Gerald Molen, an Academy Award-winning producer whose credits include "Jurassic Park," "Rain Man" and "Schindler's List," has spoken out in defense of his newest film, the anti-Obama documentary, "2016: Obama's America."
The producer, a Republican, says that his film is "fair and truthful."
“All of my movies have been about telling the truth,” Molen told the Hollywood Reporter. “That’s important to me. We’ve gone out of our way to make a movie that’s fair and truthful. And these numbers tell me that the American people agree with that assessment.”
"2016: Obama's America" is Molen's first documentary based on the book by Dinesh D'Souza, "The Roots of Obama's Rage." The film finished at No. 8 in the box office this weekend, nearly outdoing Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "Premium Rush" and ranking as the second-highest grossing new film.
The anti-Obama documentary expanded to theaters nationwide this weekend after noteworthy success in a select-market release.
In July, Molen told IndieWire that "2016: Obama's America" is for those who will inherit America.
"I’m what you call a 'senior citizen.' Very senior," he told IndieWire. "And I have grandchildren, I have great-grandchildren and I’m very concerned about their future with this heavy, heavy debt that we’re laying at their feet, and I don’t think that’s right. There’s just issues that I guess I would disagree on those lines with people that feel that that’s not a problem."
He also said that he hopes his film can affect the 2012 election. "That’s why I’ve put a lot of effort into this, a lot of time and travel and interviews. Seven months. Dinesh has probably been working on it for a couple of years. So I’m hopeful that it does," he said.
However, success has not made this flick immune to criticism.
The New York Times' Andy Weber notes that although "2016: Obama's America" features an interview with Obama's half-brother, George Obama, it doesn't feature interviews with Obama's political supporters, "but this isn’t that kind of documentary."
Michael O'Sullivan of the Washington Post gave the film one-and-a-half stars and dubbed it "a slick infomercial."
Molen expected to take some heat, since he's a conservative in Hollywood's vast sea of liberals. An anti-Obama film certainly would not sit well with his peers, but Molen no longer wanted to conceal his policial views.
"There aren't a lot of people who know much about our president," Molen wrote in an article for THR back in April. "Basically, my movie, '2016: Obama's America,' will help solve that equation. I read Dinesh D'Souza's book 'The Roots of Obama's Rage' when I realized that I, like many people, never really knew much about Barack Obama, and I loved the way it was laid out in his book. Dinesh answers the questions: Who is he, and what are his dreams?"
He continues, "It's not really a negative take on Obama because both sides are looked at by Dinesh. The movie isn't out there saying you should vote one way or the other; it's just the truth, a lot of it from Obama's own words."
