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So, Yeah … The Terrorists Won
Hollywood, in case you haven’t heard, is a brave place. There’s no adjective the town is fonder of during bouts of self-congratulation. Every film that wanders into liberal erogenous zones of race, class, gender, or sexual orientation is always hailed as courageous, though that’s an odd way to describe material that simply reaffirms an industrywide ideological consensus.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these films are legitimately praiseworthy. I happen to think, for instance, that — unserious and reflexive conservative carping notwithstanding — 12 Years A Slave was actually a harrowing, moving portrayal of the depredations of slavery. But brave? There are few views that command such absolute consensus in modern American society as the notion that the possession of human chattel was a grave sin. The movie wasn’t exactly swimming against the tide.
Now, however, Hollywood has a legitimate opportunity for bravery — and the industry is wilting in the heat. From Fox News:
The hackers behind a devastating attack on Sony are threatening an “11th of September”-style attack on movie theaters showing an upcoming film that pokes fun at North Korea’s communist dictatorship…
In a message emailed to various reporters and accompanying the latest in a series of leaks that have included employee emails, health and financial information, the hackers who call themselves “Guardians of Peace” sent a grim warning to people planning to attend screenings of “The Interview,” even warning people who live near cinemas to leave home, according to a report from Variety.
“Warning…We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to,” reads the message posted on Tuesday. “Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear.”
Silly terrorists. If you really want to cause social chaos, the proper strategy is to not interrupt screenings of a James Franco film.
I have no idea whether The Interview will be any good. Given the talent involved, I suspect that it will be legitimately funny and eye-rollingly sophomoric by turns. But I like the pluck involved in producing a film whose entire premise is taking a shot (literally and figuratively) at Kim Jong-Un and the regime in Pyongyang. That seems like the kind of thing that ought to happen in a boisterous, rollicking free society.
So how is Hollywood dealing with the threat? From ABC News:
Sony has told theaters they do not have to show “The Interview,” after the group claiming responsibility for stealing troves of Sony executives’ emails released a note apparently threatening attacks on the theaters where the movie will be played, sources said.
Actors James Franco and Seth Rogen also canceled all press appearances in light of the threats, a representative for Rogen said.
Wait, what? Am I the only one who remembers that period when members of the entertainment industry were at the forefront of the argument that even the most minuscule change in American life produced by the threat of violence meant that the terrorists had won? And now they’re going to ground because of chest-thumping from a pudgy boy dictator with the Brad Pitt haircut from Fury?
If Hollywood was as brave as its denizens say it is every time the wine is flowing at the Beverly Hilton, wouldn’t this be an opportunity to defiantly declare that it won’t be silenced? To rub the hackers’ noses in the fact that this is how a free society functions? Or is this that kind of “bravery” where you tweak the Southern Baptist Convention to your heart’s content but lose bladder control when you get on the wrong side of anyone with actual power?
Update: Variety is now reporting that Sony has pulled the theatrical release of The Interview altogether. No word yet on whether it will ever see theaters, though the language of the piece makes that seem a distant possibility. From a statement quoted in the piece:
“We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public,” it continues. “We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”
We stand by their right to free expression? Or we stand behind it while it takes three rounds to the chest?
Published in General
This whole story doesn’t add up. The pulling of the distribution of The Interview is being conflated with the hacking of Sony’s servers. But what does one have to do with the other? Any group could have made threats of violence against movie theaters without hacking the servers. And an act of cyber espionage doesn’t increase some group’s physical terrorism profile. If some bookkeeper embezzles the petty cash, it doesn’t mean you then suspect him of being a serial killer. And, Sony, having had their servers hacked and their data revealed, has nothing more to lose by distributing a completed movie. Or do they?
There’s something else going on here. I think the data from Sony’s servers that we’ve seen or heard about is only the tip of the iceberg, small potatoes about embarrassing emails and who is being paid what and so forth. The real juicy stuff has been held back. And now Sony is being blackmailed–pull the movie or the really scandalous stuff gets released. The business about the terrorist threats to theaters is just window dressing to provide a plausible explanation for why Sony would forego a significant moneymaking opportunity.
And who knows what other demands have been made, and which, presumably, Sony will acquiesce to?
True, Instugator. There was an Armistice Agreement in July 1953 but never a Peace Treaty. So, it’s been a 61 year cease fire.
I doubt that anyone in 1953 would have imagined that a violation of the Armistice Agreement would come in the form of a cyber attack on the US-based entertainment wing of a Japanese multinational corporation.
I agree. If an entity, foreign or domestic, uses threats of violence to silence Americans on American soil, and the government either cannot or will not stop them, the right to free speech is effectively voided. This is extremely serious.
I wonder if they got the idea from Ricochet. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema near Houston is showing Team America in place of The Interview.
