While conservatives like to knock Hollywood for its supposed liberal bent, one columnist in England thinks that its films are promoting quite the opposite viewpoint.
Writing for the Guardian, Rick Moody jumps off comic and film writer/director Frank Miller's harsh condemnation of Occupy Wall Street and argues that movies promote a "cryptofascist" agenda.
"Miller's hard-right, pro-military point of view is not only accounted for in his own work, but in the larger project of mainstream Hollywood cinema," Moody writes. "American movies, in the main, often agree with Frank Miller, that endless war against a ruthless enemy is good, and military service is good, that killing makes you a man, that capitalism must prevail, that if you would just get a job (preferably a corporate job, for all honest work is corporate) you would quit complaining."
Using action heroes and noted conservatives such as Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone as examples, Moody also points to more recent movies, such as "300" -- a Miller creation -- and the long line of comic book movies, such as "Captain America" and "X-Men," as hiding a moralist, might is right agenda in its explosions and visual smorgasbord.
"In these cases, the moral framework of the product is just as simplistic as in action films, if not more so, and the triumph of the social order is just as violent, and just as relentless, though the films are couched in a sugary glaze of graphics and "wow" moments that distract from ideological branding."
The coming release of multiple films about the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, including one by Katherine Bigelow, will no doubt add to Moody's argument, as will the upcoming film, "Act of Valor," which stars real Navy SEALs and Jerry Bruckheimer's upcoming Navy SEALs project. Bigelow's movie will come out after the 2012 election after, paradoxically, Republicans objected to its airing.
Hollywood has long been a leader on social issues, such as gay rights, with films such as last year's Oscar-nominated "The Kids Are All Right" showing functional and loving families headed by gay parents. President Obama recently fundraised in Hollywood with some of the industry's biggest names.
For more from Moody, click over to the Guardian.