Director Steven Soderbergh blames piracy for the box office failure of ”Che,” which made less than half of its budget back:
“We got crushed in South America. We came out in Spain in September of last year and it was everywhere within a matter of days. It killed it.”
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I ask you, folks, wouldn’t this make a great movie:
Late 1950s, Toledo, Ohio, USA.
The Hero, rugged, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, is a searcher, misunderstood by family and friends. He is a freewheeling, Kerouacian type who in his twenties never kept a job or stayed in one place for long. He did a stint in the US Army: stationed in Japan, he went AWOL, got himself time in the brig and a dishonorable discharge. The Hero tried working on a ranch, scratch. Joined the circus. Nope, not a fit. Everywhere the Hero goes, he confronts the questions: Why am I here? What do I do? Now 30-ish, he needs a purpose in life.
The Hero
One day the Hero learns that another American, a close friend from his Army days, has been murdered by goons of the corrupt dictator of an island nation. The Hero heads down to the Island and joins the rebels to fight against the dictator that killed his buddy. For perhaps the first time in his life, the Hero finds someplace where he is needed, and where he can make a difference. He’s had freedom all his life and has not known what to do with it; he finally finds his purpose: helping others fight for their freedom. The Hero’s military training proves invaluable to the rebels, among whom he eventually rises to the rank of Comandante, the highest rank in the rebel army. He falls in love with, and marries, Olga, a lovely 22-year-old rebel who is as fiery and committed as he is, and they have two daughters. The rebels triumph over the dictator and at first the Hero and his wife are happy in their new life, but the leader of the rebels in due time reveals himself to be a worse dictator than the one who preceded him, turning to the far-right and establishing not just a new authoritarian dictatorship, but an out-and-out totalitarian dictatorship. (more…)
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Much has been written about Hollywood’s obsession with Communist poster child and fashion icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Despite the protestations of those who actually knew and were tortured or persecuted by Che, the stories of hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles and a vast body of easily accessible knowledge on the failed state he helped create, the bad boy “Butcher of la Cabaña” still holds an unholy fascination with the historically-challenged. Though Che was opposed to free elections, freedom of religion, free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and even freewheeling rock and roll, he has morphed into the ultimate freedom fighter célèbre. Is the phenomenon of the world’s wealthiest and most privileged paying homage to a destroyer of wealth and privilege unique? In a word: no.
In school, we’re told we learn history in order to prevent ourselves from repeating the mistakes of the past. If only that were true. For those who study history and pay attention to its warning signs, this is a particularly painful period in the annals of western civilization on many fronts; a virtual smorgasbord of willful ignorance and denial. (more…)
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The other day I was stuck in traffic behind a young woman whose rear bumper sported three popular cries for help: Hope, Free Tibet, and Save the Planet. Her ass was covered.
For some reason, it made me think of my late grandmother, an English rose with a backbone of steel – what us Americans call a “tough cookie.” As a young divorcee, she single-handedly raised my mother, and took care of her own mother, through the Great Depression and beyond.
I used to love asking her about all the events she’d seen take place in her lifetime: the rise of the automobile, the night of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the blackouts during WW2, the “Stars Over America” war bond blitz (which even Hollywood nonconformist Bette Davis threw herself into), the arrival of television, and on and on.
As a boy, it seemed to me my grandmother had lived many lives, and seen more sweeping, historical changes than I could ever dream of. I had missed the boat. (more…)
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Box-office attendance continues to trend lower and lower each year. It’s on such a downward trajectory you’d think it might be tied to the crashing Republican brand we keep hearing about. But I think the opposite is the case. From an ideology standpoint, the political mono-think of Tinseltown is failing over half the largest audience demographic, and they don’t care.
I hear the excuses from the can-don’ts. People get their entertainment from their phones and YouTubes now. But I sure as hell didn’t watch “Iron Man” on my phone, I have no interest in watching “Gran Torino” on my computer and I won’t be waiting three months for the BluRay to come out. My friends said I had to see those movies today! Yesterday! Do whatever it takes to go see it! (more…)
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“We can’t cover it all,” Mr. del Toro said. “You can make your own movie. You know? You can make your own movie. And let’s see. Do the research.”
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GREG GUTFELD PRESENTS, IN ASSOCIATION WITH BIG HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS…
THE TRAVELERS BACK IN TIME FROM THE FUTURE
Starring
Benicio del Toro as himself,
Steven Soderbergh as himself,
and introducing Greg Gutfeld as Che Guevera
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