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The right is outraged that Law and Order and Commander In Chief aren’t fair and balanced enough. Up next: are any of the “Lost” survivors Republicans? Why is Spongebob so strongly in favor of open borders? When oh when will WWE Diva Trish Stratus announce her opposition to stem cell research?
A nation demands answers.
Oliver Willis
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Imagine, just imagine, how many deaths of innocent sperm Stratus is responsible for.
It’s quite ironic — if not hypocritical — that you link to Newsbusters and say that they are “outraged” when you work for a smear website that is the opposite of NB.
Here, check these guys out…looks like the right is making run in the “liberal” Hollywood music business…Hahahaha, give it a listen, oh my…
http://www.therightbrothers.com/
A more accurate measure would be the entire 2004 box office vs. Passion of the Christ.
One of things I never got about the conservative war on ideas: they’re meant to be pure capitalists, i.e., the market reigns supreme.
Well, history has proven that, whether in academia or in entertainment, liberal ideas hold sway. Liberal traditions, liberal values, liberal ideology has been tested in the marketplace of ideas and have proven superior to conservative ideas; hence, more of academia and entertainment is liberal. That’s the free market, baby.
Now, conservatives want to impose an outside force on this market. They want the visible hand of government regulation to decide what ideas win out, not the invisible hand of the free market. What bloody hyp[ocrites.
You think tenure facilitates the “marketplace of ideas”?
Remind me again which had higher grosses: Passion of the Christ or Fahrenheit 9/11.
The American psyche rides through the heavens in a chariot pulled by two horses. One horse wants to jerk off to pictures of Jessica Alba in a yellow bathing suit, the other wants someone to tell him he’s a very very bad horse for doing so.
Hence the wild popularity of both “something about mary” and “the passion of christ”.
Sorry for the tortured allegory.
Actually a lot of entertainment produced by “liberal hollywood” is quite “conservative” in its morality: white hats and black hats, america under seige, rampant arms-bearing, cops blowing away bad guys without worrying too much about Miranda rights or habeas corpus, madonna/whore females, etc. etc. etc.
A “smear” site? What are you, channeling O’Reilly? Newsbusters is a knockoff of MM that traffics in mythical “bias” whereas MM has factual refutations of conservative misinformation.
[...] Movies and Television17 Nov 2005 01:42 pm
Give It A Rest
For one of the few times, I agree with Oliver. Why is it that conservatives always act mad when a movie, or tele [...]
Passion of the Christ is a “conservative” film only in the way it downplays the message of compassion, tolerance, and taking care of the least among us that was the core of Jesus’ teachings.
Beyond that, it was only slightly less graphic in terms of man’s cruelty to man than Saw.
I’m still chuckling over the right-wing attempt to claim March of the Penguins as a paean to monogamy and family values. Apparently such advocates fell asleep before the part where the penguin families split up after the mating season and then, next year, return to the mating ground in an orgy of spouse-swapping.
So it’s not okay to downplay themes? When the shoe was on the other foot in 2001, conservatives were bashed because they protested that A Beautiful Mind whitewashed John Nash’s bio. Likewise, this site didn’t protest when George Clooney re-wrote history in Good Night & Good Luck in order to make Edward R. Murrow into a hero without peer.
Well, I can’t think of any others who did it. Can you? The other things you mention (compassion, tolerance, and taking care of the least among us) are descriptive of MANY people while only JC can claim that first definition. So I guess focusing on the one thing that made him special doesn’t seem so odd, does it?
PS. Christ’s death & ressurection was the epitome of love. Or have you checked out John 3:16 yet?
Big Gay Al says:
“Well, history has proven that, whether in academia or in entertainment, liberal ideas hold sway. Liberal traditions, liberal values, liberal ideology has been tested in the marketplace of ideas and have proven superior to conservative ideas; hence, more of academia and entertainment is liberal. That s the free market, baby.”
Of the top 50 highest grossing movies of all time, 46 carried ratings of G, PG or PG-13. The 4 R rated movies were “The Passion”,”The Excorcist”, “Beverly Hills Cop” and “The Matrix”. “Passion” was the highest grossing R at #10.
Help me out here Al. Which “traditions, values and ideology” are you referring to? And how exactly are they tested?
By the way, I found an interesting mpeg of a woman who looks very much like a younger Michelle Maglalang. And guess what? She is a notorious wanker too. Such a coincidence.
