axis of the (not so) libral media?

July 1, 2004 2:57 PM

america's heart and soul- so, they wouldn't release fahrenheit 9/11, but this, this is okay. are they making efforts to distance themselves from any involvement with fh9/11, or do they want to make sure that washington keeps listening?

From the chronicle:
Disney officials insist their 88-minute film, "America's Heart and Soul" -- stitching simple, positive vignettes of everyday Americans with sweeping vistas and up-tempo music -- is neither a response to Moore's politically charged hit nor any type of political statement itself.

more coverage here, and a review.
posted by christy (34 comments total)

I saw a preview for this when I went to see supersize me about a month ago and I was kind of blown away by how "up, up with people!" it seemed. There were all the token "america rules!" moments in the trailer. I was also dismayed to see the almighty JCM would attach his name and music to the project.

Roger Ebert mentioned in an article about F9/11 a quote from a famous french director that if you want to make a political film do so, and if you want to rebut it, make another film. I thought this film might just be the anti-9/11 pro-Bush movie, but in digging for info on it in IMDB, it looks like a cheesy redo of the classic Circlevision 3-D movies that played at Disneyland and Disneyworld for years. They're light airy little looks at mundane events all over america.

So I think this is much ado about nothing.*



* unless the RNC takes this under their wing and promotes the hell out of it until we get a second coming of The Passion here.
posted by mathowie at 3:11 PM on July 1, 2004

The only really compelling right-wing documentary I remember seeing was about the Waco massacre.
posted by bobo123 at 3:21 PM on July 1, 2004

The Chron article says the film includes Ben Cohen from Ben and Jerry's, not exactly the most right wing guy in the country...

I'm just sayin.
posted by ubi at 3:26 PM on July 1, 2004

unless the RNC takes this under their wing and promotes the hell out of it until we get a second coming of The Passion here.

from the chronicle again:
"If those are Republican values," said KSFO's [Melanie] Morgan [talk show host and vice president of Move America Forward], who saw the film Monday, "then I'm glad to be a Republican."

i'm sure some of them will take it up... just how many is the question.
posted by christy at 3:27 PM on July 1, 2004

To quote someone from over at one of my other favorite hangouts:

"It's good to get every point of view onto the table. For instance, it would be one-sided to say that Bush is a spoiled moron without also saying that eagles soar high above the prairie."

Couldn't have said it better myself.
posted by u.n. owen at 3:36 PM on July 1, 2004

Agreed. Loving America is not a trait exclusive to Republicans.

Of course, the problem is people who only want to see this side of America and refuse to look critically at themselves. I think those who view this as some sort of answer to Fahrenheit 9/11 are those who are the most desperate to keep their heads neck-deep in sand.
posted by turaho at 3:57 PM on July 1, 2004

heh.

monday night i was watching the local salt lake city news (ABC --- owned by Disney by the way) and after f 9/11 spent the weekend selling out theatres across the country, their sole bit of movie news was to tell us about America's Heart and Soul. Which sounds really nice by the way, if you're into that sort of thing, but I thought it was funny. The newsies were making comments like, "that's nice, after so much negativity out there these days"
posted by jacobsee at 4:25 PM on July 1, 2004

America is good! Americans are kind, loving, non-torturing folks! America is good. The skies are clean, the houses white-picketted, and there is no crime or poverty! Americans welcome you with open arms, you miserable and downtrodden, to partake of our freedom! America is good! America is free. Though we have more prisoners than almost any nation on the planet, we treat them kindly, and gently! Our state-sponsored killing (at home and abroad) is humane and swift, and we never, ever use mass graves, unless it's for Salvadoran nuns and other inconvenient people. America is good. Our mountains and our fields of wheat, our porn studios and our crack houses. America is free! You can do what you want in America, as long as you don't take the wrong books out of our libraries, or take pictures of the wrong things while sporting an unpopular skin tone. America is democratic, and the fact that voter turnout ranks at 139th out of 172 nations merely shows how much love and confidence we have in our Great Leaders.

