I hate pressure groups. I really do. I am all for people supporting a cause they believe in and having the right to do so, but most of these groups are so militant and disingenuous that it bothers me. Everybody has the right to free speech in the US, but part of the amazing theory behind it is that you do not have the right to force those beliefs on other people, merely the right to express them. You also have a duty to be honest in the views you are expressing and their effect.
So when then ultra right-wing Christian group Concerned Women For America were reported on IMDb as forcing AMC to withdraw controversial movie Hounddog from its “5128 cinemas”, something didn't sit right for me, so I did some digging.
First off, AMC only has 312 theatres in the world, containing 5128 screens. That is worldwide. Secondly Hounddog is a low budget independent film. It is scheduled for a limited release of 11 theaters, as most of these movies normally are. It is not and never has been a wide release. It is a festival movie, the type that plays in these festivals then gets a short general release in the big cities. To add some comparison, The Dark Knight, the biggest movie of the year, opened in 4366 theatres in the US and most popular indie of the year, The Wackness, only originally opened in 6, moving up to a peak of 142 as its popularity spread. That AMC would be carrying Hounddog anywhere except maybe LA and New York wouldn't have surprised me had I not done an internet search and found Hounddog currently playing in AMC Loews, Chicago. What that adds up to in my head is that Concerned Women for America has deliberately distorted the facts to try and claim some false moral victory where there is nothing really going on except normal Hollywood business.
Concerned Women for America's website also deliberately misrepresents Houndog with this kind of baiting quote on their website; This film, starring child actress Dakota Fanning, breaks new ground with its depiction of the brutal rape of a young girl. Ted Baehr, President of the Christian Film and Television Commission and Good News Communications, the producers of MovieGuide, says if this film is allowed to screen in neighborhood theaters without a public outcry, it could green light the mainstreaming of child pornography into our entertainment culture.
Child porn in your theaters? That's what Concerned Women For America would have you believe. Perhaps if this group was as Concerned for America as they claim, they would be eager to help raise awareness of child exploitation and the rape of women in their country instead of trying to sweep anything that tries to confront the issue under the carpet. Those who have seen the movie (of which I can almost guarantee none will be from CWFA) have confirmed that the rape scene lasts less than a minute and nothing more is seen than tight closeups of Dakota Fanning's face and hand and the movie is more about her way of trying to deal with her problems and overcome them than a sleazy exploitative trek through the most stomach-churning of subjects.
An investigation by prosecutors in to the production of Hounddog last year, created by this kind of alarmist bullshit, concluded that although the movie's content may have been “disturbing and distasteful” to some, nothing about it contravened any laws of taste, decency or exploitation. Hell the MPAA gave it an R-rating and we all know their views on these kinds of subjects.
Director Deborah Kampmeier even waded in herself last week saying; "A lot of agendas are being projected off this film that have nothing to do with the film and they're being projected onto it by people who haven't actually seen the film. It's too bad.”
Most critics, including Roger Ebert, have already savaged the film for it's messy storytelling and horrible use of Southern cliches and that should be all the justice anyone truly concerned about Hounddog should need. We need movies that try to confront difficult and uncomfortable matters in a frank, but not exploitative way, even if they fail. Movies that force us to think and confront our fears. Not all movies are entertainment. Unfortunately as long as there are these groups who are more concerned with hiding themselves behind their scaremongering, naïve morality and trying to force it on other people instead of facing the real issues down, the sort of problems that these kind of movies try to address will probably never be able to be properly dealt with in society.
