Posted on 06/22/2004 10:32:50 PM PDT by kattracks
Once upon a time, there were people in Hollywood who loved America. And when America came under attack from enemies abroad, these actors, producers, screenwriters and directors put aside their partisan differences and created movies that -- unlike Michael Moore's new schlockumentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- made all moviegoers proud to be Americans.
During World War II, Tinseltown roused the country's fighting spirit instead of trying to stifle it. In February 1941, the entertainment industry convened an extraordinary Academy Awards ceremony. The president of the Motion Picture Association, independent movie mogul and World War I pilot and intelligence officer Walter Wanger, went out of his way to use the Academy Award ceremony to support the war effort. Wanger invited President Roosevelt to address the crowd.
In an unprecedented radio speech simulcast on all three major networks at the time, FDR praised Hollywood for its wartime fundraising efforts and thanked filmmakers for "sanctifying the American way of life."
Can you imagine Hollywood extending such an invitation to President Bush today? Can you imagine CBS, ABC and NBC agreeing to simulcast such an event? And can you imagine the howling from the ACLU, ethnic groups, Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn if President Bush were allowed to appear at the Academy Awards to speak in support of "sanctifying the American way of life"?
The best actor award in 1942 went to Gary Cooper, for his morale-boosting performance as the deeply religious backwoods Tennessee Cumberland Mountains farmer and World War I hero Sergeant Alvin C. York in Howard Hawks' patriotic movie, "Sergeant York."
Can you imagine anyone in the entertainment industry (besides Mel Gibson) making a movie about a deeply religious backwoods farmer-turned-soldier today that didn't denigrate the character's born-again Christian background and conservative values?
Hollywood celebrities of the past didn't just play soldiers in front of the cameras. They volunteered to put their lives on the line for America. Clark Gable joined the Army Air Corps at 41, became a B-17 air gunner, and earned the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross. Jimmy Stewart led B-24 bombing raids over Germany. They both appeared in pro-America documentaries, produced by the military-operated First Motion Picture Unit, when not in combat. Director Frank Capra made films for the U.S. government, including the seven-part "Why We Fight (1942-44)." Big-band leader Glenn Miller led the U.S. Army Air Force band in Europe and died for his country when his plane went down in the English Channel.
Can you imagine George Clooney putting down the basketball and picking up an M-4? Or Chris Rock and Jon Stewart cracking codes instead of jokes? Or Brad Pitt wearing combat boots for real combat instead of a Vanity Fair photo shoot? Or Spike Lee directing films defending the War on Terror? Or Eminem marching in step with the Army Air Force band?
Those who stayed behind during World War II starred in countless films -- "Action in the North Atlantic," "Arise, My Love," "All Through the Night," "Bataan," "The Battle of Midway," "Captains of the Clouds," "Desperate Journey," "Destination Tokyo," "Escape," "Flying Tigers," "Foreign Correspondent," "The Great Dictator," "Gung Ho!" "The Mortal Storm," "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing," "So Proudly We Hail!" "Wake Island," and "Yankee Doodle Dandy," to name just a few -- which rallied Americans through the long, dark days of the war to support the Allied cause. The movies depicted good and evil in stark terms. And there was no politically correct revisionism about who our enemies were.
By contrast, even tough-guy Arnold Schwarzenegger failed to stand up to Hollywood mushies who were afraid to depict Arab terrorists in his post-Sept. 11 movie, "Collateral Damage." Instead of encouraging Americans to confront the true face and nature of the Islamist threat, Schwarzenegger and his producers turned the Arab terrorists into Colombian terrorists so no one would complain about "racial profiling." Similarly, Steven Spielberg's new movie about an asylum-seeker, "The Terminal," indulges in weak-willed liberal escapism by demonizing Department of Homeland Security officials just trying to do their jobs.
Box-office patriotism is dead. And so I ask: If Hollywood refuses to support America, why should we support Hollywood?
Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Is that "all in the name of entertainment"?
We are going less frequently to movies than we used. We loved the film "Gods and Generals" though apparently it wasn't for everyone. "The Passion," "The Last Samurai," "Master and Commander," and "Miracle" are some of the top recent films on my husband's list.
Michelle is having a new book come out in September and also a paperback edition of "Invasion."
We still have Willis
I believe the reason Hollywood produced anti-Axis Movies had nothing to do with patriotism and everything to do with Communism.
Before Hitler double-crossed his ally Joe Stalin, leftists in America like Bella Abzug were isolationists and opposed any actions by the U.S. to support Hitler's enemies. Since Hitler was Stalin's ally, they clandestinely supported Hitler, or at least didn't want to oppose him.
Once Hitler double-crossed the murdering Georgian, everything changed and all American leftists and communists wanted the U.S. to attack Hitler. This was reflected in the movies that Hollywood produced. The leftist in Hollywood were never really supporing America, they were supporting a war effort which benefitted their buddy and idol Joe Stalin.
Even after the war ended, Hollywood continued to focus on NAZIs and Japanese as villains and never really targeted the Soviets as they supported them and wanted to continue to use Axis charactures to demonize right wingers in the public eye. They conveniently ignored the fact that the NAZIs were actually state socialists and the overwhelming number of American right-wingers were patriotic Americans and had no connection with NAZIs or racism. But then, truth never got in the way of good propaganda to a leftist and still doesn't.
We weren't at war until December, 1941...
Perhaps Ms. Malkin means February, 1942.
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