Shootings in Tucson, But All’s Quiet in Hollywood

Now that you mention it, have you noticed how most of the leftist Hollywood glitterati have been AWOL in blaming right wing extremists for the recent shootings in Tucson?  Seems a little out of character for people who usually would kill, er die, no um, push their way to the front of a line to get in front of a camera and blame conservative Americans for anything wrong in our society.  

Wonder why they have been so quiet this past week?  Could it be they don’t want anyone paying attention to the product they inflict on us on a regular basis?

Dennis Keohane makes some relevent points in his article at American Thinker, and gives two movies as examples. 

Shooter (2007)

Ned Beatty plays evil Senator Charles Meachum, a character who resembles Dick Cheney.  The senator is linked to the massacre of Ethiopian villagers in the interests of his “big oil” consortium.  The hero, a former military sniper played by Mark Wahlberg, kills the senator.

Try to imagine the reaction to a movie with an elected official shown as corrupt but who is also presented as being liberal on various positions (e.g., supports unions, subsidizing clean energy companies, auto industry bailouts) and is made to resemble Senator John Kerry or Vice President Biden.  Imagine the reaction if this character were killed by the movie’s hero.

Thomas de Zengotita, contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, wrote this at the Huffington Post:  A really smart bit of left wing (I’m for it!) propaganda aimed at the Bush administration, the Iraq War and, especially, Dick Cheney…see the movie and tell me that Ned Beatty, as Montana Senator Charles F. Meachum, isn’t doing an SNL version of Dick Cheney. Then reflect on what happens to him in the movie…We are all entitled to fantasies of vengeance…

David Edelstein, film critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning, wrote in New York Magazine:

Lefty peaceniks who object to the red-meat vigilante action genre on moral and political grounds but down deep wonder if they’d enjoy watching evil right-wing war criminals get their heads blown off should check out Shooter.

Writing of the film’s sniper hero who kills the Cheney lookalike Senator, Edelstein says he “doesn’t need subpoena power to do a little government housecleaning.”

 

Machete (2010)

 

In Machete, directed by Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez, Robert De Niro plays the evil right-wing Senator McLaughlin, who campaigns on securing the southern border while warning of an impending invasion of Mexican illegals.  In what is intended to be a humorous scene, the senator is killed during a battle on the border when his murderous anti-immigrant vigilante allies mistake him for a border-crossing Mexican.

 

Marshall Fine has written and reviewed films for USA Today, the LA Times, the New York Daily News, and the Huffington Post.  His review finds the movie entertaining, and note how he describes the murderous vigilante “types” that get their violent comeuppance at the end:

( … [Rodriguez] does point out the hypocrisy, hyperbole and fear-mongering of the right wing.) It’s mostly a backdrop and plot device to build to a massive final battle between Mexican-Americans and Tea Party types … Yes, there will be those who dismiss “Machete” … But that would be to deny both the wit and imagination that Rodriguez brings to this extravagantly entertaining movie.

 

While the NY Times has been at the forefront in blame-gaming the Tucson shootings, its review found nothing objectionable in this movie that had a senator killed…  [T]he Times has nothing but disdain and contempt for anyone who might find such objectionable:

McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), a Texas senator who campaigns on a rabid anti-immigration platform and whom Mr. De Niro plays as a crinkly-eyed, hate-spewing hybrid of Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush; one campaign commercial compares illegal immigrants to cockroaches … The only viewers it is likely to upset are the same kind of people who once claimed that the purple Tinky Winky in “Teletubbies” promoted a gay agenda.

 

At the Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas and writer after writer blamed the Tucson shootings on the right, and in particular Sarah Palin.  Oddly enough, some months ago, a Kos diarist named Dartagnan wrote about his concerns that Machete could possibly lead to violence, and as a result, he was accused in the comments of thinking like a fascist.  Dartagnan then made specific his concern that the movie will “glorify the killing of a U.S. Senator to avenge the treatment of illegal aliens[.]”

 

For that, Dartagnan was accused of racism and pandering to the right…  In short, concern that a movie showing the killing of a senator could possibly lead to real violence against elected officials was in short supply at Daily Kos.

Finally, a quick promotional ad before I close.  Make sure you don’t miss the exciting new film premiering at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.  Titled Hobo With A Shotgun and starring Rutger Hauer, it’s the story of a homeless man with a shotgun who becomes a vigilante hero. 

Yeah, and I’m pretty sure there are no subpoenas, police officers, juries, or judges involved before the Hobo shoots all the bad guys while becoming the movie’s hero.

Any more questions on what is driving our country toward violence?  Just make sure you watch what YOU say and don’t put any offensive symbols on YOUR maps.