Based on the description (I read the whole article), releasing this film, let alone the societal setting in which it is being released, represents extraordinarily bad judgment on the part of everyone involved in the enterprise. A satire? What on, pray tell? Random mass murder? We have plenty of that already, we don't need to glorify it by Hollywood film release, and risk more by copycats. And it is very naive not to assume that the Trump people will immediately seize on this and selectively trot out its content to validate their world view. For instance, it seems obvious to me that use of the term "deplorables" will be an example of that validation – shows that Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton's ill-advised use of that term was on the money. I don't support censorship, but I hope this film gets roundly panned, theaters that show it boycotted, and fill Rotten Tomatoes with 0-star reviews. What a terrible idea!
7
Liberals don't even want to touch guns let alone hunt. The premise of this movie is ridiculous on its face. It also feeds into the paranoia of right wing Trump supporters who think liberal "elites" are out to get them. Dangerous. This is what I had against "Get Out". The idea that liberals secretly want to kill black people is not only insulting to liberals and just plain ridiculous but feeds into increasing paranoia of people color who are already justly afraid of many actually racist white people. Neither of these movies is helping anyone except maybe the producers who cynically make them. These days the world needs all the help it can get from the media.
5
Of course The Deplorables will win in the end because everyone knows they run around with automatic weapons and bibles, so if they don't just shoot The Elites, they will beat them to death with their bibles. Poor Elites.
I can't believe that I am agreeing with Trump on anything, but this film has no place on the screen. This is the equivalent of going to the Colosseum to watch people be killed.
2
Well the idea of Progressive Elites killing their perceived deplorables is not new. See also: the last supper, where "Final Boss Deplorable" Ron Pearlman overwhelms the serial killers using their own groupthink premises
But in this age... both sides are almost at knives drawn already. And the dont tread on me types, when boundaries are breached DO reserve the right to counter hurt using exact same logic used against them. Before a film suggests it.
If anyone thinks this idea is funny.... in the words of Ron Pearlman in the last supper: here is to your health.
Love it, can’t wait to see it. Although we all know it’s the deplorables who will descend from the hills and be coming for us.
Sounds like the 18 or so yahoos who thought they could be President. Outcome seems like it will be the same.
Sounds like it will be a movie shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater - in an empty theater.
3
Sounds like your typical Hollywood propaganda meant to inflame passions and provide just a bit of succor and provocation to each of the invented categories of people that people have dutifully placed themselves into.
In other words its a "perfect" movie.
3
Thought experiment: Reverse the roles and imagine a group of “deplorable” hunting “elites”. How popular would that be? Would it encourage copycats? Would you object to it more, or less, and why?
6
"It'll incite violence, it'll re-elect trump!" Didn't we just do this with Joker folks... Its just a movie, you haven't even seen it yet, and the media, this newspaper not excluded, have frankly done far more to incite violence and elect Donald Trump, than any movie ever has, so just stop. If you don't think its your cup of tea don't go see it, but jesus, trashing a movie without even seeing it for yourself to form an opinion is just idiotic in my opinion
7
The film is 100% pandering. Pure and simple. It's goal is to make a buck off of the paranoid delusions of the most rabid conspiracy loving Trump supporters. It's written to attract the most deranged to watch it. It's absurd that Mr. Lindelof claims the movie has 'morality'. You can't really argue in the same breadth that the film is an over the top satire that no one would take seriously and then claim it has a 'morality' to it. The entire point of the film was the lazy writers and film makers are trying cash in on a specific market by doing the least possible work to stoke the most outrage. It's purely about the money. That's the 'morality' of the film.
12
@Steve - "The film is 100% pandering." It will fit pefectly into the ongoing political drama.
1
@Steve if you're saying satire cant have moral themse, that is certainly not true.
2
"Jason Blum, who produced the film with Damon Lindelof"
Why are these two men (via Comcast, NBCUniversal) allowed to incite political violence on movie screens throughout the country?
Something is morally wrong with Hollywood....and this "film" will only result in re-electing Donald Trump.
7
Please...this is exactly how the conservatives think the liberals will behave. Good. Give it to them. With Trump getting away with everything, it is all we have.
4
If the entertainment industry, which loves to position themselves as 'telling stories that need to be told', still has any influence, this will only incite existing divisions, accusations of hypocrisy and gin up votes for Trump.
Enjoy your fantasies.
