Some in Hollywood Welcome Censorship
by Andre Soares
In the Los Angeles Times, Gina Piccalo explains how "Hollywood looks to family-focused Dove Foundation and others for favorable reviews."
Piccalo refers to the right-wing, Fundamentalist Christian-based Dove Foundation as "squeaky clean." Personally, I see a chasmic difference between cleanliness and reactionary values — more often than not soiled by ugly stains of bigotry (gay characters, for instance, are a no-no) — but in any case, Piccalo’s article is informative in that it illustrates how some in Hollywood are actively asking for religious-based censorship to boost their companies’ bottom line.
"Studio executives say their outreach to these groups should be seen as smart marketing rather than bowing to a conservative Christian agenda," Piccalo explains (even though that’s exactly what they’re doing). "On the one hand, they say, this is a large, motivated, well-organized niche credited with winning the Bush presidency. Why not reach out to them? At the same time, family films just happen to gross more on average than those without such wide appeal. So why not make more and ensure they appeal to the broadest possible swath of Americans?"
But is "the broadest possible swath of Americans" composed of people who want their movies packaged according to the Christian Right agenda?
If so, Iran and other radical Islamic countries surely have a lot to teach those studio executives. Just replace Islamic prejudices with Christian ones, and you’ll have one record-breaking Hollywood blockbuster after another.
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The whole cleaning up of films thing might bother me if I would even go to see any of the films mentioned. Films are a luxury not a right. One would hope that a religious foundation would be much more concerned with the improvement of the lives of the down-trodden, but nope, they are much more interested in their own comfort. But I always tell people that Hollywood is really conservative and always has been. Ultimately even you look at the Pre-Code era with the exception of “Red Headed Woman,” “Scarface,” and a few other nearly all of the films have conventional endings (weddings or some punishment for wicked deeds). But articles like this make a laugh and sort of sad, does anyone else remember all the tacky “Passion of the Christ” merchandise? The proceeds didn’t go to charity.