Peter Bart: Can Hollywood Make A Patriotic Movie Anymore?
deadline.comWith our nation increasingly divided, several media gurus over the July 4 break decreed that Hollywood owed filmgoers a “feel-good-about-America” movie.
Something unifying and patriotic, like a contemporary Yankee Doodle Dandy.When I did some research, I concluded that they had a point.
With the exception of those by-the-numbers World War II action movies, the industry has never been proficient at patriotism.I therefore decided to bite the bullet and rerun the 80-year-old Warner Bros film.
It was enlightening: As an old-fashioned song-and-dance extravaganza, Yankee Doodle Dandy turned out to be wicked fun. As an exercise in patriotism, however, its message was borderline anarchy.Maybe the times back then (the early 1940s) were as disorienting as they are today.
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