The liberal vs conservative look

I often get a question from conservative people (including my ex) as to why there are so many left-wing liberals in the movie business and why so few conservatives, if any.

I usually say we don't allow them in.

How about liberals write from the heart and conservatives eat the heart.

Okay now that 18% of you have left the blog, I'm joking. Sort of.

There are some conservatives, Clint Eastwood for example, but he's not really conservative, he's his own person. Then there's Stephen Baldwin, whom I worked with, James Caan, Kelsey Grammar, Mel Gibson and a few others. Same with directors and very rare amongst screenwriters.

Why?

My first impulse is that conservatives go for the big money as in stock markets, banks and any type of corporation they can find or create. It's all about money. 

And most of the conservatives who aren't rich are mostly in labor-type work and with less education. There's even the "Log Cabin Republicans". They are the gay members who prefer conservatives even though conservatives hate them. I think log cabin refers to Lincoln. You figure it out.

I write because that's pretty much all I can do. I've tried a lot of jobs a long time ago and discovered that I was a pretty good security guard watching office buildings. I was on the night shift and enjoyed the quietness. 

And I could write as well at my guard duty as long as nobody was around.

But to be honest, liberals and left-wingers have causes. Help the poor, tell stories about love and war and comedy, stories to bring people into our movies and forget the problems they have for two hours.

In short, the film industry needs left-wingers because they write and direct and act the best stories because they need to, because they have something to tell. Conservatives seem to just want money and, in America, to chase away anyone who's not like them.

Like evangelical types who want a white USA and will kill for it. 

But the film industry mixes a little, while liberals are the biggest group, they do interact with conservatives in directing and of course, producing. And actors that are mostly "B" and "C" actors. 

All in all, somehow liberals and left-wingers seem to write the best stuff. Great example are two movies up for Oscars.  There's Spotlight, about exposing the Catholic church in Boston where leaders were hiding child molesters. 

And along that line, there's The Big Short, all about how mostly conservative stock brokers who care little about causing the country to go down with their greed for money no matter who loses.

You won't find liberals there. Yet liberals made the films because they can step back and realize what's wrong and what's right. I do have some conservative friends and, as I mentioned, my ex but she and I don't really talk a lot about it.

And then there's another movie with Oscar notions; Trumble, based on Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter who was in a group of communists and who was blackballed for several years and had to write screenplays under another name. 

It wasn't until Kirk Douglas finally had Trumbo's name on a script he wrote under a fake name in which you might know - Spartacus. He also won an Oscar for The Lonely Bull and Roman Holiday won an Oscar that he wasn't allowed to receive. Conservatives were very much against those "commie screenwriters" and whom were happy to destroy writers especially, although actors and directors were also victims.


Movie crews are a mix, a lot of them are conservative, the grips and gaffers and drivers. But they also can be helpful as when one of them found me a fender for my 1977 Camaro that had a ripped side panel. Love those drivers.

Finally it comes down to what you feel and what makes sense to you but in the film industry, you have a lot of friends if you're liberal, especially the "Above-the-line" bunch, mostly writers, directors and actors.

I've heard that some up-and-coming conservative actors and writers often keep it to themselves in fear of not getting the job. Really. 

And ultimately, all that matters is a good story.

But those tend to be liberal.