The Liberal Assassination Wet Dream Movie I Attended Last Night

• April 2, 2007

Last night Jess and I went with my family to Shooter, a film starring Mark Wahlberg about a world class special ops sniper who gets called in to help plan against an assassination plot against the President only to get framed. It’s based on the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.
As an action movie it was actually pretty good (if sort of predictable), and I would have enjoyed the film were I not constantly distracted by all the childish, ham-handed liberal digs at Republicans and conservatives in the movie. I’m told that Hunter’s original story is fairly a-political, and my uncle (an arch conservative if there ever was one) liked it, but the movie was a veritable cornucopia of left-wing digs at the right. For instance:

Danny Glover’s character, who is responsible for planning the assassination plot and framing Wahlberg’s character, guides his plots from a room with portraits of Republican presidents lining the wall. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, etc.
One of the good guys, when he’s not wearing the FBI’s suit-and-tie uniform, spends about half the movie walking around in a Che Guevera shirt. Good guys=socialist lovers.
The reason for the assassination plot turns out to be a mass grave of Ethiopians killed by American contractors at the behest of a Republican Senator from Montana who was facilitating the building of an oil pipeline through the area.
Said Republican Senator (played by Ned Beatty) at one point has a soliloquy about foolish Americans who “think that one person can make a difference” and how you often have to “kill that one person” to convince them otherwise.

Wahlberg’s character even turns out to be a 9/11 truther, at one point sitting down at his desk in his home, uttering the line “I wonder what lies they’re telling us today” and then picking up and perusing a published copy of the 9/11 commission report.

You’d think that Wahlberg’s character, the hero of the movie and a devoted (if alienated) military gun nut who lives in a secluded mountain cabin and hunts for his food, would be a right-wingish character. But he’s not. Instead he’s held up as a dupe. An American soldier who thinks he’s fighting the good fight when really he’s just fighting to murder innocent people in order to boost oil industry profits. And, at the end of the movie, Wahlberg’s character wipes out all the nasty Republican scum and then rides off into the sunset in a muscle car with the clear indication that he’s now some sort of vigilante out looking to murder other Republican scum.
You could almost hear the liberal Hollywood elite sighing with delight and satisfaction at that.
Are all these political overtones really necessary? Do American audiences enjoy them? Personally, I’m a little tired of all the “evil conservative Republican” conspiracies in the movies. I don’t think the bad guys always need to be Republican. I’m also a little tired of our government and our military almost always being portrayed as the bad guys in these films. Can’t we have a movie set in modern times where America and its military is a force for good in the world? Because our nation and our military is the foremost force for good and justice in the world, as imperfect as it is at times.
And you can’t tell me that all these silly moonbats we see protesting on these streets, and these wild-eyed liberal bomb throwers like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, haven’t inspired a single movie script writer to put together a story about a left-wing plot to assassinate a President Bush-like character in order to stop a war like the war in the middle east. Just once I’d like to see a plot like that, but that movie isn’t going to be made.
Instead Hollywood will keep pounding the “evil Republicans in the pockets of the corporations” story line into the ground.

Tags: Entertainment, Politics

http://www.movie-source.com/ Erik

I just watched Shooter yesterday, liked it a lot as an action movie, but agree it was rather heavy handed with its political statements. I am a liberal through and through, but the movie was definitely not subtle in its views, and it was a bit distracting. Of course, had the dialogue been a little better, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad.
Regardless, I liked the movie for what it was, a fun action movie that has a decent plot.
http://www.synyx.com/ JAM

I just wanted to comment in regards to the film mentioned above by “Dave” about the assasination attempt on Richard Nixon. I have not seen the film, and in fact had never heard of it prior to Dave mentioning it, but I suspect he’s wrong in using it to support his point. My guess, based purely on what I’ve read on imdb.com about it (and the fact that it starred Sean Penn in the lead role of the would-be assassin) is that it is a sympathetic portrait of a man driven mad by the crazy times in which he lived, his madness focused on icon most representative/symbolic of those crazy times.