1
Novel suggestion- how about people watch the movie then discuss it? All of these pearl-clutching comments and not a single one of you has seen as much as a second of the film. I'd be willing to bet that it isn't half as "incendiary" as people think it will be and that it has a relatively sanitized/kumbaya ending with right and left reaching across the aisle to unite and defeat a common enemy.
28
@DennisMcG - "... how about people watch the movie then discuss it"?
Oh you.
1
@DennisMcG That is a novel suggestion. But then just what should I be enraged today, if not this?
3
@DennisMcG Have you not watched the trailer which is accessible from the article? I have seen enough.
Please. The only reason this thing is in the news is the relatively brand-A names attached to it. Once all the bogus hoo-hah dies down, this film will sink into the great morass of film history with barely a gasp.
Like almost everything else being made today. But who knows! Let’s try a little experiment and actually watch the movie first and make our judgments later. The Republican Senators have showed us the way.
3
Sounds like a wonderful, funny, smart film. I can't wait to see it--at home, you know, like . . . not in a theater.
26
How can Universal not believe this will result in more polarization and violence? What their own answer implies is horrible - they cancelled the opening because of the shootings but are going ahead with it now because nothing else has happened?
9
This movie is the equivalent of shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. I am a proud liberal, but am disgusted by this plot line.
13
@Pam
I don't know, from at least this article it seems it portrays the so called "elites" as narcissistic fools too caught up in themselves to focus on the task they have set out before them.
2
There are a myriad of more interesting and telling forms of satire than those fixated on displaying gross violence. One suspects that this movie is not principally social commentary but rather a bloodbath that seeks to protect itself from criticism by suggesting it is a parody, when it is actually selling the visuals more than anything else ...
From all descriptions of this movie, rewatching satires such as Wag the Dog or In the Loop would be far more informative and enjoyable!
8
@William M. Palmer, Esq. This is NOT satire or parody, which involves an exaggeration of reality.
It would only be satire if the hunters were conservatives, because domestic terrorism in the U.S. is overwhelmingly, even if not uniformly, perpetrated by conservatives. Even political trolling is mostly a conservative habit. Liberals tend to be up in arms at a specific act rather than as a pastime.
Confusion around the derisive term "elite" or "elitist" has always been so delicious, at least to me. Its latest mutation recently left the mouth of propagandist Eric Trump, who called Brad Pitt a "smug elitist."
I notice that, thanks largely to Mr. Trump's presumed father, a person with a college degree can be considered "elite," and not in a good way. This shows how far the family and their non-elite followers have driven us from accurate definitions of any kind.
6
Meh. I preferred the old marketing.
1
Yawn. Van Damme did "Hard Target" in the early 90s. Exact same premise, except a political 180. Rich hunters chase down and out homeless. Humans are "the ultimate prey" for discerning hunters. Van Damme meets the daughter of one of the men that was killed. Gradually turns the tables and kills all the bad guys.
This movie apparently takes that ridiculous premise, and just spreads a thin layer of caricatured politics on top of it.
Not sure what the larger backstory is here - but releasing this in the final couple of months before the general election seems remarkably inappropriate.
10
Would that the average movie goer recognize and understand satire! This won't end well.
4
When supposed cultural phenomenon is portrayed in a movie then it’s already a thang. The GI Joe-doll dress up, gun mongering, and posturing by the 2nd Amendment folks in Richmond, VA was truly laughable. It’s an uneasy alliance between the guns folks and Ayn Rand elites. It won’t last.
2
One thing Republicans, Democrats and Independents can agree on is that this movie is inflammatory, irresponsible and ill-conceived.
12
@H Frost - Potential censorship will help sell tickets. We need more posts from those who think they know it all. Political thought is killing off civilization as we know it.
1
I refuse to criticize a movie based on what some unhinged person "might" do after seeing it. Rather than complaining about entertainment that holds up an uncomfortable mirror to our own worst impulses, why not take guns away from the unstable and irresponsible?
Mass murders are difficult to commit without serious weapons that act like a magnet for young, angry males.
does this awful-sounding movie really have to be released?
5
The real question is: satire, or allegory?
1
"Things used to be a lot more fun around here.
When good was good, and evil was evil...
Before things got so...fuzzy...
....And the devil is downhearted 'cause there's nothing left for him to claim."
Don Henley - "The Garden of Allah"
I'm not convinced we really need this movie. Do we really need to pay $15 to see heartless people perpetrating verbal or physical violence against people they disagree with? I can just turn on the evening news.
