Graceless

Producer Mike Ryan (Junebug, Fay Grim, 40 Shades of Blue) sent this letter to Filmmaker Magazine excoricating John Cusack's new film Grace Is Gone. A friend told me yesterday she saw the movie previewed before Pan's Labyrinth earlier this week and they couldn't wait to see it. According to Mike Ryan's letter, people of conscience might want to think twice. Not simply because the film is receiving mixed reviews at Sundance, but according to Ryan it is tantamount to war profiteering.

That's a hell of a claim. I missed my flight to Sundance so I haven't seen the film and can't comment on it's propaganda quotient. That said, I don't doubt Ryan's probably right. I often wonder how supposedly liberal actors make politically disastrous movies, i.e.., anything by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Truly intelligent and politically sophisticated actors and filmmakers are able to recognize and subvert the reactionary narratives of the movies they are involved in. A great example would be how Tilda Swinton negotiated her potentially reactionary role in Chronicles of Narnia. Of it, she said, "I love the idea of goose-stepping old Walt D making over $700m with the help of a Red Witch. He is more than welcome. At least we made her whiter than white, the ultimate white supremacist, and we managed to railroad the knee-jerk attempt to make her look like an Arab."

Enough about the genius of Tilda Swinton. Here's the letter about Cusack's movie:

Donald Rumsfeld and all pro-war Republicans will love the new John Cusack film, Grace is Gone. Others, some whom may be liberal, agree: it could be a crowd-pleaser able to reach beyond the indie ghetto. It was bought earlier this week for $4 million.

Rumsfeld will love how the film shows a family coping with the grief following the death of the family's soldier mom. There is no anger at the film's end; we are left feeling that this grief will be healed. The film offers a positive portrait of how a family can pull together in such sad circumstances.

Rumsfeld will love how the film's one dissenting, anti-war perspective is mouthed by a clichéd liberal couch potato. Alessandro Nivola plays a 31-year-old bearded lay about. We see him in mid-afternoon on his mother's couch, dozing off in front of cartoons. This liberal also has unfocused opinions, no ambition, and is really only concerned with eating. And being unable to pay for his own meal, living in his mothers home, he is seen as mooching off the system.

Rumsfeld and most Republicans will agree with Cusack's response to his older daughter's questions about the war. To question the value of the war would lead one to a scary place, "we'd be lost," he says. Better to stay the course and trust that the government has our best interests in mind.

Cusack may think that by showing grief and the pain of a soldier's loss, he's made an anti-war film. He couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, he may have inadvertently made a pro-war, pro-Bush film. I think all Republicans will endorse Grace Is Gone; it does not question the war's purpose, instead it focuses on how the country will get through this difficult period.

Assuming the filmmakers are liberal -- and don't intend to come off as supporters of Bush or the war -- how do we explain these sloppy aesthetics? The filmmakers have said they want to reach the biggest audience possible; they feel the subject of their film is nonpartisan. Truth is, though, there is nothing nonpartisan about the war: you either support it or feel that it was a tragic mistake, one that has resulted in countless innocent Iraqi and American deaths.

The "nonpartisan" excuse is really just a cover-up for the fact that the goal of the film is to make as much money as possible. Profit drives its aesthetics, just like profit has driven this war. In this sense the film is the worst kind of exploitation film -- a film that profits off the unjust deaths of innocents is a heinous, odious thing. Like war profiteers Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and Bush, the filmmakers proceeded ahead without truly and fully thinking out their strategy and understanding the consequences of their choices. But as with Halliburton and Bechtel, their choices will very likely result in enormous profits for them and their clan.

Shame on all war profiteers. And please, let this be a warning to all liberally minded filmmakers: let's think out our choices carefully before proceeding with a war-themed film. We may end up doing more harm than good.-- Mike Ryan

Comments

[hedy de vine]

hi. i came here via girl friday's blog. i recognize you from the store and just wanted to say thanks for extending my return date that one time when i rented about 40 hours of the l word. bov is the best.