There is a significant sector of the American populace that believes Hollywood tilts seriously to the Left. Such a belief is fostered by a number of factors, one of the most significant of which is the constant barrage of Leftist activism from both celebrities and the Hollywood power players.

However, what does a classic method of determing the true sense of a entity tell us? Look at what they do, not what they say.

So, given that Hollywood's primary "doing" is making movies and TV, what does the content that Hollywood makes tell us about the political orientation that prevails in Tinseltown?

So, given that Hollywood's primary "doing" is making movies and TV, what does the content that Hollywood makes tell us about the political orientation that prevails in Tinseltown?

Not much. You can find movies that reflect just about every possible viewpoint. More important to note, however, is the fact that, for most big blockbuster movies and TV series, the political viewpoint (if any) is trivial. What matters is Does it bring in the big bucks?

Thus, if Hollywood as a whole has any political viewpoint, it's certainly pro-business. (Yeah, you've got the "evil industrialist" cliche in some thrillers, but that's no more serious than the Evil Alien Brain-Eater; it's a plot point.)

With the exception of a few blatantly political films, popular entertainment tends to glorify the individual; the hero. It tends to celebrate those who are sucessful, be it at shooting the bad guys, winning the love of the guy or girl of his or her dreams, leading the cheerleading squad to victory, and so on.

This individualism is also seen in acceptance of various sexual orientations. However, anybody who has seen a typical action movie or romatic comedy knows that Hollywood pays tribute to traditional sex roles, too.

It's a very mixed bag. Whatever sells will be sucessful. If I had to come up with some kind of description for something so complex, I might say that it tends to be somewhat more "libertarian" (as opposed to "populist") than the nation as a whole, and slightly to the "right" economically.

Pretty much like , I think.

To be sure, the artists in Hollywood, like artists of all kinds, lean to the left, just as writers and journalists do. This is no surprise. It's also true that soldiers, peace officers, and business owners lean to the right. It's the nature of the beast. (I even read a study which shows that my own profession of pharmacy leans to the right. I suppose that's why I kept getting liberal-bashing fundraising letters from the Republican Party, even though I have never voted for the GOP in my life.)

It would be interesting to see what the political leanings of Hollywood technicians would be. I don't really know, but I'd guess it would tend to be individualistic, pro-capitalist, leave-me-alone-and-let-me-do-my-job-ist.

Hurray for Hollywood!

So, given that Hollywood's primary "doing" is making movies and TV, what does the content that Hollywood makes tell us about the political orientation that prevails in Tinseltown?

The products that come out of Hollywood have nothing to do with politics, that's what I see, except when the story has to do with politics. To figure out the prevailing political orientation in Hollywood, look at the city's politicians, not the movies.

Here's a little help:

Hollywood Mayor & City Council

The mayor is a gay activist, so he might be Conservative, being as so many are gay.

No, just kidding. He seems pretty active and liberal, fighting for rights and the such.

Then there's this guy:



Um, yeah. Liberal or Conservative? I give.

Then this guy:



Looks Liberal to me.



A Lawyer/Professor! Got Liberal written all over him, unless he's a Conservative.



I don't know, got the economic development thing. Might be Conservative, but then she's for all that other icky Liberal stuff. You know, affordable housing and tenant's rights. Who cares about that? Isn't everybody filthy rich in Tinseltown?

AM- to clarify- being gay doesn't make you republican- it is being CLOSETED gay that makes you republican- that, or a book full of hookers #s, and your crystal meth dealer on speed dial, bought with your oil company money bribes.

It takes a bit more of an education and a world view and some common knowledge to be a succes in Hollywood- and since you have to be pretty stupid and from the south to be conservative- then ya, I would say Hollywood is pretty liberal.

Oh, you say the conservatives don't fit the stereotype, and that conservatives are not that monolithic in nature? Gee, then I wonder how anyone could come to the conclusion, that with the hundreds of thousands of employees, the billions of dollars of investments and investors, that one industry can be nailed down as conservative or liberal?

It is really idiotic to think of an industry that size, with that MONSTROUS of profits, one of the biggest exporters in this country- can be called anything but "corporate" or "business"

You can, however, try to call individuals names.

Recent Big Studio Productions that examine the horror of the Nazi's (the Left's archetype of Evil) and their legacy:

Schindler's List
Life is Beautiful
Diary of Anne Frank

Modern Era Big Studio Productions that glorify those who "get the truth out."

Erin Brokovich
The China Syndrome


Modern Era Big Studio Productions that villify those who "get the truth out."

Good Night, and Good Luck
The Majestic

Modern Era Big Studio Productions that examine the horror of the Communists (the archetypical Evil of the Left)

...
...
...
The Killing Fields

So, given that Hollywood's primary "doing" is making movies and TV, what does the content that Hollywood makes tell us about the political orientation that prevails in Tinseltown?

