I like to watch war movies. Better still, I love reading war stories and action stories. In non-fiction, I recently read The Red Circle by Brandon Webb, Inside Delta Force, by Command Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney, and No Easy Day by Mark Owen. In fiction, I like, for example, Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger books, and military science fiction like John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle, or Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series.
So when Argo came out in theaters last year, I put it down as a possibility to go out with the guys, and take a break with gratuitous military violence. Time prevented me from seeing the movie in the theater, so, at the very least, I planned on renting it to watch sometime.
Then I found out how much the Hollywood Academy liked the movie.
The Academy Awards have always been Hollywood's political tool, an expression of political popularity, rather than of audience popularity, or even of good movie making. In years gone by, that popularity drove the Academy at least to nominate and select movies with some intellectual heft. But in the past 40 years or so, the Academy nominations have been less and less about ideas, and more and more about ideologies.
In short, only ideologically correct movies can win the Oscar for Best Picture. Nearly all of the Best Picture winners contain some sort of leftist doctrine. (A recent rare exception was Lord of the Rings.)
So when Argo became the choice for best picture, both with the Academy, and with the nod from the Obama administration (including presentation of the Oscar by Michelle Obama), I decided that I was no longer interested in watching the movie. It obviously was not written for anyone but those initiated into leftist doctrine.
And for the record, I haven't watched the Academy Awards in many, many years. The entire evening is filled with clueless actors who demagogue throughout the evening against "evil" conservatives in this country. Clearly, I have no stake in listening to rants in favor of same sex marriage, against guns, in favor of ruinous federal spending, and against the beliefs of a large percentage of the population in America. I do not understand Hollywood's obvious attempt to infuriate conservatives. It's clear that Hollywood only wants to sell its products to half of Americans.
I was actually surprised to see Hollywood embrace a movie that leftists hate so much. After all, Hollywood and the left were very unhappy that the movie portrayed waterboarding as the reason we found out where Bin Laden was hiding. And the main character is on the trail of Bin Laden for 12 years. Long before Obama was president. Which all makes it hard for the left to vilify enhanced interrogation, and for Obama to take credit for finding him.
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