{"id":2685,"date":"2014-12-21T01:55:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T01:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2014-12-21T01:55:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T01:55:25","slug":"the-interview-hollywood-and-the-politics-of-ridicule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-interview-hollywood-and-the-politics-of-ridicule\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interview, Hollywood and the politics of ridicule"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Patricia Phalen<\/a>, George Washington University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood\u2019s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation. Judd Apatow is defending<\/a> comedy\u2019s history of attacking people who are \u201cbad to other people.\u201d Rob Lowe, Steve Carell, Jimmy Kimmel and many, many more celebrities have added their voices to the mix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Interview, which features Randall Park in the role of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, follows an absurd (and supposedly comical) assassination plot that ends with Mr. Kim\u2019s violent death<\/a> (evidently, his head explodes). The filmmakers might argue this is \u201call in good fun,\u201d but the people ridiculed in the film are clearly not amused.<\/p>\n

The North Korea-linked cyber-terrorists who hacked into Sony\u2019s computer network last month threatened violence against theaters that screened the film and any moviegoers who dared to attend. When theater owners began backing out of their commitments to show the film, Sony pulled The Interview from distribution. The situation was, effectively, a bomb scare called in to every theater in the U.S.<\/p>\n

So far, public discussion has centered on the hackers’ success at using threats of violence to derail an American film. Particularly galling is the notion that cyber-terrorists can dictate the business decisions of an American company. Because the entertainment industry is involved, most see this as a direct attack on freedom of expression<\/a>. The loudest and most pervasive analysis of this situation is that Sony negotiated with terrorists, Sony caved, and the terrorists won.<\/p>\n

On one level, this argument is a fair characterization.<\/p>\n

However, we could use this incident as a springboard for a different \u2013 and more complicated \u2013 discussion, one that goes beyond the \u201cthey won, we lost\u201d binary and introduces important questions: does the American entertainment industry have an ethical responsibility when it comes to representing real people? If so, what are the parameters of this responsibility?<\/p>\n

The 2006 British film Death of a President portrayed the fictional assassination of George W. Bush. Many commentators couldn\u2019t quite articulate the problem with showing the violent death of a living person, but there was a shock factor in this film that went beyond simple bad taste<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n 2006\u2019s Death of a President depicted a fictional assassination of President George W. Bush.<\/span>
\n imdb.com<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Interview\u2019s filmmakers probably thought Kim Jung Un was a safe target, given the overwhelmingly (and justifiably) negative public opinion of his regime. If the hackers hadn\u2019t been able to make credible threats, the film might have gone virtually unnoticed by many Americans. Nonetheless, a fictional assassination of a real political figure is ethically problematic.<\/p>\n

While Hollywood\u2019s claim to the right of \u201ccreative expression\u201d rings true, perhaps this freedom isn\u2019t (or should not be) absolute. I am not suggesting any kind of externally imposed rules limiting the content of films; only from within the ranks of filmmakers can any kind of normative guidelines evolve.<\/p>\n

In the end, Sony will most likely find a way to distribute The Interview \u2013 and the controversy is sure to enhance its profitability as an \u201con demand\u201d option or even a theatrical release.<\/p>\n

But the question of ethics in the entertainment world will \u2013 and should \u2013 persist.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\n Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patricia Phalen, George Washington University Sony\u2019s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood\u2019s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation. Judd Apatow is defending comedy\u2019s history of attacking people who are \u201cbad to other people.\u201d Rob Lowe, Steve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":2686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,39,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2687,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions\/2687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}