Moment in Time (five posts total)

I intended to stay away from the war, yet I find this an interesting moment in our national history. The following posts are all about some aspect of our nation at this moment.

First:

Why does Hollywood keep churning out anti war movie failure after anti war movie failure? Consider: Rendition; Valley of Elah; Lions for Lambs - spectacular flops all - with Brian DePalma's Redacted (alternate title: "typical American soldiers are rapists") constituting another sure-fire flop which is soon to be released (and boycotted, with some well known bloggers onboard the boycott effort).

Does Hollywood only care about foreign rights? Do they really believe portraying Americans as greedy unprincipled rapists is going to sell domestic tickets?

Bill Katz:

From what I've observed in my own career, there are two reasons these films get made: Parties and employment.

First, Hollywood is social, and it doesn't hurt to take the "correct" point of view if you want to be on the party-circuit A-list.

Second, everyone in Hollywood fears being fired, and most eventually are. You develop a powerful network by going along with the prevailing political winds. If we scratch down deep, we'll find that much of the motivation behind the making of these failing films is personal. The people who approve them, and put dollars behind them, will fail upward, in the great tradition of modern Hollywood.