Ryan McNeilMoviegoers have long had troubles separating the singer from the song.
When it comes to the movies we watch, and the movies we support with our money, what happens when moral conflicts swirl around the director, the writer, or the star? I’m not talking about tabloid antics here, I’m talking about genuine controversy surrounding illegal activities, or hateful positions.
That’s the cloud that currently hovers over ENDER’S GAME, an adaptation of the very popular sci-fi novel by writer Orson Scott Card. Card has gone on record as being deeply opposed to gay rights, and has sat on the boards of organizations to further that opposition. He is toning down his rhetoric in recent months, but you have to believe that a vessel like that won’t be turned around all that fast.
The shame of this is that now it’s difficult to look at the art without thinking about the artist. ENDER’S GAME is going to be subject to protest and boycott because of the person whose pockets its box office will line.
Is that the end of it? Is it at all possible to pay for a film like this in good conscience, knowing where Card’s take of the profits will go?
Art doesn’t always mimic an artist or have to have an artist’s true point of view (ALL THE WHILE). This is me saying that if people were going to put their money where there morals were they wouldn’t have bought the book in the first place. They would’ve immediately written off the book as propaganda fodder for anti-gay conversations and it would’ve never gotten a movie.
That being said, this trailer is dumb. It’s stupid and looks like a bad movie on the whole. The next time I’m playing Age of Empires I’m going to start imagining that these are all real people… nope I’m not.
To your point about people boycotting the book (which is a good one), I’m curious – has Carr been spreading his hate speak this whole time, or is it only a new phenomenon? I’m sure he’s felt this way for ages, I’m just not sure on the timeline of him getting up on his soapbox.
If I pay for this, it’ll be to support the people who made the film, especially Bitterfield and Steinfeld, who are still in their career infancy and could use all the love they can get, despite their past successes.
Really, the thing I’m most interested in with this trailer is why they used stock footage from KNOWING in the beginning of the trailer. Is there a studio out there that would want to associate with KNOWING? Apparently there is…
Who knows. The movie might just suck which will solve the problem of paying to see it or not.
I’m not sure how much of our money will be going over to Carr in the end, so the moral quandary of what we are supporting might be a bit more moot. Like you said – there are others with skin in the game that I *do* want to back.
And damned skippy – if word coming back from it is abysmal, that might just make up our minds for us!