That's not really true, Devans00--about Hollywood being "ahead of it's time". Hollywood tended to play it safe early on (late 20's or early 30's), when they adopted a code of morals for movies that often resulted in changing the endings of film adaptations of timeless classic books, until quite recently--and even now its the small indies that are ahead of their time, not the major films associated with the Hollywood studios. Hollywood would not show interracial romances, even if the story called for one. In the 1940's movie "Pinky", a black woman and a white man were in love. They had a white woman play the black woman so that the kissing scene was between two white people instead of a white man and a black woman. And while they did give an Oscar to black actress Hattie McDaniel in 1939 for her role in Gone With the Wind, it was for her role as a mammy--a servant. Hollywood actors are generally liberal, but it's an exaggeration to say they have been known for this characteristic since the 1900s. In the 1950's, fear of black listing kept many of them silent about their political views, and they were not known for being liberal, even if they were. Also, far from being liberals, during World War II, many Hollywood denizens were unabashedly patriotic and supported the War effort in many ways, from joining the military and fighting the enemy, to selling War Bonds (Carole Lombard, wife of Clark Gable, was killed in an airplane crash on a War Bonds junket).
Patriotism is not a liberal quality--if you took today's Hollywood stars and drop kicked them back then you would have Sean Penn meeting with Hitler and telling us we shouldn't be fighting him; you'd have Susan Sarandan and Tim Robbins making cookies for the SS; Mike Farrell would be in front of the White HOuse taking Roosevelt to task for being a "war monger".
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Devans00
18 years ago
First of all, ariamne, I don't accept your characterization of the behavior of current Hollywood people if they were placed in another time period. Their whole world views would be different if they grew up in a different time and place, so how can you speculate on what they'd do? Plus, as far as I know, those politicians and other world leaders didn't randomly accept visits from movie people. They tended to be a little too busy for that.
Second, liberal ideology has more to do with more than mainstream politics. For instance, Katherine Hepburn was known as a radical for her insistance on wearing pants. For her time and place in history, women wearing pants outside of a work situation was quite liberal and mildly shocking behavior. My mother was a teenager in the 50s and a young mother in the 60s and 70s. She always got some flack, or at least comments, for wearing pants both at work as a nurse and on her free time. But by the 70s, enough women on film and in the public eye were doing it so that it's become acceptable. You can look it up. Until the 1980s, at least, women were suing for the right to have the choice to wear pants to work.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
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oilgun
17 years ago
Patriotism is not a liberal quality
I was agreeing with your post until the last paragraph, lol! My jaw actually dropped. So you're saying that if you make efforts to AVOID conflict and death, that makes you unpatriotic and only people who unconditionally "support the troups" and the President, should be considered patriotic?
God help us all! And that's coming from a devout atheist, lol!
Anyway, I do agree that Hollywood is not "ahead of it's time", it's more a mirror than trailblazer.
As for the somewhat inconsistent feminist tone in COMA. That was definitely a reflection of american society in the seventies.
The Messiah Is Not Coming...and He's Not Even Going to Call! - Israeli hit tune in 2001
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ariamne
16 years ago
You parsed my words of course, but in essence that is correct. Neville Chamberlain made efforts to avoid war and death by diplomatic means by engaging Hitler and history has shown him to be wrong and a fool to boot. Sometimes you are dealing with people who don't want to avoid conflict and death, they welcome it. Think radical islam, for example. There are times when war cannot be avoided, unless you are willing to give up your way of life, and for some, life itself. And everyone should "support the troops" whether you support the current war in Iraq or not. They don't choose the theatre in which they are sent to fight; and they are your neighbors and countrymen. They would die for your way of life; the least you can do is show some respect.
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ceebeegee
15 years ago
Patriotism is not a liberal quality
What a crock of sh*t. My liberal brother who served in Baghdad would be surprised to hear that. As would John F. Kennedy. And Jimmy Carter. And John Kerry. You belong right there with the Teabaggers, slandering anyone who doesn't share your vision of America. God, I love the ignore function--don't have to read anything more by you, buh-bye.
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