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Friday 19 December 2014

Cash Killers of the Image Nation

If the curtailment of free speech bobs in the wake of Sony's decision to cancel the release of The Interview, how is allowing government officials and ex-gov thinktank types and intelligence spooks to consult on movies not likewise a threat to free expression? I mean, not necessarily but especially if the result doesn't improve the end quality.



I reckon it's an unfortunate coincidence that the fake torture outrage got knocked from the top spot by "Hollywood is all atwitter with 'North Korea and Sony are stealing our freedom/the terrorists win'" phoniness.

If celeb-Libs can't understand why their appellation has become an epithet slung from both the Left & the Right, they should more closely examine the irony in how they mock things like "freedom fries" ("It actually happend!11") while slurping up the surrounding ketchup with its rat hair & roach faeces to pass the parings of plastic patriotism along to their children and children's children in the hopes of a killer opening weekend.


Everybody's Nose
It is quite possible that political satire can result from conceiving a plot about one country's intelligence arm using a popular personality to off another country's sitting president. But it would not be in portraying the sitting president you know next to nothing about in the framework of the people who have told you everything they want you to know while withholding everything they don't in a "right or wrong, the world'd be better off without someone everybody knows is an oppressive bastard" comedy.

It's Team America's "pussies vs assholes" argument all over again, with the pussies, again, putting a teeny inner asshole on display.

Still, not having seen the spectacle in question, I hasten to point out that I am not 100 percent sure that Dan Sterling's script is not an intelligent, spot-on rip of all the powers that be, whether unelected & dictatorial in the case of brand Murderous Tyranny, or black-budgeted & authoritarian in the case of brand Democracy.

But I suspect not. And it's not incumbent upon me to spend my money seeking an answer to that question; I don't think it's relevant. I find it just as likely that Sony felt they had a piece of crap on their hands and are using an opportunity to spare even the mediocre movie-goer the night out. And while I don't believe they hacked themselves for publicity, of course at least one person in one meeting wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't suggest how they could use it to their advantage. Here, they are just cutting their losses, which are not a lot in the greater scheme of things.

I do, still, find the evidence that the hacks emanated from just above the DMZ as questionable as I find laughable the American statement that they are seeking a measured response to them. In terms of how Kim Jong-un might view it, my guess is he is more aware of the effort taken to assassinate Fidel Castro by the same organization that consults Hollywood scriptwriters than the makers of the movies themselves are aware they are tainted.

(Is there enough history left that fifty years down the road there will be an embassy in Pyongyang in an attempt to infiltrate the country with (pick your poison)?)


But, but.. Holly Jolly LOLly
I wonder what effect the whole terrorist threat angle might have had on the biggest movie day of the year. Would it have been chilling, or brought the Christmas audience out in droves?
The idea that threats r going to stop people from going to a theater & laughing is so bleak... Now I've never wanted to see a movie more.
— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) Dec 17, 2014

Maybe he should go see a funnier movie. Based on my previous experience and basic taste, I am sure any one of his own would be far superior, not to mention devoid of content that smells like SeeEyeEh spirit.

Reading his kind of reaction, though, you'd think that the US was a country with one movie and one screen upon which to project it. Hm... come to think of it, maybe that's exactly what it is: A convoluted, self-inflicted satire of meta-soap-psy-operatic infantilism.

But it's just a movie. Relax. Or is it? Keep your eyes on the North Star.