Nerve has just put up their new film issue, and a centerpiece is
Justin Clark's portrait of businessman Philip Anschutz, the conservative theater chain owner and film financier (
The Chronicles of Narnia,
Ray). The article is an interesting look at Anschutz's various business interests and how some of them intertwine with his conservative politics. Of the latter, Clark writes:
A heavy contributor to the Republican Party for decades, Anschutz helped fund Amendment 2, a ballot initiative to overturn a state law protecting gay rights, and helped stop another initiative promoting medical marijuana. More recently, he helped fund the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank that mounted a public relations campaign and financed "research" into intelligent design. He has also supported the Media Research Council, the group that generated nearly all the indecency complaints with the FCC in 2003. As a friend of his told Fortune, Anschutz "has a latent interest in doing something significant in American Christianity. He is working deliberately and diligently on it."
Clark's piece is not an expose, just a story discussing the various interminglings possible and already achieved between Anschutz's personal philosophies and his business ones. The article discusses Anschutz's dominance in various exhibition markets around the country, predicting the possibility that his influence could dissuade studios from making R-rated movies. Or, if they do, to perhaps provide alternate cuts:
In 2005, PG-rated films outperformed R-rated films in the theater for the first time in two decades. Conservatives have touted weak theater attendance as proof that the heartland isn't interested in Hollywood's licentiousness and liberal politics. The Dove Foundation, non-profit advocates of "wholesome family entertainment", published a study showing that G-rated movies are eleven times more profitable than R-rated flicks. Indeed: as a co-producer and financial backer of Oscar contender Ray, Anschutz reportedly insisted on altering the details of subject Ray Charles' life, downplaying his drug use and womanizing to obtain a PG-13 rating.
Although Hollywood didn't heed the Dove Foundation's advice in 2005 — the key Oscar nominations were all low-grossing films that are very political — studios have begun looking into releasing PG versions of their R-rated fare, an innovation made possible by the advent of digital cinema. The double release would allow theaters to play the cleaner version during more lucrative screening times earlier in the day, and the director's cut later on.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 3/25/2006 07:11:00 PM
Comments (1)
This is a big, wide world and like it or not it is a moderate to conservative one. The past 40 years have been a bizarre social fluke. The ethnic minoritys that ran the film and television industry from it's inception knew that most "Americans" wanted affirmation and reinforcement of traditional family values that embraced what liberals laughingly sneared at--God, Country, Mother, and Apple Pie. These immagrants filmakers encouraged and rienforced these values. But in the 1960's as these traditionalist died off, the attorneys and the bankers took over the shops. Although many of this new generation were of the same ethnic groups, they felt themselves socio-politically more estute and far better educated. Promoting any and all change that would lead away from the deseased mind set that allowed Jim Crow, they saw racism every where along with sexism,... everything traditional became suspect. Soon they, like the activist, liberal film and television personalitys, embraced change and begin pushing the envelope in every direction. Cursing and profanity became common place along with nudity, violence, sex and "queer" themes. They pushed too far. Now it's being pushed against.
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posted by @ 5/11/2006 11:05 PM
