The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Jordon

First, why would a Pagan want to see a movie in which the villain is a Witch? Would anyone tolerate a movie in which the movie was an evil Jew? Second, why would a Pagan want to see a movie that is an obvious Christian analogy? Why would straight people want to see Brokeback Mountain?

Most pagans are able to understand the distinction between reality and fantasy. The White Witch is more of an archetypal figure of abused power and selfish intent than she is a Witch in the modern understanding of the word. (There is a fairly large bunch of militant pagans that think that The Wizard of Oz should be banned because of the inaccurate portrayal of witches. A fairly large bunch of militant pagans really need to get over themselves and their misplaced sense of self importance.)

As far as the "evil Jew" movies go ... there was a bit of a furor over The Passion of the Christ, as I recall. I don't remember as much of a fuss over the 2004 Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock, but perhaps the indifference towards films of Shakespeare plays that aren't made by Mel Gibson or Kenneth Brannagh swept that under the carpet.

Plenty of straight people will see Brokeback Mountain. If they don't, it won't make a lot of money. The Birdcage was a gay movie that made megabucks because of the crossover appeal. La Cage a Folles remained a small, amusing foreign film because it had wide appeal for a gay audience, but not a lot of bang for the straight man's buck. Hell, who reads subtitles, after all? (I do, and have most of my favorite foreign films in the original languages. Dubbing offends me because the voice characterizations are NEVER right.) La Cage didn't really hit the mark with straight folks until the Broadway show came out.

A lot of straight Christian Right people will NOT see that movie, but will probably, somewhere along the line, sneak a peek at it when it finally makes it's way to HBO or Showtime. The ones that don't cancel their subscriptions by way of protesting it's airing, of course. HBO knows they'll be back just as soon as Inside the NFL starts up again.

Will and Grace is a top comedy because of it's crossover appeal as well. That's the key to a successful film ... attract the broadest audience possible.