I don’t get out to the cinema more than once or twice a year so I can hardly be called a film buff but for some strange reason I always read those articles where they summarize the box office results at the end of the week as if film making was a sporting event and the winner is the one that makes the most money which, I guess, is a pretty accurate
Trouble With the Curve: It’s about a father and daughter, and baseball
metaphor and perhaps even the literal truth, depending on how one defines “sporting event.”
But the headline was “Clint Eastwood Stumbles at Box Office” so I thought the story might be about how his semi-coherent, Alzheimeresque speech at the Republican National Convention may have cost him his popularity, may have destroyed his career although it’s a little bit late in the game for that.
Nah. His latest film, “Trouble With the Curve,” “only” opened at number 3 out of 5 major films opening this weekend and “only” made 12 million dollars. So, maybe not his greatest, but still O.K.
I have 3 things to say about this:
1. Misleading headline, misleading story.
2. There’s no reason to assume that everyone in Hollywood is going to be a liberal any more than there is a reason to believe that all athletes are great role models. If they are good at what they do, that’s all that counts.
I was happy to see his speech flop, because I am an Obama supporter, but I don’t hate Clint for giving it.
3. If you’re going to be wishing failure on and boycotting everybody who you disapprove of in real life, you’re going to be limiting yourself seriously. Are you going to boycott Mel Gibson because he’s a crazy, raving bigot? Woody Allen because he’s sleeping with his step-daughter? Arnold Schwarzenegger because you didn’t like him as governor? Do you switch off the TV every time a movie with Ronald Reagan comes on, or refuse to fly into the airport they named after him even if it’s the closest? Will you never watch any films by Elia Kazan just because he was an informer for Joe McCarthy and ruined lots of people’s lives? If so, you are missing some great films. Do you refuse to listen to Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” because he was a vicious tyrant who beat the hell out of his son? Do you pretend to not admire the paintings of Dali or the poetry of Pound just because they were fucking Nazis?
It is nice when you can admire somebody both artistically and personally, and there are plenty of people in that category, but you can’t count on it.
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