I'd say that "the content that Hollywood makes" is fairly representative of what appeals to the general public. If one looks at box office figures, well, the highest grossing films of all time are Gone with the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Ten Commandments, Titanic, Jaws, Doctor Zhivago, The Exorcist, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. None of those are particularly "crazy left" and a few of them - including the top two - are pretty damned conservative. I guess, The Sound of Music is pretty liberal, being somewhat critical of Nazism and all.

But I expect that you're thinking in terms of a more recent trend (though Hollywood has been accused of having some sort of leftist slant ever since Joe McCarthy, I suppose). But, again, the biggest blockbusters of the past few decades have pretty consistently been action movies. And action movies tend to have pretty Manichean good vs. evil type plots with lots of emphasis on law and order, if not vigilantism - including frequent heroics from law enforcement and military types - as well as a strong endorsement for individualism and self-reliance verging on objectivism, as Vicki indicated. Overall, our heroes lean more toward the Schwarzenegger-Eastwood-Willis-Stallone types (many of whom are fairly conservative themselves) than the protagonists of left-leaning political thrillers like, um... I dunno - George Clooney? Robert Redford?

The top grossers of the 21st century so far include the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Mission: Impossible films, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, the Spiderman and X-Men flicks, the return of the Star Wars travesty, the Bourne trilogy, King Kong, Casino Royale, and 300. It could be argued, I suppose, that the Bourne flicks are as seriously critical of corruption in the intelligence community as the Spiderman flicks are a serious celebration of vigilantism. About the only really controversial film with a purportedly "left-wing agenda" that has made serious money of late was The Da Vinci Code, which so convincingly promoted an obscure conspiracy theory regarding Christianity that it shook the church to its foundations - and, as we all know, conspiracy theories are solely and exclusively the domain of the left. Oh. Except maybe the "Hollywood is run by crazy leftists" theory. But I'd say The Da Vinci Code's shattering impact on the faith was more than off-set by The Passion of the Christ.

A few comedies have also done reasonably well: Meet the Parents, the Scary Movie and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, the last of the Austin Powers films, Wedding Crashers, Night at the Museum. Again, I don't see the "crazy left" content unless - oh, my God! Hollywood is endorsing piracy!

Family films have also raked in some impressive coin: the Shrek series and all the rest of the Pixar films, the Harry Potter series, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia, Transformers. But where's the hideous lefty agenda in these films? Cars is too multicultural? Harry Potter is a more heinous endorsement of witchcraft than even The Wizard of Oz?

And TV? Again, I don't see much of a liberal bias in top-rated series like the CSI franchise or Lost or The Sopranos or House or 24. Rather the contrary. Stephen Colbert has suggested that "facts have a liberal bias", but does that extend to "reality" as well? Are the Survivor and American Idol type shows all that leftist??

Sure, Hollywood produces a few political films and TV series, some of which have a liberal bias and some of which have a conservative bias. None of them seem to do all that well with the public or to make any sort of political impact - apart from all the coverage that the few left-leaning works get from the conservative press.

What has tended to contribute to the "crazy left" PR regarding Hollywood, though, is more related to personalities than pictures. Barbra Streisand, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Pamela Anderson, and a handful of others occasionally make headlines by making political statements (most of which are met in the popular press - overwhelmingly - with derision, I might add), but they are hardly a majority and hardly constitute a "constant barrage".

What always strikes me as unusual is that anyone who works in the film industry and uses their celebrity to promote political causes is dismissed as being part of "liberal Hollywood" (usually with adjectives like "lunatic" or "fringe" or "fruitcake" appended) - unless they happen to be Ronald Reagan. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or Charleton Heston or Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis or James Wood or Sarah Michelle Gellar or George Lucas or Chuck Norris or Tom Selleck or Kelsey Grammer. Or *cough* Fred Thompson. Even libertarians like Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell, and Drew Carey seem to be spared the "lunatic" label.

I guess it's only "crazy" to be a liberal in Hollywood. And, considering the conservative bent of so many blockbusters, that characterization might just make sense.


EDITED TO ADD:

I was composing the above while you were posting, Bikerdad. Nice cherry-picking, I guess, but dang - who'd've thought that being anti-Nazi was a "crazy left" pursuit. My Sound of Music comment above had originally been intended as humor.

Anyway, your "horror of the Communists" list left off Nineteen-Eighty-Four, The Manchurian Candidate, Doctor Zhivago, The Last Emperor, Gorky Park, The Deer Hunter, Seven Years in Tibet, Red Dawn, Buena Vista Social Club, M. Butterfly, The Sand Pebbles, The Russia House, most Cold War-based spy flicks (which has to be most spy flicks in general), and dozens of "red scare" sci-fi movies in the fifties and early sixties (like Invasion of the Body Snatchers) - hell, even Warren Beatty's Reds is fairly critical of post-revolution Russia.