This is not comparable to the evil conspiratorial machinations and plots hatched by Republicans in most of the films of the type this review covers.

I could name dozens of films that involve such high level conspiracy plots that are biased to the left.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

I’m with 2H9 – Thanks for the heads up! It sounds like the kind of movie I’d watch if I were in a full body cast…and couldn’t reach the remote!
Dan

I knew I was going to ignore Shooter when I saw Danny Glover in it. He probably ran the script through Hugh Chavez’s staff for approval.
http://www.analogcabin.com/right.shtml Ofc. Krupke

I would describe “Point of Impact” as not so much apolitical as having a mild conservative bent. It’s a pretty full-throated defense of guns and gun people. Swagger expresses a generally positive attitude toward the President (implied but not stated to be George H.W. Bush). And the thing no conservative reader should miss: at one point Hunter excerpts three fictitious “newspaper editorials” about the assassination incident in his story, wherein he perfectly nails the prose styles and biases of the New York Times and Washington Post, showing them to be utterly missing the point. Great stuff.
2Hotel9

Tell me, Mr Blofeld, do you still have that lovely chalet in the Alps?

Glover, Penn, Stone, et al, have made themselves famous and wealthy with their embrace of the “culture of violence” by making movies filled with death and destruction. Then they hop into their Suburbans and H3s and private jets, along with their armed security, and preach to us about how evil, greedy, lazy, and imperialistic all us filthy, uneducated peons are.

You can walk across the Mississippi River on all the hypocrisy oozing out of these scumbags.
http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/ Robert Bidinotto

The film was unconscionable, since it was drawn from a brilliant, apolitical novel, Stephen Hunter’s Point of Impact — which is perhaps the best action thriller I’ve ever read.

My own thoughts about the movie and Hunter’s outstanding novels are posted here:

http://bidinotto.journalspace.com/?entryid=525
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Firstly it is formed almost only of egocentrics and “terminators”.

All of the military men and women I deal with are first rate.

Secondly it wages some of the wars solely for economical reasons.

First of all that’s untrue. The US has not benefited economically by the wars of this century. Perhaps it could be said of the Mexican American War and the Spanish American War. However it worked out for the best for the people in the territory that we captured and it was pretty standard back then.

Secondly even if it were true it wouldn’t be a reflection of the men and women of the military. The fault would lie with the political leaders.

Thirdly it is very bad organized (without it’s air force the American army is almost powerless).

Actually we’re the only military that’s able to project force across the globe in the manner it is. While our individual units are as good as anyones it’s our system that makes us unbeatable. Sounds like you don’t like the pounding your side is taking. Too bad, we’re the just party and we’re fighting to win, not make you feel good.

Do you still beat your women when you’re not hiding behind them?
2Hotel9

Ah, now MEBA, you done fucked up. You should not list a link that connects you to comments that are both for and against the same subject. Just not cricket, you know. Or perhaps not. Just what are you? Come on, take the mask off, lets us have a look see.
beneficial association

How can the American army appear as being good when it presents it’s self with so many holes in it. Firstly it is formed almost only of egocentrics and “terminators”. Secondly it wages some of the wars solely for economical reasons. Thirdly it is very bad organized (without it’s air force the American army is almost powerless).
mishu

The mere presence of Danny Glover in that movie told me all I need to know.
Dave

And you can’t tell me that all these silly moonbats we see protesting on these streets, and these wild-eyed liberal bomb throwers like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, haven’t inspired a single movie script writer to put together a story about a left-wing plot to assassinate a President Bush-like character in order to stop a war like the war in the middle east. Just once I’d like to see a plot like that, but that movie isn’t going to be made.

Really?

I’m also a little tired of our government and our military almost always being portrayed as the bad guys in these films. Can’t we have a movie set in modern times where America and its military is a force for good in the world?

