Jonah Goldberg "That’s what corporations do, right? At least that’s what my kid is taught. In Beethoven, the evil munitions industry shoots Saint Bernards to test bullets. In The Lorax, businesses hate trees. In The Muppets, they hate Muppets (and love oil). I think that in nearly every movie involving cute woodland creatures (Furry Vengeance, Yogi Bear, et al.), businesses are always the bad guys.
"When kids get older, they learn from John Grisham movies that big businesses kill people in order to get what they want. In Aliens, the company wants to smuggle space critters that will likely wipe out all humanity, in the slim hope they’ll eke out a bit more profit. In Avatar, the Halliburton of the future slaughters intelligent aliens and rapes their planet just to make a buck."
I recall what a thrilling movie "The Fugitive" was all the way through until the last when it was revealed the real evil was -wait for it- a "monster" pharmaceutical firm that manufactured dangerous prescriptions to make money faster. Pretty much standard fare on shows like "Law & Order", et al.
Romney fights Hollywood's take on big business "Take, for example, last Thursday when Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) — the heroine of the hit NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” — squared off for a fictitious city council debate with a rich, out-of-touch businessman who threatened to ship jobs overseas unless he got his way.
"When kids get older, they learn from John Grisham movies that big businesses kill people in order to get what they want. In Aliens, the company wants to smuggle space critters that will likely wipe out all humanity, in the slim hope they’ll eke out a bit more profit. In Avatar, the Halliburton of the future slaughters intelligent aliens and rapes their planet just to make a buck."
I recall what a thrilling movie "The Fugitive" was all the way through until the last when it was revealed the real evil was -wait for it- a "monster" pharmaceutical firm that manufactured dangerous prescriptions to make money faster. Pretty much standard fare on shows like "Law & Order", et al.
" “I want to run this town like a business,” Bobby Newport (played by Paul Rudd), said to the constituents of the fictional Pawnee, Ind. “My opponent, Leslie Knope, has an anti-business agenda.”
"When it was Knope’s turn, she shot back: “Corporations are not allowed to dictate what a city needs. The power belongs to the people.”
"She then added: “Bobby Newport and his daddy would like you to think it belongs to them.”
"It’s a prominent example of how businessmen are portrayed in the modern era, examples of which are also seen in films such as “Wall Street,” “Boiler Room,” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
"And Romney is not only countering Hollywood’s portrayal of big business, he’s running against a president with pop cultural appeal."
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