America is good. America is strong. God bless America.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:42 PM on July 1, 2004

Of course, the problem is people who only want to see this side of America and refuse to look critically at themselves.

By that same token, those who perpetually snub every positive detail of American life & culture and rarely express any specific love for it are keeping their own heads firmly planted in the sand. Let's face it--among certain peer-groups (ex. the MeFi populace), what could be less fashionable than discussing love for your country? I mean, dude, what's lamer than that? You might as well talk about your love for necrophilia.

/awaits punchline...
posted by dhoyt at 4:56 PM on July 1, 2004

dhoyt, does it ever occur to you that we do love this country, and that's why we don't like to see it going the wrong way?
posted by amberglow at 5:01 PM on July 1, 2004

Sure. But only when one's back is against the rhetorical wall (myself included) does one illustrate specific things he loves about his country. I just think it's strange, that's all.

The other lopsided 90% of the conversations are glutted with, well, a lot of whining. Whining would be fine if alternatives were suggested (ex. dealing with terrorism) just for the sake of debate, but often the whining is deafening.

Yet--I'll admit--in the midst of all that, there are usually a handful of useful & thoughtful self-effacing criticisms that can be learned from. Which is why I still enjoy MeFi.
posted by dhoyt at 5:12 PM on July 1, 2004

I would like to point out that no one really loves a country. What we love, and I include myself in this, is the ideal of a country. "America" is no more real than the perfect forms. The problem is we all have a different ideal and, living in a place steeped in a dreams-really-do-come-true mindset and raised from birth to believe, each and every one of us, that we are somehow special and what we think is right must be right, we each hold onto our ideal America with all our strength so that even the most apathetic among us will, when roused, rage against the injustice and demand that America, the true America, their Ideal America be restored to the condition it enjoyed in some half-mythical past.

That said, I am not ashamed to admit that I love America and would give anything to see it returned to the free and progressive land of opportunity and equality that our forefather's, in their infinite wisdom, decreed we should enjoy.
posted by Grod at 5:18 PM on July 1, 2004

make that forefathers, and punctuate that previous rather unwieldily sentence in a grammatically correct fashion. I'm too tired to do write properly.
posted by Grod at 5:25 PM on July 1, 2004

You know who should do this kind of movie? Bill O'Rilley. That would rule.
posted by Quartermass at 5:34 PM on July 1, 2004

I don't love the "ideal" of America, I love what it actually is and what it actually accomplishes. Dreams really do come true in this country - it's not just a "mindset."

And its a whole lot more free and progressive and equal than our rich, white forefathers ever thought necessary in their own time.
posted by techgnollogic at 5:34 PM on July 1, 2004

Unfortunately, I have to review every movie Disney releases. This has been on my list of movie for quite a while so I don't think it is a response to Moore.

I think it is a fluff piece for the 4th of July weekend, the release date was set WAY before the release date for Fahrenheit 9/11.

The SF Chronicle made a big deal about it being screened to a conservative group in Sacramento, but I can tell you all that Disney and their PR machines have been begging anybody to see this movie. At one press screening in San Francisco they offered free popcorn (not much, but this is the first time I've seen that happen in two years of doing this). Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend any of the screenings (unfortunate, because now I'll have to pay to see it) and they bent over backwards for a pretty lowly reviewer to get it screened to me or my organization.

If that conservative group asked, I'm sure Disney was more than willing. If Michael Moore had asked for a screening, I'm guessing they would have been more than happy.