How “modern” do you mean? We’ve had We Were Soldiers (Vietnam War), Behind Enemy Lines (Bosnia), Saving Private Ryan (WWII), The Great Raid (WWII), the Band of Brothers series…and of course, the ultimate war film, Red Dawn.

But yeah, I know what you’re saying. Bring back “Japanese Relocation”!
robert108

A Neocon Fantasy

You mean a fantasy by a bunch of formerly liberal Jews who have seen the light, and are now Conservatives?

Hardly.
2Hotel9

AC, the main subjective character,Bob Lee”The Nailer” Swagger is far from any single political ideology. Lumping all “conservatives” into the same shit-smeared bucket that Democrats revel in is just offensive to the bucket.
Andrew

You mean a fantasy by a bunch of formerly liberal Jews who have seen the light, and are now Conservatives?

Hardly.

I agree. I just found it funny that there were actually people complaining that it was too conservative.
Ernst Blofeld

Or even name a recent movie or TV show where the hero is a gun owner.

I was somewhat surprised to see in Grindhouse one of the damsels in distress pull a piece and shoot a bad guy. “You know what happens to people who pull knives? They get shot.”
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

To be honest this damned computer tends to eat alot of my reading time.

NO!
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

2h9: Time to Hunt wraps up the Bob Lee Swagger saga. (although who knows he may find another story to do.)

I’ve also read a couple other books of his. I think it’s the Ultimate Sniper book set in WWII. I didn’t care for the Second Saladin.

I’ve also read his non fiction work American Gunfight which covers the Puerto Rican’s attempt to assassinate President Truman which very nearly succeeded. He wrote this non fiction like an action novel which was very interesting.
carrick

Robert, thanks for the recommendations.
http://rightwingnation.com/ rightwingprof

I saw the preview for Shooter first when we went to see Zodiac, then four times the four times we went to see 300. From the preview, I could anticipate every minute of the movie, including the politics. I knew as soon as I’d seen the preview the first time I wasn’t going to waste any money on this movie.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

When was the last time you saw a movie where the good-guy politician was Republican and the bad-guy politician who was greedy and corrupt and actually hated his/her constituents was a Democrat? I’m betting you probably haven’t.

And isn’t it strange that the most vitriolic portrayals of right-wingers is by…liberal actors? Alan Alda – the right wing murderer/ conspirator in Murder at 1600, Martin Sheen in Wall Street, Michael Douglas in Falling Down…

Craig

I agree with your point 100%, but having just watched the original Wall Street movie last night I have to respectfully correct you on one minor point. In the original Wall Street, Michael Douglas (an outspoken Hollywood lib) represents the most evil of Wall Street billionaires. Martin Sheen actually plays a hard-working airline mechanic and union representative, and is the most sympathetic character in the movie (ironic in its own right, if you ask me, considering the history of union corruption). Another example I would like to add to your list is Hollywood leftist Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. He has the same job description as Michael Douglas' character in Wall Street, until he is convinced by the love of a prostitute to change his ways.

http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

When was the last time you saw a movie where the good-guy politician was Republican and the bad-guy politician who was greedy and corrupt and actually hated his/her constituents was a Democrat?

Or even name a recent movie or TV show where the hero is a gun owner. (Unless of course the hero is a government employee.)
http://www.playertwoblog.blogspot.com/ playertwo

thank you for the review and the opportunity for snarky liberal morons to have a place for their “comments”..
aint it great to sit and think and then write something with meaning and forethought so dipshits from some dorm room can crap on it with bushlied?
all about a movie where people are shooting each other.
its the war of the suttleaggressives!!
all this wealth, all this freedom. spread it? hell no! I’m going to use it to get my “point” across.
2Hotel9

Thanks for the reveiw, Rob! I’ll not waste my time on this crap. Want the story as it was written, Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter. And Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee”The Nailer” Swagger? Puhlease.
Andrew

Uh, it’s gonna be about as long as the list of anti-Iraq War films…

I think what Rob meant was that a lot of movies inject anti-Iraq war messages rather than actual movies about the Iraq war.
2Hotel9

I have been trying to find Time to Hunt, the only time I found it at Amazon it was out by the time I hit it. I found Second Saladin at a yardsale, but part of the pages were missing so I did not get it. I have read some of his reveiws, that is the other thing he does for a living. To be honest this damned computer tends to eat alot of my reading time.
Dave

By modern I mean “in the present.” Not WWII or Vietnam.

