Kurtz on Movies

Stanley Kurtz has a great post at The Corner about why box office receipts are lacking:

Big media's melting down. Movies are in a slump. Why? The media's losing money because contemporary secular liberalism is really a kind of religion. Liberals don't want to make money. They're out to win souls...

Are secular liberals running a campaign against "people of faith?" You bet they are. Just go to the movies and you'll see it. This is not about making money. "Kingdom of Heaven" is pulling Hollywood further into its slump. Who wants to see this p.c. propaganda, anyway? No, the media's on a crusade against religion. And they're sinking under the weight of their missionary obsession...

Now check out this nonsensical assertion from today's New York Times: "As a rule, Hollywood studios go to great lengths to ensure that their projects–both in the development stage, and especially when they are positioned in the marketplace–are free of messages that could be offensive to any great swath of the moviegoing public." You've got to be kidding. Has this guy even thought about Hollywood's treatment of religion?

Kurtz has some excellent points here, but I believe the New York Times is correct. In my experience, Hollywood does do a good deal of scrubbing of the movies. Just not enough. Imagine if they let the Directors' cut through on films like Sin City or 40 Days! There are plenty of examples where Hollywood has indeed gutted some of the "offensive messages" from their top flicks, but a film tainted with liberal messages is hard to purge period. In my experience, the same "marketing people" trying to purge these films usually have the same liberal twist on life.