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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Religion Lies, Damn Lies, and the Religious Right's Statistics

Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 7:04 AM

We really need to start a false witness project, a website that documents and debunks the lies peddled by the religious right. For people who want to see the Ten Commandments in public buildings—with its commandment against bearing false witness—conservative Christians bear false witness constantly. They lie about homos, of course, and documenting those lies alone would consume huge swaths of the Interwebs. But they lie about other stuff too, little stuff, out of sheer force of habit.

For instance, last night I was in a hotel gym in Calgary and all there was to read was last Friday's "Weekend Journal" section of the Wall Street Journal. Okay, fine. I like their movie reviews. The February 13 "Houses of Worship" column was written by Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide ("a ministry dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media according to biblical principles"), and Tom Snyder, an editor at Movieguide. Baehr and Snyder want Hollywood to know that movies with family-friendly themes—movies that didn't shove "despair, or leftist political agendas," or "sex, drugs, and anti-religious" down the throats of filmgoers (or "licentious content," per Milk, or "atheist" content, per Religulous)—did not make money, while films with "conservative content" did, films like Valkyrie, Defiance, and The Dark Knight ("the hero [is] a billionaire capitalist..."). And...

The moneymaking trend was similar for movies with explicit or implicit anti-communist content. That group—including "An American Carol," which mocks communism; "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," where Indy reviles communists and their impoverished ideology is exposed; "City of Ember," where a tyrant steals from the people; and "Fly Me to the Moon," about the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union—averaged $71.8 million at the 2008 box office.

First... we're still worried about the commies? Really?

Second... um, I hadn't heard of City of Ember or Fly Me to the Moon until I read about their amazing box office returns in "Houses of Worship." It's weird for films that pull in more than $70 million to escape my notice. But I did hear about An American Carol, a limp and unfunny conservative "send-up/take-down" of Michael Moore. And what I'd heard was this: it was an embarrassing flop. So I looked up the domestic box office figures for all four films:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull cost $185 million to produce and took in $317,101,119.
Fly Me to the Moon cost $25 million to produce and took in $12,857,206.
City of Ember cost $55 million to produce and took in $7,873,007.
An American Carol cost $20 million to produce and took in just $7,013,191.

So, yeah, these four films together averaged—by my calculations—something like $84 million dollars at the domestic box office. But why on earth would you group these four films together? Two of the three films lost money; Fly Me to the Moon barely turned a profit when its foreign take is included. But An American Carol and City of Ember lost more than $50 million between them.

Lumping Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in with two flops and one near-flop and then declaring that films anti-communist themes "averaged $71.8 million at the box office" is like me saying that Ironman ($318,412,101 domestic box office) and this YouTube video of my son snowboarding ($0 domestic box office) took in an average of $159,206,051 at the box office, and so Hollywood needs to make more movies about, um, white guys defying gravity. It's a totally true stat, but totally misleading and totally meaningless.

And Milk? It's made more money so far ($26,717,000)—before the Oscars—than An American Carol, Fly Me to the Moon, and City of Ember, and it's already turned a profit. With a month Milk will have made more money than all three of those films combined. Bill Maher's Religulous made more money ($13,011,160) than Carol, Moon and Ember, and it too is profitable.

Sheesh. I really shouldn't be surprised. Religious conservatives lie. It's what they do. It's all they have. It is shocking that the editors of the Wall Street Journal would let these douchebags lie to their readers like this.

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Also, Fly Me To the Moon is about the Space Race? That's one hell of a stretch. Check out the trailer: it's an animated kids movie about heroic flys (as in, insects) sneaking onto a spaceship and going to space:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independen…

I'll bet you Communists are never mentioned.

Posted by pablo on February 17, 2009 at 7:13 AM

The title of this post is misleading, it is a painful tedious screed that would be better titled "Ode to Dan's Compulsive Obsession with the Religious Right".

Posted by zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz on February 17, 2009 at 7:18 AM

The people on the religious right lie all the time. They lied in Michigan in 2004 to scare the hoo-ha out of ill-informed voters. And they did it again in CA in '08. They're lying in that video you posted from West Virginia. It's all they have left. And we need to point it out in order to destroy this insufferable and dangerous movement once and for all.

