HOWHOLLYWOOD JUST CAN'T QUIT LOVING THE COUNTRY ITWANTS TO HATE
left-liberal industry that sought to advance a worldview unambiguously hostile to the United States. After the old studio system had collapsed under the weight of behemoth pictures like Cleopatra and Doctor Doolittle , the only visible path to success for the business was to hand the keys of the kingdom over to hotshot young directors influenced by the French New Wave – grittier, cheaper movies filmed on location that challenged bourgeois sensibilities rather than reinforcing them. The production companies that made these movies became known not only for their films but for their 1960s views of America as a foul
BACK IN THE 1980S, a writer-director friend of mine was pitching a World War II movie to development executives at a Hollywood production company when an executive piped up. “This is great,” he said. “But who’s the enemy?” My friend was flustered: “Well... the Axis,” he said. “No,” the executive said. “Who’s the real enemy?” The “real enemy” meant, of course, some malign force inside the United States or the Allies that was actually responsible for the war. The executive in question may have been a dolt, but he was speaking in the voice of post-1960s Hollywood, an unabashedly
By John Podhoretz
American Consequences
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