Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Hollywood and capitalism
Hollywood and capitalism
Jan 8, 2025 1:12 AM

Clive Cook has a terrific article in the March 2006 Atlantic Monthly that is worth reading in its entirety. But here’s my favorite paragraph:

What is most striking, so far as the movies’ treatment of capitalism goes, is not the hostility of films whose main purpose is actually to indict corporate wickedness (Wall Street, Erin Brockovich, A Civil Action, The Insider, The Constant Gardener, and so forth). It is the idea of routine, reckless corporate immorality—maintained as though this premise were inoffensive, uncontroversial, and hardly worthy ment—that drives movies whose principal interest lies elsewhere, whether in the human drama of contemporary geopolitics (Syriana, to cite a recent instance), edy (Fun with Dick & Jane), children’s fantasy (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), star-crossed romance (In Good Company), or, classically, in some dystopian near or distant future (Alien, The Terminator, Blade Runner, Robocop, and many others).

The point is not that such movies, or the culture more generally, argue that capitalism is evil. Just the opposite: it is that they so often merely assume, innocently and expecting to arouse no skepticism, that capitalism is evil.

I’ve piling a list of popular movies in which the business entrepreneur is treated in a positive manner. It’s a very sparse list. One of the few I’ve thought of is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The fact that Cook cites it in his list illustrates that even this is an ambiguous example. There are bad-guy business people who want to steal Willie Wonka’s secrets, but at least in its most recent incarnation, with John Depp playing Willie Wonka, Wonka is portrayed as a good, if highly eccentric, entrepreneur. Perhaps this is the exception that proves the rule. When Hollywood occasionally portrays an entrepreneur positively, he must highly eccentric–that is, atypical.

I’m sure there are some exceptions to the Hollywood theme of business=evil, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
John Wesley, ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus’
Readings in Social Ethics: John Wesley, “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” References below are to page numbers. A warning on the dangers of riches: “‘There was a certain rich man.’ And it is no more sinful to be rich than to be poor. But it is dangerous beyond expression. Therefore, I remind all of you that are of this number, that have the conveniences of life, and something over, that ye walk upon slippery ground. Ye continually tread on snares...
Kuyper, The Problem of Poverty
Readings in Social Ethics: Abraham Kuyper, The Problem of Poverty. References below are to page numbers. With next week’s reading of Rauschenbusch in view, here’s how Kuyper evaluates Christian socialists: “Socialists constantly invoke Christ in support of their utopias, and continually hold before us important texts from the Holy Word. Indeed, socialists have so strongly felt the bond between social distress and the Christian religion that they have not hesitated to present Christ himself as the great prophet of socialism”...
Evaluating the New Sanctuary Movement
Across America a group of Christians have banded together to promote a movement to protect illegal aliens from deportation. This is not a new phenomenon at all. What is a little different, at least about some aspects of this renewal of an older movement, is that it has now focused primarily on protecting Mexicans, who are living illegally in the U. S., from deportation. A celebrated case is unfolding day-by-day here in Chicago so I hear a great deal about...
Birth Control Price Increase May Send College Girls To Planned Parenthood
Time Magazine recently reported that birth-control pills on college campuses will surge in price this year due to new legislation regarding Medicaid. For decades college campus health centers have been a resource for budget-conscious female students seeking birth control. Because of agreements with panies, most campus clinics were able to distribute brand name prescription contraceptives, from pills to the patch to a monthly vaginal device like NuvaRing, for no more than a couple of bucks. As a result of new...
AJC Letter to the Editor
A letter to the editor in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to two op-eds in that paper: “Global Warming: No urgent danger; no quick fix,” by Patrick J. Michaels and “Global warming: Don’t take skeptics at face value,” by John Sibley. A taste: “Sibley the politician resorts to ad hominem attack on those with whom he disagrees. Michaels the scientist appeals to evidence.” Scroll down to the second letter to see the whole thing. ...
The ‘Peace Racket’ vs. Western Civilization
After World War II, Winston S. Churchill delivered his famed address warning of the descending Iron Curtain across the captive nations of Eastern Europe. Critics said Churchill engaged in unnecessary warmongering with an allied nation. His address was given at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. Churchill declared in his address: Our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them. They will not be removed by a mere waiting to see what happens; nor will they...
STAND on ‘Wristband Activism’
STAND, the Student Anti Genocide Coalition, is discussing Kaylin Wainwright’s mentary about Darfur and campus activism on its blog. STAND, which says it has founded 700 chapters, answers Kaylin’s criticisms about campus “slacktivism” by pointing to its effective engagement on the Darfur issue. The PowerBlog takes no stand on STAND. We’re just glad that considerations about effectiveness are being discussed by activist groups. Read Kaylin’s “Darfur: Taking Student Advocacy beyond the Wristband.” ...
Japanese Comics and Cultural Economics
A few weeks ago I was listening to a very engaging American RadioWorks documentary, rebroadcast from last October, “Japan’s Pop Power.” The show focused on the increasing cultural imports to ing from Japan, which by some estimations will soon dwarf industries typically associated with American-Japanese trade like automobiles, technology, and electronics. Japan’s economic success is a sure sign that human creativity and inventiveness are more important factors in human flourishing than mere material concerns or natural resources. Some of mentary...
The New (Green) Robber Barons
What do you call titans of industry who influence governmental regulation to provide them with tax and subsidy incentives to make a business venture profitable? They used to be called robber barons…now apparently they’re “eco-millionaires.” The NYT piece gives a brief overview of four such figures: Bruce Khouri “did not found Solar Integrated until 2001 once tax and subsidy incentives made the market more attractive.” Pedro Moura Costa says he “saw the carbon market could be big business and the...
Confessing Evangelical Economics
A number ments have been floating around the blogosphere related to the ing out of Colorado last week that a professor at Colorado Christian University was terminated because “his lessons were too radical and undermined the mitment to the free enterprise system.” Andrew Paquin, who taught global studies, reportedly assigned texts by Jim Wallis and Peter Singer. That in itself shouldn’t be enough to get someone fired. The context within which such authors were assigned and how the professor led...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved