Right Wing Nation

During World War II, Hollywood cranked out movies, some of them among the great classics: The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Battle of the Bulge, Mrs. Miniver, The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Dirty Dozen, Tora! Tora! Tora!. Had television been the industry it is today, TV shows would likewise have turned out show after show, all with the same pro-American patriotic theme. Even cartoons, then shown in movie theaters, were strongly patriotic.

This Hollywood patriotism was not limited to the period during the war. In 1951, The African Queen was released — a love story whose underlying theme was that supporting your nation in time of war was the right and moral thing to do.

Today, with a few exceptions, the closest thing we have to a patriotic film is the “conflicted soldier” theme, as seen in the currently playing Jarhead. Far more common are the anti-patriotic shows (Boston Legal a few weeks ago, Kingdom of Heaven), and the fear of identifying the enemy. Without a Trace last week featured a home-grown terrorist (though we can and should give kudos to the writers of 24 for having the courage to stand up to PC pressure groups and identify Muslim terrorists).

We have gone from “supporting your nation in time of war is the right and moral thing to do” to “opposing your nation in time of war is the right and moral thing to do.” Hollywood has gone from being the core of support for the United States to the core of sedition.

Who wants to try to tell me this has nothing to do with their steeply falling profit margins?

Look at the films over the last few years that have pulled in huge profits: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, all movies about one old-fashioned, common theme: good versus evil. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe will open December 9, and I’m betting it will be the biggest success of the Christmas season.

What’s the problem here? Those producers are businessmen. How is it they can’t see the obvious, that we’re sick of anti-US, anti-capitalist, anti-patriot trash?

Because it’s not obvious to them. They live in a bubble of left-wing ideologues, and are incapable of breaking out. So the news that Bruce Willis is producing a movie based on Michael Yon’s coverage of Deuce Four in Iraq, a movie in which American soldiers are portrayed as heroes, is welcome news indeed.

And it will be a big hit.

H/T to Michelle Malkin.