Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/16/breitbarts-unhinged-civil-war-reviewer-dreams-of-a-president-shoots-journalists-on-sight.html
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So, will studios learn that there is absolutely no point in tiptoeing around the “politics” of violent fascists?
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Unsurprising. This is what MAGA was fapping to five years ago:
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I don’t think that was meant as a joke. When people at Breitbart talk about journalists in this way, they don’t think they’re part of that group. And they may not be. I think one thing we would see if Trump were to win again is some kind of state sanctioned media outlets, and Breitbart would probably be part of that. He’s not joking. Far right conservatives don’t really have a sense of humor other than attempting to make racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic jokes.
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In more Leopards-eating-faces news, John Nolte describes himself as an author, screenwriter, and - you guessed it - journalist.
So I guess President Biden has pre-approval to shoot him.
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I still haven’t decided if this is a movie I want to see, but this definitely pushes me toward the “yes“ column.
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It could still be bothsidist drivel and the fascists woukd hate it because neutrality is still biased against fascists.
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Unless it’s a full-throated endorsement of their world view, they hate it. Which is why Hollywood bending over backwards to BE neutral makes NO sense whatsoever. They’ll never “like” hollywood and have spent years building their own counter-hollywood (like their own counter-media outlets, counter music industry, etc).
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I still need to see it to get an informed opinion. But from what I gathered from a couple people I know who saw it, I expect to walk away with these points:
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The initial cause and the specific politics are nebulous partly to ensnare you into the story regardless of any political leanings. It is partly why that map of factions seems so far fetched, with CA and TX on the same side. Though, I can see both states being politically opposed on one hand, but agree that the current condition of the government is fucked up and ally to resist it (think the US and USSR during WWII).
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Because the setting specifics are nebulous, its better to view it as an “Elseworlds” or “Multiverse” type story, where the movie politics and parties don’t completely mirror our own.
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The big take away some people had was that regardless of how we got there and who are the good guys or bad guys, it’s going to be fucked. No one is winning. People are randomly killing other people because they might be with the other side. There are factions that aren’t on any one side. Which, IMO, is an accurate take away of how a real Civil War 2 would pan out. Chaotic and fucked.
One specific scene someone mentioned was a small group of snipers is looking at a house, saying there are people inside trying to shoot them. They Press people ask who these snipers are, who gives them their orders? Who is in the house? They reply something like, “No one is giving us orders. We don’t know who those people are, all we know is they are trying to kill us.”
Re: The Breitbart review - I imagine it is terrible all the way around, because those guys have shit for brains when it comes to media and pop culture literacy. I also heard the ending is kind artsy-high brow, similar to Annihilation.They don’t do well with endings that try to make you think or are unsatisfying.
(After we’re told the president disbanded the FBI and shoots journalists on sight, I was sure he was the hero.)
See, I don’t think it’s a joke; it is what they want. I imagine there will be examples of the Government crushing “conservative resistance” that will beat them over the head that it isn’t “Republicans” in office taking over. Otherwise, they would find a fascist government to be ideal!
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A lot of critics think the film intentionally ducks specificity to make the story more universal. Or not turn off half the potential ticket buyers. Some dig that, some don’t.
And without a declared point of view, you never know who to root for. Has President GreatHairRedTie (Nick Offerman) refused to leave office for good reason—to hold the union together? (After we’re told the president disbanded the FBI and shoots journalists on sight, I was sure he was the hero.)
A more sane review I read said its not about any of that. It’s about war reporting and what happens to those who do it and how it changes them.
(Possibly they wanted to make this film with a US background because that story would not get seen otherwise.)
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Breitbart.
That place is so unhinged and septic, I looked at the site a few years ago and had a gut churning flashback to 2003 when someone showed me “rotten. com.”
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Man, I have a friend who absolutely could not handle Captain America: Civil War for this very reason. “It’s supposed to be good guys vs bad guys!” was the quote, iirc. I thought of telling them that it was directly lifted from the comics, that many of the Avengers had been adversaries at one point (both in comics and films) and that it made for a more compelling story, but in the end I didn’t say anything. It’s such a binary worldview that I knew I’d just waste the next 12+ hours of my life.
Makes one wonder how they cope with WWE storylines.
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As far-fetched as that may seem in this moment, political reversals can sometimes happen surprisingly quickly. Remember that California sent Nixon and Reagan to the the White House, and Texas sent LBJ.
Check out this election map from 1968:
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I swear I heard the film mention that it was the president’s 3rd term or something? Wouldn’t that indicate that he either ignored the 22nd amendment or it was repealed? That doesn’t sound like a good guy to me.
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Yes, but that STILL doesn’t tell us about the political situation and how we got to the civil war in the first place. And according to the director, that was a deliberate choice, to keep the audience as wide as possible.
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I don’t think the far right ever has any jokes except “ha ha, wouldn’t it be great to kill these people we want to kill”. The only thing they think is funny is cruelty.
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