Democrat tom hanks is number one box office just about everywhere in the world. Democrat Steven Spielberg has recently been knighted. De Niro and Streisand were friends of the Clintons. This year’s best film Oscar nominees Traffic and Erin Brockovich are the latest in a long liberal tradition in mainstream Hollywood dating back through Schindler’s List, Philadelphia, Wall Street, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Spartacus, Citizen Kane, 12 Angry Men and Casablanca. Few stars graced George W Bush’s inaugural ceremony.
And further back things weren’t much different. Bacall turned Bogie into a Democrat. Gene Kelly, John Garfield, Olivier and Danny Kaye marched on Washington against McCarthy. The icons-Monroe, Brando, Dean, Clift-were all Democrats. It’s the same outside the US. In Britain, Thatcher could muster almost no movie supporters. In Spain, cinema exploded after Franco. We all know about outcrops of reaction in the movie world like Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston but they were the exceptions.
Or so we have long assumed. In fact there’s an interesting political secret to be pulled out of the Hollywood cupboard, and it does not concern merely the mild conservatism of many mainstream blockbusters, or the frontier values of the old western and its modern successors. Look, rather, into the very heart of American counter-culture and you will find films like Taxi Driver and Blue Velvet, films which penetrated the mainstream with a spirit of the avant-garde. Yet at the core of their innovative visions there is also a spirit of right-wing libertarianism and rage against modernity. They are reactionary films. And the left has never appeared to notice, or mind.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Print
