A few weeks ago I heard an interview with an author and screenwriter named Andrew Klavan. Mr. Klavan put forth a very interesting theory that I had never considered. Klavan was talking about how the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, contained a hidden metaphor related to George W. Bush.
Klavan's theory is a simple one. The Batman character in this most recent film is in fact modeled after our current President. I haven't seen the film but Klavan classifies the character in the movie as one who sacrifices his popularity in order to do what is necessary to fight evil. Klavan also takes note of the fact that films with similar themes (like 300) tend to do very well at the box office.
I took a look at the U.S. box office numbers for The Dark Knight and 300. 300 grossed $210 million and The Dark Knight has grossed $514 million.I also found that Iron Man, a film directed by Jon Favreau (a known Republican) and starring Robert Downey Jr. (said to be a strong Conservative) has grossed $318 million to date.
I also checked on a few popular films that toe the Democrat party line with respect to the Iraq war to see how they fared at the box office.
- Redacted - $65,000
- Stop Loss - $10.9 million
- Lions For Lambs - $15 million
- In The Valley of Elah - $6 million
Andrew Klavan makes an interesting point when it comes to the respective approaches of Democratic and Republican film makers. Democrats produce films that hit the issues head on. And Republicans wrap their films in allegory. Some would argue that the reason for the difference in box office take can be found in the fact that the Republican themed films are just simply more entertaining.
Many people I know who have seen Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 disagreed with the premise of the film but found the film making approach to be an entertaining one. Fahrenheit 9/11 grossed $119 million at the domestic box office. Moore's next offering titled Sicko didn't fare as well, grossing $24 million at the U.S. box office. But Sicko still did better than the four anti-Iraq war movies mentioned above.
So if you wanted to make the case that people are buying into the entertainment value rather than the message you might have an argument. So why don't more Democratically oriented films go for more entertainment value. Perhaps the writers and directors are so serious that they just cant' help themselves.
I pondered writing about this topic for awhile but it wasn't till I saw the movie Juno on Friday night that I decided to do so. Juno is a very cute and heart warming film that has grossed $143 million in the United States. The movie features a very strong pro life message. The main character, Juno, is a high school age girl who gets pregnant and considers having an abortion.
Juno knows that she is too young and immature to raise a child. She actually goes to the abortion clinic. Once there she finds a friend from school picketing the clinic while shouting, "Your baby wants to be born." The scene painted inside the clinic is anything but a pretty one. Juno decides right there that she will not abort the baby.
I doubt that most people who watched the film Juno immediately thought that the movie was pushing a pro life message. But the fact is that the decision to keep the child to term was made very quickly without any resistance from friends or family to do otherwise. So I certainly feel that the performance of this film lends credence to Mr. Klavan's theory that the performance of Republican oriented films is an indicator of the true societal values in the U.S.
If this topic interests you I highly recommend that you watch this video where Mr. Klavan explains his beliefs on this topic.
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