Posted by Balt-O-Matt on February 17, 2009 at 7:24 AM

Dan, I saw you on utube with the whole "bearing false witness with your mouth" thing.
It really comes across as whiny.
And shrill.
And pissy.
And very "I'm going to tell my mommy!".

Posted by do we have to be soooo gay? on February 17, 2009 at 7:24 AM

City of Ember is a young adult book, like Twilight.

Posted by kim in portland (formerly just kim) on February 17, 2009 at 7:28 AM

Fudging box office numbers?
Scanalous!
Good thing liberal Hollywood movie makers never do that.

Posted by Hollywood is the center of virtue in the Universe on February 17, 2009 at 7:29 AM

If you overlook the misleading use of numbers how do you feel as a parent about encouraging more family friendly and positive message movies?

Posted by Will on February 17, 2009 at 7:41 AM

I appreciate your analysis. You should release your grievances of the religious right in a bound edition. Your critique is smart, and take heart, bovine advocates (Milk) will triumph over billionaires (Batman) in the sweet by and by.

Posted by Pickwick Bill on February 17, 2009 at 7:47 AM

@7: I think that's a completely separate issue. The point is that right-wing culture warriors have for years been trying to make the (patently false) claim that conservative themes in movies and other arts are more profitable, ergo the prevalence of allegedly "liberal" themes is proof that the entertainment industry is a tool of communist propagandists more than an industry.

What is at stake here is artistic freedom, not family-friendly entertainment.

Posted by Lee on February 17, 2009 at 7:53 AM

9
Communist propaganda?
Silly Conservatives!
Everyone knows Hollywood is a hotbed of Godless Secular Humanist propoganda.

Posted by Belzeebub on February 17, 2009 at 8:01 AM

#7, you mean like "Milk"?

Posted by Your Name Here on February 17, 2009 at 8:17 AM

I'm surprised they lumped City of Ember in with other conservative fair- the movie was about two kids who defy the cultish beliefs of Ember's citizens (that even though the city is dying, they shouldn't do anything because the "creators" would save them) and they find a way to escape the city and it's corrupt leader.

The movie wasn't half bad; unfortunately it got absolutely no marketing, and when it tanked at the box office the studio basically disowned it.

Posted by UNPAID COMMENTER on February 17, 2009 at 8:19 AM

@7 The last thing young people need is family entertainment and a positive message. Movies, like fairy tales and see the Brothers Grimm, are a place for young people to work out their anxieties about the world and their place in it.

Posted by Youth worker on February 17, 2009 at 8:21 AM

13
young people need positive role models of what they can do with their lives and of what successful family live looks like (beause a lot of them won't have first hand experience with it)

Posted by Will on February 17, 2009 at 8:34 AM

That really explains why Friday the 13th took in $45.2 million in one weekend. Fucktards.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on February 17, 2009 at 8:36 AM

Calgary?? Are you speaking somewhere in Calgary today?

Posted by Curious on February 17, 2009 at 8:59 AM

It Iron Man, not Ironman. Sorry, my stack of comic books in the attick demanded I send a correction.

Posted by hal on February 17, 2009 at 9:06 AM

@15 You mean Friday the 13th wasn't a conservative movie where you have to be a virgin who doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs to stay alive?

Posted by The(Flippant)Misanthrope on February 17, 2009 at 9:29 AM

I'm pretty sure the youtube video of the kid snowboarding is the most entertaining on this whole list of fine films.

Posted by MDP on February 17, 2009 at 9:48 AM

Why is it shocking that the editors of a Rupert Murdoch owned media company would allow conservative lies? I am shocked that you are shocked.

Posted by clint on February 17, 2009 at 9:54 AM

The great RR was never any good at reviewing movies because today's films aren't always mindless fantasies. I'd hate to see Christianity Today's review of Doubt. Yes, the RR will lie, cheat, steal. Remember the Rick Warren meme: "Whatever It Takes".

Posted by DanV on February 17, 2009 at 9:56 AM

16-
Yeah, whatcha up to in Cowtown, Dan?

