News
WSJ: H'wood Unleashes 'Geo-political' Films
August 14, 2007 -- A stream of films pressing political hot-buttons are poised for launch, including Universal’s FBI terrorist hunt thriller The Kingdom, MGM/UA’s Lions for Lambs starring Tom Cruise as a conniving senator and Charlie Wilson’s War from Universal starring Tom Hanks as a congressman opposing Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, according to a Wall Street Journal feature story. However, realistic political films have a poor record at the box office, as evidenced by Primary Colors, Jarhead and Hotel Rwanda. Indications are audiences are fatigued by real life politics and they don’t buy Hollywood’s take on events. Filmmakers counter their upcoming films are thought provoking and entertaining.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118973212478927218.html?mod=mm_hs_entertainment
Bill O’Reilly: Filming for the Enemy
Sept 14, 2007—Columnist Bill O’Reilly criticizes filmmakers for telling the worst stories about America with relish and labels “Loon No. 1” director Brian de Palma’s Redacted, which is based on the true story of U.S. soldiers who rape an Iraqi woman and kill her family. Three U.S. soldiers are imprisoned for life for the crime. The columnist quotes the filmmaker – whose credits include Scarface and The Untouchables – telling Italian journalists that the searing images are intended “to stop the war.” O’Reilly contrasts today’s critical war films to restrictions prohibiting such films in WWII under President Roosevelt. “The liberal icon FDR understood that war is so gruesome and chaotic that no civilian population can absorb it visually and still say upbeat and committed to victory,” the columnist asserts.
http://www.billoreilly.com/newslettercolumn;jsessionid=1E933EBB6481DD908089AD8C40928FD4?pid=21915
Comments to above from author Robert Marich. The thesis that political subject matter turns off the mass market is proven by experience, despite some notable exceptions such as documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (analyzed on pages 244-245 of Marketing to Moviegoers/First Edition). Perhaps the most telling anecdote is that the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 occurred 12 days after premiere of The China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas. The real life accident eerily paralleling the movie’s theme is thought to have hurt box office, because audiences suddenly found the drama uncomfortably hitting close to home, rather than being a far-away yarn. Cinema marketers typically position these films as "thrillers" or "dramas," though critics and audiences sometimes fixate on their political themes instead. Keep in mind political themes can prove to be financial hits if films are aimed at sympathetic niches, but niches aren’t the mass market so such films need to be moderate or low budget in production and marketing expense.
Also see “Audience Research: Worrying Cheers For ‘Kingdom’?” Aug. 14 found elsewhere in this News/Features directory.