Critics: 'The Purge' an attack on Tea Party, NRA

[308Mike]

Linkarooni - what they need to do is PURGE Hollyweird - they're obviously not noticing the CONTINUED DECREASE in violent crimes since more people are armed and able to defend themselves and others:

Critics: 'The Purge' an attack on Tea Party, NRA
By Hollie McKay
Published June 07, 2013 | FoxNews.com

LOS ANGELES – In the new Ethan Hawke thriller “The Purge," the year is 2022, and the United States is run by a bunch of multinational corporations called the “New Founding Fathers of America.” The nation is ravaged by crime and overcrowded prisons, so in a quest to curb overpopulation and get rid of unsavories, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period where anything goes in the streets.

Known as “The Purge,” all criminal activity – including murder, brutal violence and in this movie, a sinister home invasion – is legal, all emergency services and calls are suspended, and the only rules are that harming high-ranking government officials and using “Class 4” weaponry (bombs and grenades) are strictly prohibited.

But while the plot may seem on its surface like any of hundreds of other futuristic hellscape directorial visions from "Clockwork Orange" to "Oblivion," "The Purge" has been dubbed by some a thinly veiled attack on the Tea Party and National Rifle Association, and has some critics rolling their eyes.

“Director James DeMonaco makes it clear the movie is a direct attack on the NRA, an organization filled with millions of law-abiding gun owners. The loony left’s reflexive hatred of the 2nd Amendment is founded in the concept that people who don’t break the law are somehow evil for exercising the Constitutional rights,” Dan Gainor, VP of Business and Culture at the Media Research Institute told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “’The Purge’ is also an obvious attack on the Tea Party and Christians.”

In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, DeMonaco said the leadership of his 2022 United States was indeed based on the NRA, although he tried to use a light touch.

"I layered in these New Founding Fathers, this regime that we voted into power at some point, some kind of NRA-thing that took over the country," he said. "But I kind of left that to the audience. I think sometimes in my writing I try to spoon feed too much, it’s better to let the audience make their own decisions on things."

He also said the film's ultraviolent "purge" was based on what he saw happening in the country now.

"When I was on my last movie, I was living in France for six months. I started noticing that the news was so very different than watching the news in America, it was just strange. And I lived in Canada right before that and it was completely different as well. Their news was just about us, because they had nothing to report," he told the website. "So when we watch the news here, I joke to my wife ‘It’s like The Purge every night.’ I don’t know what the f**k is going on out there, but it’s like the godd**n Purge!

We caught up with the movie's star at an interview junket promoting "The Purge," and Hawke said the plot is indeed social commentary.

“It’s not such a far-fetched idea that rich people are totally cut off from the adversity and murder. We sit there on a treadmill and watch and flip and see what’s happening all over the world and other countries, and a lot of that damage is created by our affluence and what is our level of participation in that,” he told us. “And how do we feel about that, and what are we going to do about it? And the rest of us just change the channel.”

Hawke said the movie addressed the current political and social climate.

“It’s the fun of science fiction in a way that it forces you to think about political ideas without ‘who are you going to vote for?’" he said. "You get to think without anyone having an agenda for gun control or not.”

Documentary filmmaker and media critic John Ziegler said regardless of its message, "The Purge" just isn't very good.

"Worse than being an apparent attack on limited government and the Tea Party movement, the plot just seems really stupid, even for Hollywood,” Ziegler said. "If they are going to be so biased they should at least be good."

"The Purge" has drawn mixed reviews, with movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes giving it a middling 53 percent.

The L.A. Times called it an “emptying experiences” of “cheap scares and violent showdowns,” Seattle Times noted that “no real answers” were provided by the filmmaker, and that it was simply a presentation of a “bizarre dystopian future,” while Time Out New York suggested that the film “morphs into a dull version of ‘Straw Dog.’”

However, plenty of other critics have “The Purge” the thumbs up.

Film.com applauded it as a “blunt takedown of 1%-er politics masquerading as a home invasion picture,” the Birmingham Mail called it a “very clever thriller and a thought-provoking social commentary rolled into one,” and the Village Voice observed that the “set-up is arresting, the domestic scenes well observed and acted," and that the “late-film twist isn't a surprise, exactly, but it is delicious.”

Gainor, however, said the movie is just Hollywood's latest attempt at demonizing America.

“Once again Hollywood tries to make money from Americans by bashing America. The entertainment industry loves trying to depict the U.S. as the bad guy. Movies used to show the good things about our nation, now Hollywood execs clearly avoid that whenever possible,” he said. “It’s almost funny that a schlock movie filled with violence is used to criticize Americans for being violent.”

[Weetabix]

How much is Ethan Hawke worth? Rich people, indeed.

[randy]

Festival!

[Yogimus]

But was it a good movie?

[Aesop]

Meh.

I've already worked on a major TV pilot this year wherein it was described to me that the Minions Of The Hate Police portrayed (and costumed like a cross between Imperial Stormtroopers and the Allegemeine SS, on purpose) were "truly and totally evil, they're like the NRA".

Which was a direct verbatim quote from a producer young enough to be in diapers when better men than he were serving and dying to defend his right to spew such ignorant jackholery.

This is really how the truly ignorant Leftists perform what their public school teachers and sociology professors assured them was actual "thinking".
I would have cheerfully and anonymously violated about 20 confidentiality agreements to phone this straight to the NRA, except that on about 0.000004 seconds of sober reflection, I realized such a message was tantamount to calling them up to tell them that dogs pee on trees, and babies crap their diapers.

As usual, the solution is free enterprise. Pony up the dough to make shows and films that support your values, and you'll drive the bastards either out of business, or back to the half-century of films that are rightly considered American and worldwide classics.

[Denis]

Aha. This reminds me to renew my NRA membership for a year. Thanks!

[308Mike]

Aha. This reminds me to renew my NRA membership for a year. Thanks!

Why make it a single year when you can make it five and save a bunch of money, while helping a great cause (plus you could then vote on the Board of Directors elections)??

[Jericho941]

The NRA being evil is one of those things the left takes for granted, kinda like the right and the ACLU.

In other words, when someone goes on about such an organization, ask them about something they've done that's so evil. When they don't have access to Google.

[Denis]

Why make it a single year when you can make it five and save a bunch of money...

Because they don't offer the US$10/year subscription-without-magazine in five-year blocks, and I'm not willing to pay for an overseas subscription that includes the magazine, at the postage rates they charge. I suppose I should really just sign up for a life membership when they offer them for US$300 from time to time, and tell them to keep the magazine. Then I could at least vote.

What annoys me with the US$10/yr subscription is that they send me at least two, and often three early-renewal reminders by post. I bet that takes a good chunk of the $10.

[scipioafricanus]

Funny thing is I have already seen a few reviews that actually point out the obvious attack from other than right sites, and they aren't pleased with it. Perhaps because it is so over-the-top and bad, but nevertheless they point it out.

SA