Posted by Harv on February 17, 2009 at 9:56 AM

The "truth" is whatever they, in their glorious self righteousness, delare it to be. That's why they spent twenty million dollars on a "museum" that shows Adam and Eve, two fictional characters, dancing with T-Rex. (They wouldn't think of spending that money on starving children). And as for The Wall Street Journal, aren't they just as bad? The point is that we, the believers of truth, depend on you, the defender of truth, to keep us informed. For that I am more grateful than I can say.
P.S. Great video and nice shredding.

Posted by Vince on February 17, 2009 at 10:01 AM

Calgary? Yes, please 'splain. Nosy Canadians from Wienerpeg to Vagina are dying of curiosty.

Aha--it's the skiing/snowboarding, isn't it?

Posted by Puty on February 17, 2009 at 10:07 AM

italics rule

Posted by even when it's just a crummy sloped roman sans on February 17, 2009 at 10:10 AM

I did not italicize, WTF? Shit happens when Dan goes to Calgary!

Posted by Puty on February 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Lies, Damn Lies, and The Religious Right. You can leave out the statistics part. There are Lies, there are Damn Lies, and there is Religious Right...in that order. Or...Self Righteous Fuckwits, if you prefer.

Jim Burroway over at Box Turtle Bulletin caught a good one from that "gay sniper" ad you posted about the other day. Went right past me at the time, but it seems that things have gotten so out of hand now that schools don't even celebrate Father's Day anymore. Can you imagine? Schools don't even celebrate Father's Day anymore. And just never you mind that Father's Day is the third weekend in June, when most schools are out for the summer anyway...

This is how the game is played. Because fighting for morality, virtue and righteousness is more important then being trustworthy, and telling the truth.

Posted by Bruce Garrett on February 17, 2009 at 10:20 AM

I saw Fly Me to the Moon and it was painfully, insultingly bad. They even got the physics wrong! You'd think that in a movie about "real" space travel (okay, it had anthropomorphic flies, but they were hitching a lift on a real space mission) they would take the opportunity to get those details right and sneak in a little educational value. But nooooo.

Aside from that, the racial and cultural stereotyping was shockingly outdated and just plain lazy. There were black flies with giant afros, the Russian flies were brutes with pointy teeth, the female characters were useless fainting idiots, and the fat fly protagonist wanted to eat all the time.

Hell, I saw it for free and I felt ripped off.

If that's the conservatives' idea of a good movie, it's no wonder they got clobbered in the last election.

Posted by breklor on February 17, 2009 at 10:36 AM

So Dan you made it to Calgary before Bush?
But probably will not make as much money at a speaking engagement than he will.

Posted by -B- on February 17, 2009 at 10:57 AM

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

silly ranting - lies abound in the big world from all sectors - Dan working thru disbelief in his 40 ies ... good luck

Posted by Nephi on February 17, 2009 at 10:58 AM

Read City of Ember with my son. If it's an anti-commie book, they managed to sneak that past me.

Posted by Marv on February 17, 2009 at 11:01 AM

Why is the Crystal Skull movie considered to be biblically based? Are alien astronauts part of the christianist world view now?

Posted by actual size on February 17, 2009 at 11:19 AM

Dan-20 got it right. WSJ editorials have always been crap, and now the Murdoch is in charge, it's just going to go downhill.

@32- What do you think angels are? That's right, Alien astronauts from the future.

Posted by dwight moody on February 17, 2009 at 11:35 AM

I saw the anti-socialist (or "communist", if you're Ted Baehr) themes in City of Ember. Bureaucratic nonsense ruining the lives of the people, govt.-assigned jobs, govt. waste, govt. corruption... it was like Brazil for kids.

Ted Baehr is not really worth complaining about... the less attention people give him, the faster he'll disappear.

Posted by Ryan on February 17, 2009 at 12:53 PM

Good work, DJ. Way to rake in the cash.

Posted by Katherine of it All on February 17, 2009 at 2:54 PM

@21: "I'd hate to see Christianity Today's review of Doubt."

Well then, don't click here.

I don't know what you're afraid of, though. The review does a pretty good job of considering the religious questions raised by the film -- which makes sense, since the reviewer probably understands those questions better than a reviewer from the secular press would. Christianity Today also published a very entertaining interview with screenwriter/director John Patrick Shanley, which certainly went to places none of his other interviews went to.