2
@Steve Feldmann - I seem to recall reading about KKK activity in your "city" about twenty years ago. I'm guessing those folks didn't just up and leave!
Does anyone remember that rabid Trump supporters have already committed acts of violence on their perceived enemies?
5
Is Swank really this desperate? Doesn't she realize what she's done? What's wrong with her?
5
@Sixofone
Never mind what's wrong with her? What's wrong with ME?
I realized immediately after submitting my comment that I'd just done what I've criticized others for doing over the years: condemning a work before reading or watching it myself.
While this movie could certainly be just as unhelpful to our society as it seems (or even more so), if I could withdraw my comment, I would.
8
@me
I found myself doing exactly the same.
3
We don't need fuel like this for "copycats".
1
I'm all for artistic freedom, hate censorship, and think this is close to THE stupidest, most incendiary idea for a film to hit the marketplace since...Orson Welles scared people into believing we'd been invaded from outer space.
Why? Why? Why? Besides the money, that is.
Intent is one thing. How people receive the message is something else. I don't want to be in the neighborhood when "deplorables" leave the theater.
5
I cannot believe that Universal Pictures would be so craven as to put this picture out at this time. There are people in this country who believe Hillary was running a pedophile ring from a pizza parlor, that there are mass prisons under Wall Marts. This plays into the hands of conspiracy theorists. Good going, way to stoke the fires.
5
@Lance Gauthier
You mean there AREN'T mass prisions under Wall Marts?
1
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it do the backstroke. No matter how much you change the campaign the film is still a very sick, abhorrent, antisocial, immoral disaster. I hope it not only is a fiasco but Universal should be called to the carpet for making this piece of detritus. Blum puts profits above ethics. He can't go any lower. As for Universal they had two bombs-"Cats" and "Doolittle." They need some new blood. As a former Universal exec years ago I'm appalled. What's next, making Trump Head of Production.
3
@g.i. - Near as I can tell, Blum is one of the most successful producers out there. His actors receive awards, too.
@Andy Hain So what's your point. Garbage in garbage out? But success is relative. His movies are inexpensive to make and he has a lock on the horror genre. I'm not impressed and his latest goes beyond the pale
1
Ummm, ok so Hollywood is more out of touch than Washington. I know you guys work in fiction, but really?
2
Really bad idea.
5
Why would you go there? Stop escalating the crazy!
1
How is this satire? Great Recession anyone? Self-described "liberals," "moderates" and "centrists" telling everyone it's crazy to even think about getting profit motive out of healthcare and providing it to every American regardless of birth lottery? (Relativey) rich elites are killing us by lack of health care, addiction treatment, mental health care, fair wages, housing, clean water, unjust incarceration, and wage theft every day. This isn't a satire. Didn't you hear Mr. Buffet? Class warfare has been on for 40 years and the top three "winners" (Buffet, Gates and Bezos) own more of the material wealth of this country than 165,000,000 of us combined.
13
The Blumhouse horror pictures are one of the few interesting things I've seen from the major studios in recent years: B-movies that use horror and dark humor for subtle social commentary, much as 50s pictures like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" did. I was looking forward to this one, and I'll be in the opening weekend audience.
17
Liberals will be nauseated by the premise. Conservatives already believe that Liberals are out to get them; this will be proof.
I believe humor belongs everywhere, including politics.
But, it doesn’t have to be sick humor, and it doesn’t have to be now.
61
@Jaja "it doesn’t have to be now." So when would be the appropriate time?
7
@Jaja - Sounds to me like a fun movie... I can hardly wait!
1
I read the first paragraph and then stopped reading. That was enough to make me ill. Yet another example - that the people who have the money and are making the decisions - have lost their moral compass.
43
Aren't the odds very good that another set of multiple mass-shootings will occur about the postponed release time?
39
@KC - That will simply heighten the anticipation, great for the marketing folk.
Impossible to imagine that this movie will have anything other than an incendiary impact. At a time we desperately need to reduce polarization and class/cultural warfare, the movie places studio profits ahead of the country’s needs.
57
@Malcolm Parks People should be able to make whatever movie they want to make. Just as they should be free to decide not to go watch a particular film. There is plenty of art out there that is divisive. It's part of being a member of a complex society.
11
@Malcolm Parks - You assume that polarization is a bad thing. Perhaps it's the future for the entire world.