So you want a big list of pro-Iraq War films released by Hollywood. Uh, it’s gonna be about as long as the list of anti-Iraq War films… the since cancelled mini-series “Over There” is a good example. Hollywood typically waits at least until a war is over before dramatizing them.

By the way, I enjoyed your comments on The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Way to do your research, Rob!

Oh, and this:

good books like Point of Impact and Runaway Jury

speaks for itself.
2Hotel9

Gang, I am going to exercise my Rob given rights and hyjack this here thread. We gonna talk about Mr Hunter and his fine literary works. For this discussion we gonna stick to those novels that are interconnected. They were not written as a series, each is a stand alone story. Point of Impact is the touchstone from which the rest issue. Dirty White Boys, a novel not for the faint of heart or easily offended, lays the groundwork for Blacklight, which brings the saga of Bob Lee”Bob the Nailer”Swagger to the point at which ya need a bit-o backstory. Which brings us to Hot Springs, a damn fine novel that combines the elements of the other 3 into an absolutely spellbinding story, set 50 and 10 years in the past. I’ll let y’all figure out how that happens on your own.

Read them in that order and I am certain you will be mightily entertained.

And this should bring a screeching halt to the daveyism of this thread. This, and ignoring him.
2Hotel9

Toot! I could be playing Warcraft RIGHT NOW. And yet I am responding to comment threads at blogs. Much less reading.
Andrew

Guess it wasn’t liberal enough for some lefties. I read a review that called it a “NeoCon Fantasy”.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

From the perspective of looking at the film purely as an action movie, it was pretty good. Entertaining. I just found the political stuff to be both annoying, tiresome and pointless.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I actually like Wahlberg as an actor. Outside of the conservative bashing, it was a decent film.

Andrew, I hardly see how it can be a Neo-con fantasy, given that the plot circles around a Republican Senator who orders the massacre of a village of Africans in order to build an oil pipeline.

Plus, Wahlberg’s character is a truther. And the bad CIA guy who does all the plotting is sitting in what looks like a shrine to Republican Presidents. There’s no way a neo-con paying attention would like this movie.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

By modern I mean “in the present.” Not WWII or Vietnam. I mean today’s military shown as the heroes, and our government acting in good will.

But what’s your point? Are you saying that Hollywood doesn’t have a suffocating liberal bias? That they don’t take good books like Point of Impact and Runaway Jury and inject them with a pervasive liberal viewpoint that just didn’t exist in the original story?

Are you really so retarded as to think that a handful of movies is proof that Hollywood isn’t biased against our military and our government?

I think you are. Why don’t you stick to your impassioned defense of bestiality, you unserious twat.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Sigh…

Oh, and this:

good books like Point of Impact and Runaway Jury

speaks for itself.

Oh Davey. Ever the literary snob. What would we do if you weren’t around to tell us how dumb our entertainment tastes are?

As for that Nixon movie, never saw it. Nor did anyone else, apparently. So, citing one obscure film about Nixon as evidence of Hollywood not having an anti-American, anti-military bias is…pretty dumb.

Andrew, what I meant was that Hollywood rarely portrays our modern military in any sort of positive light. It happens, but when it does its the exception and not the rule.

But it’s more than just the military. When was the last time you saw a movie where the good-guy politician was Republican and the bad-guy politician who was greedy and corrupt and actually hated his/her constituents was a Democrat? I’m betting you probably haven’t.

Nor, I bet, have you seen a film that champions something like private gun ownership. Or maybe Friedmanesque economics. They just don’t exist, Davey’s snobbish, condescending barbs to the contrary.

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