Tofu At The Box Office

NRO: New Hollywood Makes You Miss The Old

(National Review Online)  Sure, there are still a few old-school actors around, including Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and Redford and Newman, but they are dinosaurs in contemporary Hollywood. Clint Eastwood is one of the few senior citizens who has managed to remain "cool."

The rise of the baby-faced "stars" is part of the namby-pambyization of Hollywood, and America, that is also reflected in the crop of movies honored by the Motion Picture Academy this year. Among those receiving Oscar nominations, either as best picture or for acting performances, are "Brokeback Mountain" (gay cowboys), "Good Night and Good Luck" (CBS vs. evil Republicans), "The Constant Gardener" (evil drug companies), "Syriana" (the evil oil industry), "North Country" (sexual harassment), and "Transamerica" (sex-change operation).

These aren't movies; they're on-screen therapy sessions. The Oscar should be replaced by a statuette of Dr. Phil. Compare them to such past Hollywood gems as "On the Waterfront," "The African Queen," "High Noon," "All About Eve," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and "Sunset Boulevard," not to mention all-time classics such as "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Gone With the Wind," and "The Godfather."

Three of this year's agenda-driven films — "Good Night and Good Luck," "North Country," and "Syriana" — come from Participant Productions, whose vice president, Meredith Blake, has been quoted as saying, "Our product is social change, and the movies are a vehicle for that social change."

There was a better time when Hollywood's product was not social propaganda but entertainment, and if its movies made America feel better about itself along the way, so much the better. Too many of today's movies are just Air America, the liberal radio network, with popcorn.

But there must be a significant number of Americans who yet long for the golden days of Hollywood, when men were men, women were women and everyone knew the difference. A recent poll showed that John Wayne is tied with Harrison Ford as the third most popular movie star, almost 30 years after Wayne's death.

Every time I think of DiCaprio and other pieces of fluff that currently pass for movie stars, it makes me wish The Duke was still around to show them what Hollywood looked like before it lost its manhood. While Tinseltown is engaging in its touchy-feely fest on Oscar night, I think I'll take a pass and slip a copy of "True Grit" into the DVD player.



An expatriate Canadian, California-based Doug Gamble is a former writer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He now writes for various politicians and corporate executives.