‘Watchmen’: Tough on Liberal Sensibilities

There has been a lot written about vigilantism and conservatism in film lately. My friend David Swindle wrote a piece for American Thinker “What’s So Conservative About Vigilantism?” Big Hollywood contributor John T. Simpson wrote “Story and the Power of Conservative Themes in Film” and I wrote about vigilantism for Parcbench.com.

Conservative’s favorite vigilantes know that no justice system is perfect just like “Dirty Harry” Callahan knows there is no time for due process when people’s lives are at stake. These heroes always draw a distinct line between good and evil, and we trust them to do the right thing.

Watchmen, which was recently released on DVD, gives us a darker view of our heroes. It suggests that maybe we shouldn’t trust them, and takes a very cynical view of the fight of good versus evil. The characters are pitched as superheroes but most of them are as human as any of us.

The film takes place in a fictional 1985 where Richard Nixon is still the president. Over the years, “watchmen” had been working with the government to keep the world a safe place but eventually became outlawed. While President Nixon is trying to avoid nuclear warfare with the soviets, some “watchmen” see a world that is not worth saving anymore while others continue to operate as vigilantes. (more…)

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Tags: Dirty Harry, Rorschach, Terrorism, the comedian, vigilante
Posted Aug 7th 2009 at 6:03 pm in Film, Politics | 19904647 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cyogerst/2009/08/07/watchmen-tough-on-liberal-sensibilities/%27Watchmen%27%3A+Tough+on+Liberal+Sensibilities2009-08-08+01%3A03%3A34Chris+Yogerst

Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of ‘Death Wish’

American Movie Classics is marking the 35th anniversary of the release of Death Wish, the controversial and highly influential 1974 film featuring Charles Bronson as a liberal architect in New York City who becomes a vigilante after a group of thugs murder his wife and rape his daughter.

The film was highly successful with audiences, making Bronson a big star and inspiring several sequels. Critics hated it.

Both reactions were caused by the same thing: the film’s uncompromising truthfulness. Death Wish marked the death of liberal illusions about crime and punishment: the idea that crime is caused by disadvantageous social environments and that the solution is to pour even more taxpayer money into bad neighborhoods in an attempt to buy submission from the poorer elements of society.

Death Wish showed that process to be an absurd sham. The film, based on a novel by Brian Garfield, clearly showed that giving in to such political extortion was making social conditions worse and exacerbating the nation’s already terrible crime problem.

Death Wish and its sequels refused to sugarcoat the villainy of the criminals the architect Paul Kersey pursues, nor did it state that he was justified in what he was doing. It simply showed the characters doing what they were inclined to do, making their choices and following the consequences. Such truth was impossible for Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and other elitist critics of the time to stomach.

As direct and truthful as Death Wish is, it is not simplistic or political, despite the ravings of critics at the time. It is a story that was all too plausible, and the characterizations and situations were accurately and insightfully portrayed.

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Tags: Charles Bronson, Death Wish, Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, vigilante
Posted Jan 8th 2009 at 6:14 pm in Entertainment | 1169723 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/01/08/celebrating-the-35th-anniversary-of-death-wish/Celebrating+the+35th+Anniversary+of+%27Death+Wish%272009-01-09+02%3A14%3A25S.T.+Karnick