Once again, family-friendly, uplifting and inspiring movies drew far more viewers in 2008 than films with themes of despair, or leftist political agendas. Sex, drugs and antireligious themes were not automatic sellers, either. Among the 25 top-grossing movies alone, 14 out of 25 had strong or very strong Christian, redemptive and moral content, and nearly all had at least some such content.
Values of importance to all people of faith were not the only ingredients in many of 2008’s top movies. As in past years, films with strong pro-capitalist content — extolling free-market principles or containing positive portrayals of real or fictional businessmen and entrepreneurs — tended to make the most money. The hero of the biggest success of the year, “The Dark Knight,” is a billionaire capitalist who, disguised as Batman, defends Gotham City and its residents from a crazed, anarchistic terrorist criminal. In “Iron Man,” the second-most popular movie with American and Canadian moviegoers in 2008, a capitalist playboy and billionaire defense contractor stops working against the interests of America and its citizens and uses his wealth to defend America and its free-market values.
I would replace “uplifting” with wholesome. Read it all–KSH.
But to do this, the Tinseltown pashas would have to abandon their political project of convincing Americans of the unloveliness of their country. That won’t happen.
um, when did these films come out? before the collapse i’d wager.
‘a capitalist playboy and billionaire defense contractor stops working against the interests of America and its citizens and uses his wealth to defend America and its free-market values.’
yah, right, that’s why they call it fantasy. in real life, defending his own pocketbook at the expense of others is more like it.
Somehow, given recent history the words “capitalism” and “uplifting” really don’t seem synonymous.
Except it wasn’t capitalism that got us into the mess we are in. It was the government dictating to the banks (and Freddie and Fannie) that they had to issue mortgage loans to people who were high risk.
By the way, without the billionaires and millionaires to invest their capital into the system, there is no system. There is no way that the poor can create jobs, even if they banded together. It takes capital to create capital and the jobs that go with them.
The Soviet Union and other ‘pure socialist’ regimes shows that this type of ‘spread the wealth’ generates two types of class: the rich ‘distributers’ and the dirt poor providers. There is no middle class in non-capitalist societies.