It’s very nice. It’s a theater and a restaurant in one.
There is one factor in this story that I feel has been missed, or willfully ignored, by the media: Sony is a company that symbolizes the Japanese-American alliance.
Would North Korea have been so aggressive on this matter if there was no Japanese component to the story?
A Japanese company distributing a movie where the sacred leader of North Korea is assasinated by a pair of American fools? That’s symbolism, baybee.
A movie distributed by Paramount, i.e. Viacom, i.e. Sumner Redstone, i.e. not a Japanese company.
Also a movie that mocks American Imperialism as much, or more, than it mocks North Korea.
I’m just sayin’…
An example of the long-term mindset of Eastern political thinkers? Whenever possible, agree to a truce rather than a peace.
So, North Korea has never staged a physical attack on U.S. soil, but you know where they’ve done an awful lot of damage – even down to kidnapping and enslaving famous directors? Japan. You know where Sony is based (even though Sony Pictures is usually thought of as independent, it really isn’t, and this has already come up during the making of The Interview)? Japan. Maybe we should look at the bigger picture, here. Maybe the “Guardians of Peace” or whatever can strike movie theaters, maybe they can’t. But North Korea can definitely pull shenanigans of all sorts in Japan. If you were the Japanese CEO of Sony, is a stupid James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy that ends with a character literally pooping himself really worth exposing your entire company to the ire of a certifiably insane rogue nation? I wouldn’t, especially considering that that rogue nation has already fired missiles through Japanese airspace, detonated a nuclear weapon, and sunk its neighbor’s warships using minisubs. Doubly so since for whatever reason this pissant Hermit Kingdom has taken to screeching more than usual about this random movie and called it an “act of war.” I don’t think Sony is acting all that unreasonably.
Especially considering that future growth markets for Sony’s products (both intellectual and physical) are arguably in China rather than the United States…
Joseph, I’m 100% with you. I’m taking my son, too. And I’ll invite friends.
A real President would have a private screening of The Interview in the White House, then give a speech on prime time national TV describing it as “the must see, feel-good movie of the year.”
A real President would then demand that the movie opens as scheduled, and announce that the USS Ronald Reagan (or equivalent) would be off the coast of North Korea just in case there are any “issues” that come up during the premier.
A real President would then chuckle, and say “I sure wish those guys that made ‘Team America’ would do a number on the Castros.”
Too bad we don’t have a real President . . .
Well, we now live in a country where Team America can no longer be shown in public: Paramount Bans Showing ‘Team America’
Cue Team America on Netflix.
As for solutions, is there a legislative way to immunize people standing strong against terrorism from lawsuits? From what I see, the threat to Sony comes as much from American courts and trial lawyers as from violent North Koreans.
So, apparently Paramount has now pulled Team America from theatrical distribution.
Like Sony, Paramount’s growth strategy also relies heavily on Chinese entertainment markets. Sumner Redstone has, “made remarkable inroads in China“.
If you look at their blockbuster franchises, they include the sort of action-heavy and dialogue-light movies that sell in international markets: Terminator. Mission Impossible. Transformers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. G.I. Joe. Jackass. J.J. Abrams. Tom Cruise. Jerry Bruckheimer. Michael Bay. Etc.
(I realize this contradicts my earlier comment about Paramount/Viacom. I shoulda wikied Redstone’s Chinese investments before I wrote #66. Mea Culpa.)
If anybody’s going to stand up to China/North Korea in the entertainment industry, it’ll have to be a company whose strategy doesn’t depend on Chinese markets.
Perhaps the theatres which intended to screen Team America should instead screen a double-bill of The Manchurian Candidate (1962 version) and Die Another Day, both movies which are owned by MGM (most recent hits include Hot Tub Time Machine, 21 Jump Street, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, i.e. not exactly international-friendly properties).
ASIDE: It’s odd that The Interview was made through Sony, considering that Judd Apatow’s production deal is with Universal and Franco/Rogan have traditionally had close relationships with Apatow. Universal has been the most profitable studio lately thanks to its strategy of lower-budget, effects-light, more comedic and more dialogue-heavy movies (that don’t necessarily translate well with overseas audiences, but also cost much less to make).
Correction: I assumed they meant the theater outside Houston. I didn’t realize they had it in Dallas/Ft. Worth also. Oh, and Paramount withdrew that movie, too. *Sigh*
I think the president would make a very smart move by simply doing the following:
(1) Ask Sony whether or not it’s releasing this movie. If the answer is yes, then ask them to get on with it.
(2) If the answer is no, ask them to license its broad release on network television, and ask that every network show it. They don’t have to comply, of course, but I bet they would.
This would be a healthy response from a free society and would do a world of unifying that we haven’t had over anything in a very long time.