood movie about the glorious military adventure in Grenada?
Oh, those rotten Hollywood elites! How dare they exploit thier celebrity for political advantage! Except for Arnie, of course. That’s different, he’s a real American. Austrian. Whatever.
I wish everyone in Hollywood would shut the fuck up with their fucking causes. It wouldn’t bother me if they were informed about the cause, but these guys couldn’t be doing much more than finding the most extremist group connected with a cause and browsing through one of their pamphlets.
I was against the war, but I must admit that those anti-war celebs drove me nuts, because they were so fucking ignorant about the reasons to oppose the war. None of them were genuine pacifists who objected to a conflict launched by America that wasn’t in self-defense. If they had been, then they would have yelled just as loudly at involvement in Bosnia. No, all they did was trot out the wacko conspiracy theories about oil companies, augmented with a lot of Bush-hate.
I can’t remember the last time I thought a Hollywood celebrity sounded intelligent when talking about a political issue, no matter which issue or which side of the aisle they were on. (I don’t know about Arnold, becaue he didn’t seem to say anything in the two-month campaign.)
That said, I don’t usually avoid movies because the actors promote ignorant overly-simplified obnoxious agendas. I avoid movies that promote ignorant overly-simplified obnoxious agendas. As this particular flick doesn’t seem to be that (although it’s pretty vague on what the movie is about), I see no reason to go out of my way to avoid it.
I personally must know the politics of every single person involved with a film before I see it, down to the guy driving the honey truck. If a single person is one of those damn hippy liberal Saddam-fellaters who felt the war was unjustified, then I boycott the film, every newspaper and TV station that advertises the film, everyone who saw the film, and the Dixie Chicks.
The most memorable bits are “I cannot conceive of any reason why the American people and the world would not have shared with [Iraqis] the evidence of the claim to have weapons of mass destruction… I think that the more information we push for, the more information we are given, the better off we are all going to be and the right thing will happen,” “I think war can be avoided, but obviously it’s going to take enormous commitment on the part of the Iraqi government as well as the United States,” and “Sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented pre-emptive attack on a separate sovereign nation may well prove itself a most temporary medicine.”
This is Looney Left™ code for “I think Saddam’s mustache is sexy and I flew all this way just to polish his shoes with the oil on my nose.”
First: Sean Penn was right about Iraq not having WMDs. Second: he didn’t :kiss Hussein’s ass" he just expressed concern for innocent Iraqis. Third: he is probably the best actor currently working in Hollywood. Fourth: A lot of actors with stupid political ideas make good movies (Arnie for instance). Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both happen to intelligent liberals who correctly called bullshit on Bush’s slimy warmongering tactics but none of that really has anything to do with whether they can make good art. Ted Nugent is a giant asshole and a political retard but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy his music. Fifth: I just saw Mystic River tonight. It’s a good movie with a knockout performance from Penn. Sixth: Only a fucking asstard boycotts movies because one of the actors happens to have a different political viewpoint. Seventh: The movie was directed by a conservative named Clint Eastwood.
Tim Robbins seemed intelligent and informed in all the stuff I’ve seen him in. Especially about the whole Bull Durham Hall of Fame fiasco. I liked it when he said no one should boycott the HoF over it and he himself still planned to go there. Just because he was a fan.
If you want to see a fucking GREAT Penn movie, check out U-Turn. But it was directed by another commie pinko anti-american, so you’d probably hate it.
BTW, DtC, Nugent IS an asshole, but I like him anyway.
If you want to boycott anyone for non-American ideals, don’t forget about Jane Fonda. Don’t forget her mocking American POWs in North Vietnam. Don’t forget how she spat at (or on) them, don’t forget how she called them “baby killers,” and don’t forget those photographs of her, in NV uniform, sitting on the firing seat of an anti-aircraft weapon. Compared to Jane Fonda, Sean Penn is a lightweight in the political arena.
I’ll never see anything directed by Michael Moore because he was such an ass at the Academy Awards. I’ll never see a Woody Allen movie again because he’s creepy. Ditto for Roman Polanski. I’ll never put money in Barbra Streisand’s pockets by supporting her movies or cd’s not because she’s a liberal as much as because she’s just hateful. And Alec Baldwin – well, if he ever managed a comeback, he can forget my support.
So, yeah, I do boycott for various reasons.
However, I don’t boycott just because I disagree with them. Sean Penn’s okay. So is Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. They are out in left field at times but they seem to be motivated by the desire to change things for the better as opposed to just complaining ad nauseum about their opponents.
That being said I have no desire to see “Mystic River” because the whole premise is just so depressing.
‘‘I think there’s probably two legitimate places for Saddam Hussein: it’s either Bellevue or a meat grinder… This man’s a horror and a criminal, there’s no question about it.’’
Suppose the answer is no. So what? Do I have to have perfect information to make a decision? Of course not. Why do I need to be concerned about every person in every movie? We are only talking about the people in this movie.
Do you have a cite for the proposition that discrimination based on political ideology is illegal outside of the government context? Is it your position that I can not refuse to hire a neo-nazi because of his political beliefs? I suggest that you are incorrect.
I disagree with this line of thinking. Sure, if no more Dixie Chick albums are ever made, some people other than the Dixie Chicks themselves might suffer. (Though I think that is probably debateable). But that isn’t the point. Any form of protest is unlikely to only effect the target, but I don’t think that is a justification for not protesting. Personally, like friedo, I won’t watch Roman Polanski movies, because I find the man repugnant. He may be a great film maker, but I choose not to watch his work. That choice probably impacts the camera man as much or more than Polanski himself. Am I being silly?
Again, so what? Let’s assume that the other actors are all big time Bush supporters, how does that impact the decision not to support Sean Penn? Remember a few years ago when Denny’s was in hot water for discrimination, were the people who boycotted Denny’s wrong to do so because the guy who grows the chickens who supply the eggs didn’t personally agree with Denny’s discrimination? I don’t think so.
Personally, I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan, and I would like to see this movie, but I find Tim Robbins and Sean Penn to be insufferable, and so I probably won’t see it.
How can you possibly be this stupid? Who said anything about it being illegal to have a different political viewpoint? Do you really equate the free decision to not see a movie with the actions of a facist government? If so, I suggest you seek an education forthwith.
‘‘I think there’s probably two legitimate places for Saddam Hussein: it’s either Bellevue or a meat grinder… This man’s a horror and a criminal, there’s no question about it.’’
“Saddam, why do you always want to make love to me from behind? Is it that you’re pretending that I’m someone else?”
“Satan, your ass is huge and red. Who am I gonna pretend you are? Liza Minnelli?”
Did he deploy a 80,000 of his private army to break things up or something?
Or maybe he had his legions of intergalatic spaceships distrupt military satellite communications?
I must have missed something, I thought he just voiced his personal opposition. Now I know he was actually attempting to interfer and spoil it for everyone.