Being a huge movie fan and never having been to the Sundance Film Festival, when an opportunity to go presented itself a couple of weeks ago, I jumped on it.
I arrived on the first day eager to see what this legendary festival is all about. After walking around for a few hours I learned that Festival founder Robert Redford kicks off every year with an introduction of the Thursday opening night movie.
Well Redford is a hero of mine... actually, scratch that... he's played characters that are heros of mine... The Sundance Kid and Johnny Hooker, to be specific. And since I've never even seen the man, much less met him, I set about trying to find a ticket to the show.
It wasn't easy, but I got it done and set out in freezing temperatures to see what he had to say (I was also excited about the movie).
He walked out on the stage and hey, there he was, THE Robert Redford. Cool! But then it began... the anti-Bush diatribe. Isn't it great that he's gone in four days and oh happy day Obama Obama Obama and blah blah blah.
And as the cheers rose up from the theater, I found my shoulders sagging and my arms crossing and suddenly I was flat-out angry. The night ruined, I tried to enjoy the movie, but the damage had been done.
Thanks Redford, I came to see a hero and wound up seeing a petty old man struggling to rediscover his relevance.
I hope the moment was worth it for you.
I wonder how many others like me were in the audience. Will the goodwill of the converted outweigh the loss of fans who wondered why such an ugly divisive moment was necessary in the first place.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Redford came and spoke at the Academy a few years ago when they screened ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, which is one of my all time favorite films. So I'm extremely excited to hear him talk about the production, etc. But of course, the anti-Bush comments come out and the parallels to Nixon's presidency. And the audience cheers. And I'm pretty pissed because 1) I came to see a movie and he then had to make it political; and 2) to equate Nixon with Bush is just dumb. Nixon broke laws to keep himself in power. Bush let the CIA waterboard 3 terrorists to get information that led to plots being foiled and kept the public safe. If you want to call waterboarding torture, I'll disagree with you but what you can't disagree with is that Bush's "crime" helped protect the American people, not keep himself in power. Redford, you should stick to movies and leave politics at home.
Post a Comment