Weekend in Politics

Ken McCracken • December 4, 2008

We have two films slated for the screen this weekend that are sure to spark debate. Ron Howard’s adaptation of Peter Morgan’s award-winning Frost/Nixon is, according to the director, some kind of reverse-pretzel-half-pipe-timeline commentary (read: ass-backwards logic) on George Bush’s presidency. Be that as it may, Frost/Nixon (at least the play, we’ll see about the movie) was a prophetic conviction of today’s journalistic standards.

Milk is, ostensibly, Sean Penn’s latest tour de force. He doesn’t play retarded which, in my opinion, is his most natural state, but he does play Harvey Milk, the San Francisco Supervisor who was the first actively gay man to hold public office. He gets shot. His killer gets a lenient sentence in what is now the notorious “Twinkie Defense.” (Apparently sugar – not bigotry – sparked the shooting.) Riots ensued. Diminished capacity laws were repealed.

Tags: Entertainment, Politics

http://Array Pilgrim

Sean Penn. Useful idiot to the left.

You know, with a few exceptions, I don’t usually refuse to watch an actor because of his or her politics.

Hate Alex baldwin’s politics, like to watch him act.

Hate John Cusack’s politics but – good actor.

Hate Streisand’s politics, but damn what a voice.

But people like Sean Penn and Michael Moore, who are not only to the far left, they’re anti – American, will not see one cent of my money or one second of my time.

I hope Penn’s latest elftie effort, Milk, does a big fat belly flop. Maybe then he’ll run home to his daddy in Venezuela.
http://www.thedailyslant.com/ Hairy Polemic

I’ll still watch (and appreciate) someone whose ideas I might detest. Not just because reviews require impartiality, but because it’s too simple to just define people by single issues. Yea, Sean Penn has been doing and saying (and writing) some pretty idiotic stuff lately, but I don’t really know who Sean Penn is. I don’t know all the millions of little things about his life. I only know what’s in the public eye.

As for using my wallet to punish his views. Well, when I see a movie, my wallet is rewarding/punishing the quality of the film. I still want quality films to be made, regardless of who stars in them.
http://www.thedailyslant.com/ Hairy Polemic

True. Bush made the mistake, however, of lending his enemies an easy vehicle for camparison by employing executive privilege. Doing so dug up the US v. Nixon cases in the public mind.
http://www.thedailyslant.com/ Hairy Polemic

Whereas Nixon was motivated by power and greed, Bush (for all his faults) at least seems to be genuinely motivated by good intentions

That’s actually exactly what Chris Wallace said in reply to Ron Howard at the screening.
http://www.thedailyslant.com/ Hairy Polemic

And I don’t think it’s good to deride something like Milk as a “leftie effort.” It’s a shame that the left beat the right to capitalizing on the idea of tolerance. So many people would be Republicans right now (because of their other values) if Republicans had thought to style themselves social reformers.

And it’s not very hard. Free markets don’t know race, creed, or sex when it comes to wanting someone to buy your stuff. Yet, ironically, the anti-free-market crowd has managed to corner the that market.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

You know, with a few exceptions, I don’t usually refuse to watch an actor because of his or her politics.

So…should I return the Cat Stevens concert tickets I was getting you for Christmas?
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

Didn’t Sean play a traitor in one of his earliest movies (Falcon and the Snowman) ?

Guess he’s into method acting and got stuck in that role.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

There’s also the fact that Bush doesn’t appear to have actually broken any laws.

Nixon was a criminal. Bush is just someone the liberal left hates.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Comparing Bush to Nixon seems pretty stupid to me. Whereas Nixon was motivated by power and greed, Bush (for all his faults) at least seems to be genuinely motivated by good intentions.

Of course, we all know where the road paved with good intentions leads.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

True, but that being said the executive shouldn’t be a push over for Congress.

I think one thing that gets overlooked a lot in our political discourse in this country is how often the executive and Congress are at odds, and how it’s not usually even a partisan issue.

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