The Movie Critic Vote
Like Ross, I think John Podhoretz found the best way to approach the oblivious, stupid, super-earnestness of Lions for Lambs. I found the movie something of a challenge to review (though, yes, I managed), in part because of the total Iraq War overkill I’ve experienced at the movies this fall. It’s always been clear that the Bush presidency and the Republican leadership in Congress have severely agitated a number of outspoken liberals in the movie industry. One would hope that they’d be able to channel this into some angry, passionate responses. Some of the best films of the 1970s were reactions to the cultural and political situation. Iraq may be the new Vietnam, but Valley of Elah isn’t even close to the new Deer Hunter, much less the new Apocalypse Now. (And even a stronger political film like Michael Clayton doesn’t match up to a 70s counterpart like The Conversation.)
But instead, as Dana Stevens notes, it now seems to have had a serious degrading effect on their work. In Lions for Lambs, Redford, the man who made All the President’s Men — arguably the best Washington movie of all time — seems to have been reduced to a marginally more tolerable Rosie O’Donnell. Meanwhile, Brian de Palma, in the season’s worst film, has momentarily given up on spinning out crude, exploitative dreck and turned to dishing up crude, exploitative, political dreck. (More on that another day.) It’s like half of Tinseltown is in meltdown.
Discarding personal preference, policy, politics, and all that complicated stuff that everyone gets so worked up over, I’m inclined to think that, from the perspective of the entertainment industry — or at least its most faithful and regular consumers — a Democratic presidency, with any candidate, would be the best thing. Of course, we could see side effects going the other way, too, starting, I’d wager, with Joel Surnow and 24...
What do you mean “made” “All The President’s Men”? Redford didn’t direct it; that was Alan Pakula.
— HJA · Nov 14, 03:54 PM · #
I could swear that he and Pakula share a “Film By” credit, but I can’t find any indication of that online, so it’s entirely possible that I’m just dreaming that up. I’ll need to check my DVD case at some point.
Either way, though, it seems probable that Redford play a fairly strong role in making that film; I just can’t see that movie being made with Redford sitting idly by letting someone else make all the decisions.
— Peter Suderman · Nov 14, 04:22 PM · #
Right you are about his overall importance to the making of the film — “allmovie” says, “In addition to delivering one of his strongest performances to date in the film, Redford also served as producer after first buying the rights to Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s book of the same name.”
— HJA · Nov 14, 06:08 PM · #
Did Bush antagonize Hollywood any more than Reagan did in the nuclear freeze and anti-Contra efforts of the 1980s. Put it another way, if NATO
had to engage Soviet troops in Western Europe; would Hollywood have been
any more forgiving. If you want a refresher course; watch the opening to
the “Day After” where a Pershing 2 deployment triggers unrest in East Germany which provokes a Soviet response. Or a lesser known offering; Count Down to Looking Class; has a South American bank default triggers a crisis in the Middle East that leads to nuclear war. Hollywood has finally
‘jumped the shark’ with Lions, a film that condemns the War in Afghanistan!The war they said they supported; don’t tell they would have have backed an incursion into Pakistan either.
“Redacted” the recreation of the Stephen Green case in Mahmudiya by Brian De Palma; interestingly doesn’t feature two postscripts; the butchery of
Tucker and Menchaca by jihadists like Abu Tunissi (He must have heard of it; no)And the subsequent death of same. What we want is films of the caliber of “We Were Soldiers” and “Black Hawk Down”; that value the sacrifice of our soldiers, even if you disagree with the mission. In retrospect; the Opening of “Saving Private Ryan” probably invalidates
the operation; using the Lions standard of two dead soldiers.Even Operation Market Garden; The Allies most most flawed campaign in WW 2 received respectful treatment in the Longest Day. But then again that was
another generation
— narciso · Nov 15, 03:12 PM · #