Posted by ChUck on February 17, 2009 at 3:54 PM

I'm still bewildered at labeling "The Dark Knight" a conservative film because the hero is a billionaire capitalist. Um, yeah, but he's also a radical renegade, acting as if he's above the law in order to change society as he sees fit... what did Palin & co. use to call that? Wasn't it a domestic terrorist?

Posted by lymerae on February 17, 2009 at 5:43 PM

You got to love the irony of "The Dark Knight" being labeled as a "conservative movie" when it has a cameo by that well-known hero of the right, Senator Patrick Leahy.

Posted by daniel rotter on February 17, 2009 at 6:02 PM

You know Dan, not all Christians lie, not all Christians hate gays. Lots of Christians just love Jesus and care about other people and go about their lives. Sounds sort of like you and your family except for all those church activities & the Jesus thing. Sure some Christians are idiots. I've met a few idiotic gays in my time as well. The point is that Christians shouldn't get to make legal policy decisions on your life, nor you on theirs.

Posted by tired on February 17, 2009 at 8:54 PM

@18: That was actually one of the things I found supremely awesome in Friday the 13th Part 6: in addition to the gloriously outdated 80's fashions and dialogue, it also broke the slasher flick mold by having an overtly sexual heroine who lives.

Posted by Chronos on February 17, 2009 at 11:42 PM

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is very obviously only using Soviets as villains because too much time has passed since Last Crusade for it to realistically still have Nazis in it. Also, it contains an explicit condemnation of McCarthyism. But hey, the rightards can just do with that what they do with any verses from Leviticus that aren't about gay people: pretend it's not there.

Posted by Marlowe on February 18, 2009 at 8:05 PM

34, I read the book (haven't seen the movie), and it seemed to me like the problems in their society stemmed not from the government interference (assigned jobs and such) but from the fact that their society had been set up to run on rails, not requiring anyone to think about anything, for a limited amount of time, and when that amount of time ran out, no one had any idea what the fuck was going on or what to do about it.

(Basically, for those that haven't read it, they live in a giant, city-sized bomb shelter underground. They grow a little bit of food somehow, but the city was stocked with everything they'd need, from canned food to light bulbs and toothpaste. When the story begins, the supplies have started to run out. Eventually--spoilers!--some kids figure out that they were supposed to leave the bomb shelter a few years previously, but the instructions for how to do so were lost.)

See, the people are living their lives based on instructions handed down to them from a time no one remembers or really understands. The adults in particular run into difficulties when those instructions no longer fit the actual circumstances of their lives.

So, sure, it makes a lot of sense that the religious right would like that movie.

Posted by A. on February 18, 2009 at 11:50 PM

And we all know where the Religiopolitical Right's ideal center of Amerikanischer Realkultur is:

None other than among the "music shows" down Branson, MO way, replete with sugar-coated conservative propaganda messages and a blatant appeal to especially the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" that conservative propaganda just loves idealising in the same stylee as Soviet-era propaganda about "hero workers" selflessly sacrificing their time for the Greater Glory of Communism (coal miner Alexy Stakhanov's exploitation towards such ends easily comes to mind).

Posted by Exaggerato on February 19, 2009 at 12:36 PM

Those are some great snowboarding skills for a 10-year-old! A talented, lucky kid.

Posted by MichelleZB on March 14, 2009 at 8:09 PM

This man is an idiot. We at Movieguide(R) did not list MILK as a pro-communist movie, so the comparison with the Anti-Communist category doesn't wash. Thus, for example, the overtly pro-communist CHE, a more apt comparison, earned less than $1.5 million, despite being touted by some in the leftist press, even when compared to CITY OF EMBER. And, when you add other small commie flicks like TRUMBO. and don't even use the Indiana Jones movie, the small Anti-Communist movies still beat the heck out of the small pro-commie flicks. Then, when you consider what a pro-capitalist movie like IRON MAN earned, you really begin to see that, even when there's a left-wing movie like AVATAR, the more conservative, pro-capitlaist movies still tend to earn more money per movie overall.

Posted by Tom Snyder, Ph.D. on February 3, 2011 at 3:16 PM