Voting With Their Feet
By Mitch Berg
Two recent, heavy-handed anti-war films turned into IEDs at the box office:
Both “In the Valley of Elah” and, more recently, “Rendition” drew minuscule crowds upon their release, which doesn’t bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration’s wider war on terror.
“Rendition,” which features three Oscar winners in key roles, grossed $4.1 million over the weekend in 2,250 screens for a ninth-place finish. A re-release of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” beat it, and it’s 14 years old.
Both of these movies received intense media coverage and slaving critical praise – as, predictably, will pretty much any movie that attacks the idea of the war.
Is America looking for a feel-good hit, or is the movie-going public just not buying it?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Really? The reviews I read said Rendition sucks.
Borat was pretty awesome though.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I think the left should stick to their usual methods…..make a decent movie with no overt political overtones, then put the political statements within the movie…ie Happy Feet.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Rendition was given rave reviews locally.
“The Kingdom” was fantastic. All Muslims hate America – NONE want to help, kill them all.. err wait, maybe some don’t, maybe some (most/nearly all) are just like you, and me, and love their kids and want peace.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Oh, and conversely, there’ve been a pretty LARGE number of pro-war movies over the years (since Vietnam), and nearly ALL of them sucked – Green Berets being one of the exceptions.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:06 am
New Peev commenting method: break up long, rambling diatribes into bite-sized chunks in the hope more people decide to read him.
Good luck with that.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I thought “Rendition” was a comedy?
Bad guy totally gets his with the typical frat-house pranks we all know and love, right?
Or am I thinking of “Revenge of the Nerds”?
/jc
October 26th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Borat had a nude wrestling scene, which was kinda like Abu Ghraib. That could be what you’re thinking of, Slash.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I thought “Rendition” was a comedy?
Dunno, but Married with Children was really a documentary.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Oh, and conversely, there’ve been a pretty LARGE number of pro-war movies over the years (since Vietnam)
I’ll look forward to that list of pro-Desert Storm, pro-Iraq and pro-Afghanistan movies. The “serious” ones, mind you – nothing involving Chuck Norris or Steven Segal.
and nearly ALL of them sucked – Green Berets being one of the exceptions.
Green Berets was pretty universally panned. You need to be a much bigger John Wayne fan than I to like that turkey. It was a WWII big-studio-style movie transplanted with all the WWII-movie conventions to Vietnam.
Go Tell the Spartans was much better, albeit anti-war.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Borat had a nude wrestling scene, which was kinda like Abu Ghraib. That could be what you’re thinking of, Slash.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I think that peevish’s new method will be good for all: better communication, more potential readers, and less scrolling for those who abstain. 😉