Oh - and Life Is Beautiful (actually La Vita è bella) was produced by the Italian Cecchi Gori Group, directed by Roberto Benigni, and shot in Tuscany and Umbria with an Italian cast. It may be a "Modern Era Big Studio Production", but it is hardly Hollywood - "crazy left" or otherwise.

I found an article about American political movies from a few years ago that may shed some light on this topic.

Link



Here's the full results, with rankings from number one to number five for each group.

OVERALL:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Manchurian Candidate
Citizen Kane
All the President's Men
The American President

DEMOCRATS:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
All the President's Men
The Manchurian Candidate
Fahrenheit 9/11
The American President

REPUBLICANS:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Citizen Kane
The American President
The Manchurian Candidate
Dave

INDEPENDENTS:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Farmer's Daughter
Citizen Kane
The Manchurian Candidate
Fahrenheit 9/11

So what can we tell from this? Well, apparently we all love the fable about the Ordinary Decent Citizen -- Mister Smith -- who exposes Corruption in High Places. We like our "American President" to be an Nice Guy who can Fall in Love. It also seems that we all love to imagine that the world is full of complex conspiracies. (And with its utterly evil Communist agents, I hardly think we can call The Manchurian Candidate "leftist," despite some satire on McCarthyism. In fact, the movie's plot seems to suggest that the problem with McCarthyism is that it didn't go far enough, and that it let itself be duped by the Reds.) It's easy to see why Republicans might not be fond of All the President's Men -- that was a shameful episode in American politics, and it happened to be the GOP that paid for it. It's easy to see why Democrats and those feisty independents, libertarian-ish or green-ish, might like Fahrenheit 9/11.


It's harder to see why Democrats might not care for Citizen Kane; I certainly think that its reputation for greatness is deserved. It hardly seems like a "conservative" or "liberal" film to me. Perhaps it's uncomfortable for those of us on the left to be reminded that it is all too easy for a Champion of the People to devolve into just another Fat Cat. (Or is it the fact that Kane's hopes for election are tripped up by a sex scandal, which may have reminded them of an unpleasant event in their own recent history?) Perhaps that plot element has something to do with the popularity of Dave among Republicans. After all, it features a philandering President named "Bill."

Leave it to those unpredictable Independents to give second place to The Farmer's Daughter! Possibly the least famous film of the bunch, this quirky romantic comedy features a proto-feminist heroine -- sort of a Ms. Smith -- who rises from working as a maid to running for Congress, on a pro-immigration, firmly New Deal kind of platform. With the exception of the deliberately provocative Fahrenheit 9/11, I'd say that this is the most liberal movie on the list!

Maybe Independents are, at least to some extent, made up of liberals who haven't gotten entirely cynical about the American Dream yet.

In any case, there are plenty of movies to please film buffs of all political persuasions.

There is also a significant sector of the American populace that cares more about the quality of the movies Hollywood produces than they care about the politics of the actors, directors, producers and executives.

For all this blah-blah-blah about how "liberal" Hollywood is, any leftward tilt is more evident in the personal politics of a handful of actors than it is in the movies we watch in the dark. Are there more liberals than conservatives making movies in Hollywood? Sure there is, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of films available for conservatives to find their values being promoted.

Don't take my word for it. The National Review published a list of "The 100 Best Conservative Movies" and there's quite a few obvious ones that made the cut. Among them are Chariots of Fire, King of Kings, The Deer Hunter, Rambo: First Blood Pt II, A Man For All Seasons, The Ten Commandments, Shane, High Noon, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Stand and Deliver, Lean On Me, Sergeant York and It's A Wonderful Life.

I wonder how Dirty Harry, Patton, Deathwish and the Rocky series didn't make the cut? If those movies slanted any further to the political Right, they'd fall over.

Oh, but if you want something a bit more up-to-date, there's always Black Hawk Down, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Air Force One, Gods and Generals, Independence Day, The Patriot, Behind Enemy Lines and of course, all of the "Star Wars" flicks.

There's plenty of solid conservative movies coming out of far-Left Hollywood. Even one of the stars of one of the most important counter-culture, left-wing films of all time, Dennis Hopper of Easy Rider, is now a good Republican.

Make of that what you will.

Not much since the people who make movies want everyone to watch them to maximize profits.

The exception is garbage called “documentaries” by Moore and they appeal to the left and many Europeans from that persuasion.

The actors seem to be uniformly left with some notable exceptions.