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Surprise: Another Anti-War Movie Tanks!

I was asked recently why I have written a slew of anti-Obama posts lately. After explaining I?m not anti-Obama and that I am anti-Obama ideas (which is classic leftist thought wrapped up in a new package), one of the main reasons I gave is that writing about it is cathartic. A pallet cleanser. An emotional enema. A frustration purge. And that is the only reason I can think of as to why movie studios continue to make anti-war movies. Who cares if they lose millions and millions of dollars? It makes them feel better.

I?m not an expert on the movie market place. I can?t tell you if comic book movies are going to do well this year, or if people are sick of sequels. But I can tell you that people don?t want to watch Hollywood movies that are perceived as being anti-war. Perhaps people don?t even want to see a pro-war movie, but since Hollywood has not made pro-war movies since World War II, it?s hard to say. I imagine if Hollywood made a movie starring a Rambo type character killing terrorists in the Middle East indiscriminately, it would be a pretty big hit. But since it is now politically incorrect, it won?t be made. It certainly couldn?t do any worse than this slew of flops: Redacted, Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, and Lions for Lambs (the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head) that were big budget, star driven Iraq war themed movies that flopped big time.

Who makes these decisions? Who says ?You know what I think America?s ready for? A big budget movie starring [Tom Cruise/Tommy Lee Jones/Ryan Philippe/ etc.) about the Iraq war! That?ll be huge!? Or maybe ?Every other movie like that has tanked, so that means the genre is due!? (I?m reminded here, of course, of Ben Franklin?s definition of insanity.) Is it because people in Hollywood generally surround themselves with like minded people? ?Everyone I know hates the war/military, people would love to see a movie about how much we all hate that stuff!? I don?t think even Hollywood is that dense.

This weekend, Iraq war themed movie Stop Loss opened to dismal results:

Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."

So they recognize that ?no one wants to see Iraq war movies? but they still make them. At least we have a glimmer of hope because these movies are merely ?ahead of its time.? Us out here in the viewing public aren?t ready for this kind of movie now but we will be in the future. Well I guess that means we can look forward to more flops in no time at all.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on March 29, 2008 (boomark / email).