Five years ago, I argued in Prospect that despite Democrat-inclined movie stars and liberal directors like Spielberg and Scorsese, movies have always been essentially right-wing. This applied even to “new Hollywood” movies like Taxi Driver.
No writs arrived. No rebuttals. Maybe that’s because my piece was largely about cinema’s past, about the way mainstream cinema has been about escape. As the standard-bearer of permissive capitalism, Hollywood has always whispered in our ears that we must lie back and enjoy the ride. And so we do. We buy a ticket for Gladiator or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to play truant in imagined lands, places that leave our own lives unchallenged and unchanged.
But things have changed since my piece in April 2001. The real world has given us Enron, Sharon, 9/11, the war in Iraq, Sars, the Madrid bombing, the tsunami, 7/7, Ahmadinejad, and Hurricane Katrina. A lot of reality in five years.
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