I do expect it will be like one of Disney's old Circlevision movies. Disney has been moving in that direction for a bit with there movies in the IMAX format (including Sacred Planet earlier this year which was just as slanted to the "primitive is inherently good" sector of environmentalism). They don't make much money, but they don't cost much to make. I doubt Michael Moore played into the equation.
posted by obfusciatrist at 5:42 PM on July 1, 2004

Joy Division and Devo are absolutely not at fault for the crumbling of America's democratic values these past few decades, jonmc, sheesh!
posted by dhoyt at 5:47 PM on July 1, 2004

Sorry, I conflated my threads again.
posted by dhoyt at 5:47 PM on July 1, 2004

Well, you gotta admit them Devo guys is pretty subversive!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:53 PM on July 1, 2004

I think it is a fluff piece for the 4th of July weekend

So this is the Gap flag t-shirt of holiday movies. Trite but everyone feels like they should own it so they cough up the cash to show their spirit.
posted by mathowie at 5:59 PM on July 1, 2004

I don't think many people will be coughing up cash. But yeah, something like that.
posted by obfusciatrist at 6:02 PM on July 1, 2004

Joy Division and Devo are absolutely not at fault for the crumbling of America's democratic values these past few decades, jonmc, sheesh!

Well, they do make me wanna bear arms.
posted by jonmc at 6:23 PM on July 1, 2004

To paraphrase Mark Twain, loyalty to the country always, loyalty to the government when they deserve it.
posted by waldo at 6:25 PM on July 1, 2004

U.S.turbation
posted by larry_darrell at 6:55 PM on July 1, 2004

To compare apples and apples, you'd have to look at Joy Division's Heart and Soul
posted by pokeydonut at 7:14 PM on July 1, 2004

Disclaimer: I work for Disney.

That said, what do you really expect?

Disney is the most well known brand in the world for family entertainment.

America's Heart and Soul is the kind of thing Disney has been doing for over 50 years. Since when is happiness and strength in America the property of a political party?

The movie started filming in 1999, hardly a political arm of the current adminstration.
posted by Argyle at 9:14 PM on July 1, 2004

"America's Heart and Soul is the kind of thing Disney has been doing for over 50 years. Since when is happiness and strength in America the property of a political party? "

Once it became clear that the primary tactic of one party was the portrayal of every facet of America as an evil failure in order to get themselves back to relevancy it became this way.

Remember, it is the left who is telling you that being happy to be American makes you a tool of the government.
posted by soulhuntre at 9:34 PM on July 1, 2004

..zzzzzz.... preview here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/americasheartandsoul.html .....zzzzzzzzz.....
posted by marvin at 9:35 PM on July 1, 2004

Remember, it is the left who is telling you that being happy to be American makes you a tool of the government.

Yeah yeah, and it's the right that tells me Americans are hated and persecuted because nobody else really understands our love of freedom. Seriously, I'm gagging here.

I would guess this film paints in incredibly broad strokes the greatness of America. It'll make a fine addition to AmericaTown or whatever Disney calls the patriotic section of their theme park. I'm pretty sure there are similar films they use with footage of masses of citizens and Buddhist temples for other countries. Imagine Koyanisquatsi only with dialog and really obvious cheerfulness.

Behold, the mystery, imagination, and majesty of... America!
posted by mikeh at 10:02 PM on July 1, 2004

Considering how irrelevant Disney have become in the last few years, they just can't seem to make a decent movie without stealing it form some smaller animation house, I expect this will be a complete flop. To suggest this coudl even be a threat to F9/11 is so absurd. Disney sucks.
posted by mary8nne at 10:12 PM on July 1, 2004

Could someone define what it is they love when they say they love their country?

I love my country = ???

It seems like an absurd statement to me. Nebulous and vaccuous and wooly-minded, pertaining to nothing.
posted by Blue Stone at 1:37 AM on July 2, 2004

The movie started filming in 1999

Really? All other things aside, it took them that long to put this together? Wow, focus group city...
posted by mkultra at 4:55 AM on July 2, 2004

I love beer.

My country? Well, it's OK, I guess.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:23 AM on July 2, 2004

The NYC bike messenger closing the cab door before he hits it is a very cool trick. USA! USA!
posted by Scoo at 7:53 AM on July 2, 2004