Is This America Or A Dystopian Novel? Why Sony's Move Is An Insult To Art
I realize that what I am about to say is loftier than this film would likely warrant. But you can thank the terrorists for that. Or the communists. Either way, enjoy hating on your favorite American enemy courtesy of Sony Pictures.
If you’re a millennial like myself, you were probably forced to read at least four dystopian novels in high school. What was prominently featured as a telltale sign of a society rendered void of meaning? Was it the numbness with which people dealt with death? A ruthless, dictatorial government masked as a benevolent fixer of anything troublesome in the world? A fat kid who just needed his inhaler?
Ray Bradbury put his finger on it best. Through the centuries, the destruction of art has been a telltale sign of a society gone wrong. How many films about the Third Reich have prominently featured mounds upon mounds of burning books blazing stories high? It’s enough to make anyone with any shred of respect for creativity tear up. FYI, if you didn’t get even a little bit misty when the Nazis were burning books in Indiana Jones, you’re hopeless.
Art is supposed to reveal things we don’t like about ourselves. It’s supposed to make us squirm. It’s supposed to make us laugh at things that are 100 percent inappropriate and, in the case of a stupid Seth Rogen/James Franco pic, make us do so alongside a bunch of other people, of whom 75 percent are probably high.
When you let the enraged subject of expository art bully you into altering that art or, in the case of Sony Picture’s The Interview, scrapping it altogether, you are setting a precedent that says: “You can control us.”
So listen up, Sony Pictures. Do you really think ANY FILM starring James Franco is worth letting the terrorists win over, especially when even federal security forces are telling you to chill the fuck out? We’re all adults. We can make our own choices. Let us.