Samuel Goldwyn’s Advice To Hollywood

OK I am going to go on a political rant…I watched the O’Reilly Factor last night, (please do not stone me) and he had a segment on how Hollywood is producing movies that are Anti-anything American.

O’Reilly quoted from a letter written by Samuel Goldwyn to one of his producers on November 9, 1961… “I feel we each must execute today a higher degree of self-discipline, and self-censorship than ever before. We should never lose sight of the fact that no matter how entertaining a picture may be or how much money it may make, it can do our country a great deal of harm if it plays into the hands of our enemies.”

Whatever happened to responsible thinking like this? Does Hollywood even care how dangerous their movies are “in the hands of our enemies?” Whatever happened to producers, and actors that fought for the greater good of America? Stars like Jimmy Stewart who earned numerous medals for bombing Germans in WWII. Clark Gable, Charles Durning, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson just to name a few fought. Today the USO can’t even get stars to perform for the soldiers. What on earth has happened to us? Whatever happened to movies that made Americans proud?

Today’s Hollywood in my eyes most definitely has an agenda when they invest millions of dollars producing sub-par anti anything American movies and make absolutely no money, in fact they lose money. Movies like “Redacted,” (which by-the-way billionaire Mark Cuban spent 5 million dollars making it, and the flop grosses $65,000) “Lions and Lambs,” and others like this are losing big time. Why are these movies flops? Well, maybe just maybe Americans don’t want to see our troops portrayed as savages. Maybe they believe that although America has many faults, we are still a good country. A country the world looks up to in times of crisis.

Yes, maybe the Iraq thing could’ve been done differently and some Americans are discouraged with no clear end in sight. But does that mean that we should turn on our own country? Although Iraq is disheartening to many, aren’t we happy that an evil man like Saddam Hussein is no longer breathing the same air we breathe? Isn’t it good to know that many Iraqi citizens although struggling are happier without a tyrant like Saddam? We cannot doubt for a moment that things are better in Iraq today than they were in 2001. And yes it has cost us big time in life and money. But do we turn our backs on those that have sacrificed their very lives now?

I concur with Bill O’Reilly “There is a difference between loyal dissent, a good thing, and trying to make your country look bad. You, Hollywood people, often do the latter. And the folks know it. So, please stop.” [source billoreilly.com]