This week saw a triumph of totalitarian fear-mongering over the most sacred right that we as Americans enjoy with such abandon here in the States. Brought to its knees by a ruthless clan of hell-spawned mouth-breathing tyrants, a major entertainment facility bowed to pressure and decided to let said tyrants run rampant on them.
But enough about the Keeping Up with the Kardashians marathons on the E! network. This is more important.
The internet can be an amazing and disgusting thing. It's amazing in that you can connect with people the world over, eschewing the traditional boundaries of borders and geopolitical conflicts to really get to know people a world away. But then they hack one of your country's major movie studios, at the behest of the world's most obvious candidate for "asshole thuggery as form of government," and suddenly you're reminded that the internet is full of trolls. And sometimes these trolls work for North Korea.
Let me say this up front: chances are, The Interview wasn't going to sweep the Oscars next time around. Rogen/Franco productions rarely aspire beyond the level of stoner comedy that is best exemplified by Pineapple Express (a film which, as the years go by, I wonder about: suppose the second half of the movie, after Dale takes a hit of the title weed and then witnesses a real-life hit, was a fever dream of pothead paranoia? It would certainly explain the ratcheting up of violence and cartoonish situations that the film becomes). They're funny in parts (not always all the way through, but likeable enough), and while I still find Seth Rogen's laugh grating I do have a fondness for his persona onscreen. I was likely going to wait for the DVD release, to be honest.
But then...in case you've been living under a rock, The Interview concerns the fictional assassination of a very real figure in global politics (the spoiled fat rich kid from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure...I'm sorry, I mean Kim Jong Un). And perhaps understandably, the North Korean government (based on a "cult of personality" system that contains stories perhaps apocryphal but none the less amusing/horrifying such as the suggestion that state media told the people that their team had won the recent World Cup) was a little upset about this. Not understandably, a group of hackers (widely reported as having been enabled by North Korea to do so) hacked into the system of The Interview's parent studio Sony and had a field day releasing private emails that painted the executives in petty, unflattering lights. But then shit got real: these same hackers (whose choice of acronym as "Guardians of Peace," GOP, couldn't help but make this Obama Liberal chuckle a little) threatened "9/11 style attacks" on movie theaters that showed the movie. And so Sony, who didn't negotiate with terrorists, backed down.
The movie is in limbo as of this writing.
As someone who fancies himself an artist (or perhaps more accurately, an appreciator of other's art), I can't help but think that this chilling effect on the film industry doesn't do much for the idea of America being a land of free speech. After all, campaigns mounted in opposition of something usually have the opposite of the desired effect. And chances are that, had Sony not backed down, The Interview would be judged as a movie, not as a political statement (albeit one that hasn't been made yet). The merits of the movie will forever be lost to time, because even if it does get a wide release it won't be seen just on its own terms. Chaplin made The Great Dictator about Hitler, but he wisely chose to name his Hitler something different (and perhaps in a lesson that the filmmakers behind The Interview could have chosen to heed, didn't kill him off). The film has certain iconic moments that merit its inclusion in any discussion of film history, and it's a brave film for its time and ours. But Chaplin made the film in 1939 and 1940, when the true horrors of the Holocaust weren't known or even enacted yet. He said that if he'd known such facts at the time he wouldn't have made the film, which would be history's loss. It's not a completely successful film (the "Jewish ghetto" screams Hollywood backlot), but enough of it works and enough of it is still relevant to make it something that deserves to be seen.
I thought of Chaplin when the news about The Interview came down, but it's not the only film to have that kind of impact (and safe to say, a movie critical of Hitler while the USA was still on the sidelines didn't escape unscathed from criticism, though I don't think the Nazis ever tried to blow up theaters showing it). Monty Python's Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ both tackled religion, and while I can't speak to the latter film I have seen the former. It's actually a critique of religion's ability to warp the human psyche, to make us all followers of people who often don't merit our devotion. Think of all the charismatic TV preachers in the Eighties who were exposed as money-grubbing sex fiends and you see how prophetic Life of Brian was. Controversy is often a boost to a film or album or book's profile: if you haven't offended anyone, the thinking goes, you're not doing your job.
I don't know if The Interview will ever be fully released. Kim Jong Un has to die sometime, though not likely at the hands of James Franco and Seth Rogen. I don't unilaterally condemn Sony for deciding to do what they did, they had to think about the threat and take it much more seriously than they might have, had the magic phrase "9/11" not entered the mix. It's just a damn shame, is all. Even if the movie was terrible, the marketplace needed to be the decider of that, not some big baby with his chubby finger on the nuclear trigger (oh great, now I've pissed off the North Koreans; I fully expect to be hacked now). Kim Jong Un can go fuck himself, for all I care. Yeah, I said it...please don't hack me!
I wonder what this means for my screenplay in development, Chokin' the Putin (in which a Canadian comedian goes to Russia to strangle Vladimir Putin)
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