The Paranoid Strain

Unlike Reihan, I have absolutely no qualms with shameless self promotion. The key to quality shameless self promotion, however, is adding value to the post. I don’t think it’s enough to say, “hey, I just wrote this review of the abominable Andromeda Strain remake. You should read it.” Rather, I’d like to expand on something in the review I had to truncate, or point to another piece that will help you understand the review better.

I this case I shall do the latter: If you haven’t read Ross Douthat’s very smart take on the paranoid style in American film since 9/11, you really should. My attempted takedown of the A&E snoozefest wouldn’t have been possible without Ross’s piece. Instead of harping on the (much deserved) pessimism coming from Hollywood that Mr. Douthat writes about, I’ll focus on the positive: “the ’70s revival, though pervasive at the moment, may not have that much staying power. The original decade of nightmares didn’t end when the Vietnam War did; it persisted through Ford and Carter, oil shocks and stagflation, and the Iran hostage crisis. The new ’70s may go out with George W. Bush. ” Let’s hope so: there’s nothing worse than Hollywood millionaires turning into a collective den of whiners.

I also think there’s a backlash forming–nothing I can really write about at the moment, but it does appear that a pro-American, pro-military contingent is forming out West. We’ll see if it lasts past 2008’s election…