Movietime with Debra Saunders
This might get us in a bit of trouble, but we actually like the Chron's token conservative columnist Debra Saunders. Yes, we don't usually agree with her, but we like the fact that she has the intellectual integrity to call foul on her own side when she disagrees with them. Frankly, our political discourse would be a whole lot better if pundits didn't just repeat the party line. Every once in awhile, however, Debra grabs a big bucket of popcorn, a pen and paper, and plays Jan Wahl. Which is fine, we've played movie critic a few times too. Except that when she does, the usually intelligent Saunders smokes whatever stuff Anne Coulter does and goes on some liberal conspiracy tirade, seeing liberal propaganda in the least political of movies.
On Monday, she posted her review of War of the Worlds. Where everyone else saw an intense, occasionally scary, dumb-ass Hollywood summer flick starring a rapidly unraveling superstar, she saw nothing but pacifist messages, anti-Americanism, and, even worse, anti-gun bigotry. Her problem with the movie? The humans just run. And run some more and don't fight back, unlike in that patriotic, uplifting Independence Day. And we quote:
"If there is a theme to...War of the Worlds, it is not that the human spirit has the courage that justifies human survival. Or that American know-how and grit can defeat invaders, even when the situation seems impossible. No, it is more like: If aliens invade, don't fight back. Run."
Steven Spielberg, why do you hate America?
Saunders goes on to complain that the movie's one character who wants to fight and who also is the only one with a gun is portrayed as psychotic and crazed, not to mention a little creepy. And she's right-- the one thing that would have made the movie better, other than having an ending that wasn't laughable, was if instead of Tim Robbins, it featured Charlton Heston with a shotgun screaming out to the heavens "get your blood sucking paws off me, you damn dirty aliens!"
This isn't the first time Saunders has barked at liberal Hollywood trying to turn our impressionable youth into freedom-hating, Michael Moore, tree-loving loving hippies. Earlier, she criticized Revenge of the Sith for it's supposed anti-Bush, fall-of-a-Democracy message. And while we love (loved!) Sith we have to feel that's giving Lucas way too much credit. The dude can't write decent dialogue, how the hell does she expect him to put together complex political parables?
Needless to say, we can't wait to see what she has to say about "The Dukes of Hazzard."