If you thought being one of the producers of one of the greatest anti-hate films in history, one that exposed hatred, bigotry and anti-semitism would make you immune from being labeled a hate monger, think again. "Schindlers List" left its mark on the world and did so by telling the truth about man’s inhumanity to men. Yet the slings and arrows came at me to impinge my credibility, the work of Dinesh D’Souza and to once again use hate as their passport to the dark side.
Is there anyone else out there who sometimes finds movie reviews lacking in substance and objectivity? How about a film “review” written by an online journal prior to them even viewing the film? Does that sound like the classic cart before the horse scenario? Anyone else smell something dishonest, partisan and maybe even cynical? That kind of effort can only be suspect in its mission and intent.
I speak of an online journal writing an attack piece on my latest film, ‘2016 – Obama’s America’. It labeled the film, “Feature Length Obama Hate.” Nice. And they hadn’t even seen the film.
That kind of action has to come from pure chutzpah, ideology or just plain stupidity, you can pick.
It seems the left in America can only define something they don’t understand, something that frightens them, something so truthful it hurts or something they have no real response to that leaves them grasping for any kind of answer that comes with the hope that maybe it will just go away…and if it doesn’t, do all possible to destroy it.
That won’t happen. The film is complete, it’s scheduled for release and it stands on it’s own as a well thought out visual documentary based on two books written by author Dinesh D’Souza, “The Roots of Obama’s Rage’ and the soon to be released “Obama’s America.”
A dear friend reminded me to not take the attack(s) personally and remember what a true hero of American liberalism, Nat Hentoff, wrote in his aptly titled book, “Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee: How The American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other.” Mr. Hentoff reminds all of us that the "right" and the "left" have both made blunders in their zeal to shut down the other side. But this attempt at fairness in reviewing a new film goes the extra mile in incredulity when the review comes EVEN BEFORE the film’s release.
This effort to de-legitimize the film is nothing less than “high-tech censorship,” since the first attack was trying to impugn the motives of the filmmakers and questioning how the project was funded and by whom, all in an attempt to dissuade people from watching it.
I don’t remember anyone in the mainstream press questioning Michael Moore about his motives (he wore them on his sleeve) or where the funding came from (deep pockets of those sharing his ideology). No questions asked….
The American way has always been to present ideas and new opinions, then through reason, logic, debate and even personalities, continue to expose as many points of view as possible. It makes the country a better one and stronger one for all of us.
“2016 – Obama’s America” presents a picture of an America changed through the passion of one man and his determination to turn America into ‘just another country.’ The movie should be required viewing by all Americans. Then you can do your own homework and make up your own mind.
But there are forces out there who don’t want you to view this movie and will try desperately to keep you away from the theater by impugning the character of people like me who created the work, hoping it’ll scare you away.
That’s not the American way.
I hope you’ll ignore these voices of fear and enjoy the show. And to these true forces of hate, who would seek to bully people into not seeing a movie they themselves haven’t even seen yet, let me remind them: it’s just a movie. Right?
Gerald R. Molen is the Academy award winning producer of films such as "Schindler's List," "Jurassic Park," "Minority Report" and others. His film "2016: Obama's America" will be released in theaters on August 10 and 17.
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