Persistence of Vision

Can Hollywood transcend the vagaries of the market? There's no time like the present to ask that question.

Writing for the New York Times, David Carr suggests that the answer may be "yes":

Hollywood comes by its indifference honestly. Certainly, the stock prices of the big media companies that own the film industry are getting pounded on the market along with the rest of us, and the canyons are no doubt full of little rivers of blood as individuals watch their net worth shrink.

But out there at the box office, it is still morning in America. Four major movies opened on Friday, and they came on the heels of seven movies the week before, most of which did quite nicely, thank you. The fact that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" has topped the box office for two weeks running and has taken in over $52 million may be one of the signs of the apocalypse, but not the kind that has anything to do with credit default swaps.

"It's times like these that some of those jokes about the people in Los Angeles seem valid," said Peter Bart, the editor in chief of Variety. "There has always been the suggestion that this city is not acutely conscious of what is going on in the rest of the world, and this is one of the times when it lives up to the reputation. There are many people here who don't read a lot and because of that are less obsessed by what is happening back in New York."

Spend any time here, and you will soon learn that Hollywood lives by its own clock. Because movies are generally large endeavors that take time to come together, they reflect things that were happening three years ago while the studios' capital outlays speculate on the needs of the market three years hence.

After taking a big hit during the Depression, the Hollywood box office came back strong--and this time could be no different. The consumer might consider a night of watching the serial disaster movie on CNBC or CNN, or decide to head to the movies instead, which is why the people who finance Hollywood continue to make large bets that people will still go to the movies.

In the last few weeks, billions--not from the federal government, but from actual banks--are being invested even as brokers back East stare into the abyss of their trading terminals.

Reuters reported last Thursday that JPMorgan Chase--one of the industry's go-to financiers--knocked out three big deals, including a venture between the Reliance ADA Group of India and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG. The bank has already put up $125 million--and $600 million more from other lenders is on hold for the moment, but there's no reason to think the deal won't go through.

JPMorgan also wrapped up a $350 million deal for Media Rights Capital, the company that is making the latest Cameron Diaz movie and was the leader in gathering the $1 billion to finance the digital upgrade of 20,000 movie theaters to help increase the capacity to show 3-D films.

There is enormous pent-up demand for films that will be ready in 2009 and 2010 because the writers' strike held up production and then the threat of an actors' strike pinched schedules. But the industry seems to have collectively decided that actors won't risk a strike during a huge economic headwind. Approximately 50 movies from the various studios have received some sort of approval and will enter production soon, according to Variety.

And that's a wrap.

NRO's Kevin Williamson has good things to say about Nick Tucker's Do As I Say:

Do As I Say is funny throughout and does''t get bogged down in the sort of angry grinding that tends to characterize too much political polemic on both sides.

Jonah Goldberg makes an appearance in the film, and he's in good form. By far my favorite stunt in the film has do to with Michael Moore's trust and investment portfolio, which includes interests in Halliburton, General Electric, and other defense contractors. Moore denies that he has any such investments, so the filmmakers get a copy of his trust's tax returns to document them. Moore refuses to look at it, so they do the obvious thing and employ a cake decorator to replicate the documents on delicious baked goods. Hilarity ensues as the police are dispatched to the Moore compound to deal with this dangerous dessert. It's beautiful stuff. Ted Kennedy gets ambushed, George Soros lampooned and, against all odds, you will learn something new and depressing about the Clintons' real-estate endeavors in Arkansas. (Yes, my eyes rolled when Clintonian real-estate deals came up, but hang on, it's an interesting segment.)

Sign up at DoAsISayMovie.com to bring it to a theater in your area--and become eligible to win a free iPod nano in the process!

At Indoctrinate-U.com, Evan Coyne Maloney writes:

A man named Bill Ayers has been in the news lately as Senator Barack Obama's connections to the 1960s-era domestic terrorist have become an issue in the presidential campaign. It reminded us of a segment cut from an earlier edit of Indoctrinate U.

In this deleted scene, we told the story of how 1960s campus radicals morphed into today's academics. Three of those radicals were Ayers, his now-wife Bernardine Dohrn, and Mark Rudd. Together, they led the Weather Underground, a group committed to the violent overthrow the U.S. Government.

To bring about their hoped-for communist utopia, the Weathermen bombed dozens of targets around the country including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and military recruiting stations. In executing their various attacks, the Weathermen killed a few of their own and also murdered two police officers and a security guard while robbing an armored car. They targeted the families of judges, celebrated the Manson murders, and through legal technicalities, most of them avoided jail.

Decades later, they're still unapologetic. In an interview published on September 11th, 2001, Ayers told The New York Times, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

What does all of this have to do with higher education? Watch the video to find out.

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Check out U.N.MeMovie.com, the dedicated website for MPI's newest film, U.N. Me. This documentary is funny and terrifying by turns. It exposes how the world's foremost humanitarian organization has become the clubhouse of dictators, tyrants, and thugs--and now underwrites work very far removed from peacekeeping and human rights. View the trailer and read all about the film at the site--and if you want to see it in theaters, consider making a donation via MPI that will help the cause.

On a related note, check out this interview with Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine--who has big problems with the U.N., and tons of praise for U.N. Me:

When I was younger, there was one incident where a Russian diplomat was absolutely inebriated, drove through a stop sign and killed an American in New York City, then was let off because of diplomatic immunity. If anything, he should have had to have some kind of restitution for taking a human life while driving a vehicle out of his mind on alcohol. If anything, they should have recalled him and punished him at home for manslaughter. As far as I remember, nothing happened.

That made me start looking at what the U.N. stood for, and I started seeing stuff like the 'oil for food' crisis and finding out that one Secretary General was a former Nazi, and another guy was a former spy. I feel really safe having these guys run the world's organization to prevent war and promote peace. There's a new movie coming out called 'You and Me' [sic], which I had some involvement in, and it's basically the 'Fahrenheit 9/11' for the U.N. I think once people see some of the stuff, they're going to be so blown away. Just the trailer that I saw that made me commit to being part of the movie was so unnerving."

The Documentary Channel, which reaches upward of 25 million households via the Dish Network, will be airing Indoctrinate U as part of its "Controversy in America" series. The film will screen on October 27 at 9 p.m. and midnight, November 1 at 5 p.m., November 2 at 2 a.m., and November 4 at 3 a.m. (All times EST.) Be there!

Over the past year, The Singing Revolution has screened in over 120 theaters across North America. And now it's available in DVD. There is a simple version featuring just the film, and there is a three-disc set that comes in educational and collectors' editions. These include maps, music, history, rare Nazi and Soviet propaganda footage, and lots of bonus interviews.

A lushly illustrated companion book has also just been published, and is available through SingingRevolution.com.