Politics, and their effect on Hollywood

Politics, and their effect on Hollywood
Al Ritter

I find it funny how Hollywood keeps rehashing old movies because of their lack of imagination and creativity. Are there no new ideas or writers in Hollywood? I’m sure you have thought the same thing at one time or another in the last decade, as the old classics and mediocre weekly TV shows get remade with today’s “vanilla stars.”
However some new and fresh writing comes out time to time, and even so they seem to bomb in the box office never the less. Maybe it’s just me but I find myself playing connect the dots on the reason why.

Many Hollywood stars of today seem to drawn to making political stances as if their life has been filled with the study of political science and not the theatrical arts. We don’t watch movies because of their political stance but because they have the ability (some more than others) to entertain us. This has baffled me, because I wonder why an entertainer would be willing to sacrifice half their audience and fans to make a political statement.

Never the less I watch as the usual suspects in this assault continue to make movies and the box office rankings continue to drop for these political activists. Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, George Clooney……..but you know all the names, I don’t need to tell you who they are. In fact a little over 10 years ago they were known as the “brat pack.”

Some of these actors have already floated into obscurity only to be replaced by the next generation of polarizing actors. They fail to see that they are becoming the very thing they seem to be fighting!

I truly wonder if the problem of sagging box office sales is from poor writing, or rather a result of the actor’s need to have his or her opinion heard on political matters…………..just look at the box office rankings today and see if you don’t agree.