A Wasted Blog Post

From Andrea Harris, via my comments section:

…neither Rand nor Mark Stein said that Hollywood is losing money because they no longer make “morality tales.” Why don’t you try reading the article? Steyn said that the reason Hollywood is losing money is because 1) the cramped, uncomfortable theaters with bad, blurry pictures run by inept crews, 2) the dull, bland, safe rehashing of the same three ideas (wacky girl and guy fall into comic hate-love, hilarity ensues, also car chases; brooding freethinking manchild who is still in love with his divorced Only Wife is Abused By the System — which is represented by short-haired white men in suits, aka Republicans; or occasionally, blond neo-Nazi terrorists with fake Cherman accents — and Loses Everything He Has But His Dignity, with car chases and explosions; and brooding, mature woman-goddess is Hurt By Men, but is redeemed by her Feisty, Bitchy, Neurotic, Yet Wise Beyond Their Prescriptions female friends — no car chases and the only explosions are screaming cat fights that dissolve into hugs ‘n’ tears) 3) the stifling political correctness that covers the industry like a blanket of mold and which has done something formerly thought impossible: made the Catholic League for Decency (or whatever they were called), the Hays Commission, and the dreaded Joe McCarthy and HUAC look like a bunch of fun party people.

He noted that Harry Potter was a phenomenon, but one unconnected to the overall problem of the no-fun suck that Hollywood’s output has become. He did imply that people go see the Potter movies because they seem to actually accept that there is good and evil in the world, not just “accepting” and “hurtful.” They also aren’t overly concerned with political correctness, though Rowling is careful to have Indian and black students in the wizard school, and one of Goblet of Fire’s subplots is (at least in the book, I haven’t seen the movie) about bigotry against the “different,” in this case, giants — but at least no one gets up and stops the action dead to make a speech, or worse. If the current minds behind today’s thrillers with the fake “nazis are the only acceptible villains” terrorists in them had been in charge of the Potter films Harry would have been cast as a black lesbian paraplegic and there would have been no magic to avoid insulting Wiccans.