Actor Alec Baldwin considers his entire movie career to be a complete failure.
Maybe, just maybe, if he had been less obnoxiously political during his film career, and chosen many of his movies for political reasons, he might be happier with the results. For myself, I boycott films from actors and actresses who I find to be obnoxiously liberal in their politics, and probably other conservatives do, as well.
Think about it, actors and directors. How long will you continue to cater to only half of your potential viewing audience by making film that insult and disparage the conservative segment of society? You lose money every time you do so.
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I'd sure like to see some figures that back up your claims, Robert. George Clooney seems to be doing just fine.
@Wally: I was speaking of Alec Baldwin, and you bring up George Clooney. Ok, then. Clooney has been less openly obnoxious than Baldwin, and has thus stayed further under the radar than Baldwin has. He also chooses many films for commercial purpose, doing films like Oceans Eleven to provide him the funds to film less-successful personal project films such as Syriana, which was a commercial flop, barely eking out a profit in the US (50 million to make, 50.82 million in sales).
Further, a whole series of Iraq War films from the anti-war perspective just totally tanked at the box office, among them Redacted, In The Valley of Elah, and Stop-Loss, and many conservatives feel that those films' bad reception at the box office was caused by the directors'/producers' choice to portray US soldiers as murderous psychopaths and damaged souls, just as they had during the Vietnam war.
Contrast these unprofitable films with the reception of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, which broke box-office records after Hollywood refused to fund it, forcing Gibson to find funding elsewhere. This film didn't even have dialog in English, yet Americans turned out in prodigious numbers to see it.
Robert, you naughty boy. You started out speaking of Alec Baldwin, but ended up making blanket statements about all the "actors and directors", of which you'll agree George Clooney is one. And you neglected to mention that Syriana grossed nearly as much overseas as in the US. Most movies would be happy to "barely eke out" a profit in US sales alone. They'd love to make a "flop" like Syriana. Redacted was critically panned, and its quality as a movie probably had at least as much to do with its flopdom as its politics. In The Valley of Elah seemed to do quite well here in Norfolk. I couldn't find any figures on the web that supported the claim that it "tanked". Maybe you have inside-industry sources for that. Robert, you may have a point buried in the midst of all the hyperbole. And if your only goal is to preach to the choir, I'm sure sloppy reasoning doesn't matter one way or the other. But you could aspire to more.
@Wally: Walt, I've read that Hollwood considers overseas ticket sales to be gravy atop the meat (meat being US ticket sales), so a movie like Syriana that grosses only 1 million dollars over cost of production is considered a flop by Hollywood standards.
As for "preaching to the choir," isn't that what you do at your blog, Walt? I think I'm your only conservative reader, and I only stay for the art, not the politics. Engaging in typical leftist tactics such as questioning my intelligence ("sloppy reasoning") isn't likely to persuade me that I should agree with your politics, now is it?
It's true, Robert, I preach fire and brimstone to my choir, but what more would you expect from a liberal, for whom hypocrisy is bread and butter? Would that we could be more like morally stiff conservatives, abortion privileges and death panels notwithstanding. In my defense, though, I have to say that once in a while, I will pause in my ranting to grant that liberal politicians are no less immune to scalawaggery than their rightist brethren, or that hidden behind their tactics, the conservatives may have a point or two worth consideration. I have yet to see such gray-area preaching from you, but maybe that's just due to sloppy reading on my part.
Speaking of which, I don't want to split hairs, but the word "sloppy" implies carelessness rather than a lack of intellect. Seeing bogeymen where none exist is a typical tactic of both right and left, sadly. But there's my moral relativism again.
By the way, I've labored on the fringes of the movie industry from time to time, and I've never heard a movie that made a profit referred to as a "flop". But maybe you follow Hollywood more closely than I do these days ;)
@Wally: I occasionally will post something that doesn't favor my political views. Here are three examples, two very recent (try reading my current stuff, would ya?)
http://thedrawncutlass.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-your-shipmates-are-thugs.html
http://thedrawncutlass.blogspot.com/2009/12/only-upside.html
http://thedrawncutlass.blogspot.com/2009/12/cant-say-i-really-disagree.html
Since one of these criticises my beloved Navy, I don't think you can accuse me of sweeping stuff under the rug. Indeed, click on the "navy" tag, and you'll see lots of criticism for my former service. I'd guess that I post stuff critical of my own political allies at roughly the same ratio as you do, 90/10.
And let's not forget this savaging of Sarah Palin by Christopher Hitchens:
http://thedrawncutlass.blogspot.com/2009/12/hitchens-on-palin.html
Point taken. I'll try to be less sloppy in future.
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