Sam–are you implying that a film only espouses “liberal” values if it’s rated R? And that everything with a tamer rating is somehow “conservative”?
Is Disney a “conservative” stronghold now? Even with all the Pride days?
And academia is in no way, “the free market, baby,” since most of it is public education.
So there’s no difference between Edward R. Murrow, John Nash, and Jesus Christ?
Here’s a hint: there are no world religions called Murrowism and Nashism. Passion doesn’t do Christianity any favors–to the outside observer, one would think that the only thing that made Christ special was that he suffered a lot, died, and came back from it. It’s an entirely different translation to believe that Christianity is founded on violence and suffering than the idea that it was founded on love.
Pat Robertson, for example, sure enjoys calling for violence and destruction more than he enjoys calling for love and acceptance.
Godspell was a better representation of Christ’s life.
And hires staffers who go on to hacking into elected officials’ credit reports!
Besides Lazarus, you mean? (Yes, yes, I know it was Christ who brought him back.)
So, just so I have it straight–the most important thing for today’s Christian to focus on is that Christ suffered and died, while shunting off to the side the teachings he espoused while alive…because anybody could have come up with those teachings?
Dear Christ: that Gospel of yours was a yawner. If you hadn’t pulled that resurrection stunt, nobody would care who you are today.
And academia is in no way, the free market, baby, since most of it is public education.
Wow. Are you trying to be a parody troll? We’re speaking of the marketplace of ideas, where liberal values have repeatedly won out over conservative values, not whether someone has to literally pay for education.
So, just so I have it straight the most important thing for today s Christian to focus on is that Christ suffered and died
No, one of the most important things for a Christian to focus on is that Christ suffered and died, thereby paying the penalty for our sin on the cross. He suffered, so we wouldn’t have to and remembering that, reminds Christians that it’s only through God’s grace that we’re saved, not because of anything we have done.
In addition, ‘Passion’ was not targeted at outside observers, but rather those who are already familiar with the entire story (which is obvious since it begins in the Garden of Gesthemane rather than with His birth).
In addition, I wouldn’t portray ‘POC’ as a ‘conservative’ movie, as Jesus transcends politics, despite the best efforts of people to pigeonhole Him in that way.
i think it’s pretty stupid to get bent out of shape over a Law and Order episode as well, but maybe they’re taking their cues from lefty bloggers who pissed their pants in horror at the fact that torture sometimes works for Jack Bauer.
BGA says:
“We re speaking of the marketplace of ideas, where liberal values have repeatedly won out over conservative values…”
Which ideological camp has been steadily winning elections lately Al?
reminds Christians that it s only through God s grace that we re saved, not because of anything we have done.
I don’t think you mean it the way you’re saying this, because this seems like a bit of a cop-out argument for Christianity–surely the things you have done have weight in whether or not you receive God’s grace. Even a sincere act of repentance is an action.
Only because the GOP has to hide its desire to privatize social security, etc.
because this seems like a bit of a cop-out argument for Christianity surely the things you have done have weight in whether or not you receive God s grace.
Please note that I wasn’t talking about receiving his grace, but that we’re saved by his grace. I am talking about his grace in the context of salvation. There’s no way that we can impress God. Does God want us to do good works? Of course. In fact, the New Testament commands it. However, doing good works is not going to get you saved.
One of Sam’s finer moments: http://www.oliverwillis.com/2005/11/15/more-cowardice-from-glenn-reynolds/#comments
Of the top 50 highest grossing movies of all time, 46 carried ratings of G, PG or PG-13. The 4 R rated movies were The Passion , The Excorcist , Beverly Hills Cop and The Matrix . Passion was the highest grossing R at #10.
The original author was referring to the political bent of the films and the film makers which are reflective of the filmmakers’ values, not the MPAA rating. Unless you’re arguing that childrens’ movies (which make up much of the top 10) are inherently “conservative”….
(Incidently, the most “conservative”-valued movie I have ever seen is “Con Air.” Also rather violent and rated “R”)
In addition, I wouldn t portray POC as a conservative movie, as Jesus transcends politics, despite the best efforts of people to pigeonhole Him in that way.
In this case, I agree with Jay C. POC simply isn’t a political work, except in so far as it’s a showcasing of an essentially Roman Catholic art piece to the general public, who apparently saw it in numbers normally reserved for “family films.”