Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
I was just watching a movie on Netflix called "Hail Caesar!" Kind of a low-budget Barton Fink I guess. Anyway, this actor played by George Clooney gets kidnapped by a group of writers. Their leader tells the Clooney Character: "Our study group had a narrow focus. We concentrated on getting communist content into motion pictures. Always in a sub rosa way of course. And we were pretty darn successful."
I had to wonder what the point of that line was. Did the film makers really believe that? Did they think it so absurd that it would be a laugh line, as if to parody what they see as the HUAC fantasy of communists influencing movies? If it was the latter, I have to wonder who their target audience is. Kids aren't learning history these days, so who would even get the reference?
Anyway, to answer my own question with a question: Why would the communists who we know for sure were writing and directing movies in those days NOT have put communist content into motion pictures? "High Noon" and "The Crucible" are universally recognized as anti-HUAC allegories, while Elias Kazan made a movie called "On the Waterfront" which glorified informing after he himself informed on some of his fellow communists in the movie business.
So, if you say "No! Communists never put communist propaganda in movies!" what stopped them? Why did they miss such a golden opportunity?
If I ever wrote a movie, bet your ass I would put libertarian content in it.
I had to wonder what the point of that line was. Did the film makers really believe that? Did they think it so absurd that it would be a laugh line, as if to parody what they see as the HUAC fantasy of communists influencing movies? If it was the latter, I have to wonder who their target audience is. Kids aren't learning history these days, so who would even get the reference?
Anyway, to answer my own question with a question: Why would the communists who we know for sure were writing and directing movies in those days NOT have put communist content into motion pictures? "High Noon" and "The Crucible" are universally recognized as anti-HUAC allegories, while Elias Kazan made a movie called "On the Waterfront" which glorified informing after he himself informed on some of his fellow communists in the movie business.
So, if you say "No! Communists never put communist propaganda in movies!" what stopped them? Why did they miss such a golden opportunity?
If I ever wrote a movie, bet your ass I would put libertarian content in it.