by James Oliphant
Sunday, the faux-glamor of the presidential race will be temporarily replaced by the real thing: The Academy Awards. (Obama isn't hosting, right?)
Competition for best picture promises to be fierce. There's the epic "There Will Be Blood," the taut "No Country for OId Men" and the lush "Atonement." And then there's also that plucky little indie movie "Juno" about a wisecracking teenager who makes pregnancy seem like just a nine-month trip to the mall.
Lots of people will be rooting for this underdog film to win, including the fun-loving Troy Newman of Operation Rescue. That's the virulent anti-abortion organization based in Wichita, Kan. that has made it its mission to close clinics that provide abortion services by any means necessary. They're the ones who sends trucks around with bloody pictures of fetuses.
In an interview Wednesday, Newman was effusive in his praise of "Juno," saying it marked a cultural turning point. In the film, pregnant Juno goes to a clinic to obtain an abortion, but once there, gets upset and leaves. She decides to have the baby and give it to a wealthy professional couple.
Newman says there is a reason why "Juno" was this year's feel-good sensation. "If she goes and gets an abortion, the movie's over." In other words, abortion is not a crowd-pleaser.
Juno was written by Chicago native Diablo Cody. Considering Cody is a former stripper and ex-phone sex operator, she and Newman might not necessarily be foxhole buddies, or even Facebook friends. Cody has run into this before. She told Hollywood.com:
People are entitled to love the movie for whatever reason they want to love it. I just want it to be loved. I’m pro-choice so for people perceive the movie as right wing propaganda would be a little weird.
Newman is right in one respect. Abortion in the movies isn't much fun. When sweet little Jennifer Jason Leigh had to get one in in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," it scared the hell out of your correspondent during his formative years.
But having the baby isn't always a barrel of laughs either. Who can forget the climax of "Steel Magnolias?" (Certainly, not any man of a certain dating age forced to see that film in exchange for something like "Die Hard.") Basically the entire plot of the movie goes like this:
JULIA ROBERTS: Ah want to have this baby.
REST OF CAST: But, Shelby, it's just too risky!
JULIA ROBERTS: Ah'm havin' this baby.
And we all know what happens, right? Julia kicks it in the operating room while your girlfriend is crying for reasons that you don't completely understand.
Babies and movies. A complicated business.
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Comments
Oh God, here comes all the radical rightwing Religious nutjobs:
5...4...3...2...1..DING DING DING!
Posted by: John E | February 21, 2008 3:59 PM
The Oscars! I think Oliphant may be better suited for the Hollywood beat than he is the political beat.
Posted by: John D | February 21, 2008 4:10 PM
Oh God, here comes all the radical rightwing Religious nutjobs:
5...4...3...2...1..DING DING DING!
Posted by: John E | February 21, 2008 3:59 PM
The Oscars! I think Oliphant may be better suited for the Hollywood beat than he is the political beat.
Posted by: John D | February 21, 2008 4:10 PM
Just as I predicted!
Posted by: John E | February 21, 2008 4:34 PM
You ruined the plot! and why are you trying to legitimize this domestic terrorist?
Posted by: john | February 21, 2008 5:09 PM
The only time 'Operation Hate Women' should ever be quoted is in conjunction w/their Nazi buddies, the Republics.
Posted by: weinerdog43 | February 21, 2008 6:52 PM
To the reporter, the people who kill the babies are never described as "virulent", but the people who try and save the lives of the babies are "virulent"....
George Orwell would be proud of such a skewed point of view.
Posted by: Rodham | February 21, 2008 7:17 PM
So we have here a movie that makes something complicated seem to be essentially simple. A lot of movies are that way. Nevertheless, why must every human story become grist for ideological combat? As is the case in most fiction, why can't this story be looked upon as one persons experience. Not necessarily an example of what should be the outcome in all cases.
Posted by: DKB | February 21, 2008 8:07 PM
Why not make this the far-rights calling to highlight the evils of premarital sex?
& since when did the right get excited about a movie from Hollywood?
Posted by: RomanB | February 21, 2008 9:04 PM
Is Operation Rescue so naive to not realize that this, "happy go-lucky, touchy-feelie" film can also encourage teenagers to be sexually active? I am personally opposed to aboriton, but we should all come together to find ways to prevent and discourage unintended pregnancies. The ultimate, gut-wrenching decision on what to do with an unintended pregnancy has to be left to the woman. Searching her own conscience and kept between her and God. You cannot legislate morality.
And besides, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was a better film, and had much more "real" conclusion. Just because Jennifer Jason Leigh's character has the abortion, doesn't mean it is "not" a life-affirming film. Perhaps the stigma and sense of regret portrayed in that film might encourage some kids to NOT get pregnant? Thereby not having the need to consider abortion in the first place.
Posted by: David J | February 22, 2008 7:23 AM
And for a more recent film, you might want to take a look at this.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080207/REVIEWS/802070302
Posted by: David J | February 22, 2008 7:27 AM
To the reporter, the people who kill the babies are never described as "virulent", but the people who try and save the lives of the babies are "virulent"....
George Orwell would be proud of such a skewed point of view.
Posted by: Rodham | February 21, 2008 7:17 PM
Maybe the pro-choice people are not described as "virulent" because it's not an accurate description?
Rodham, if you don't believe an abortion is an appropriate option, no pro-choice person will ever make you have one.
Worry about your own twisted life, not everyone else's.
Posted by: a blinkin | February 22, 2008 9:33 AM
"Rodham, if you don't believe an abortion is an appropriate option, no pro-choice person will ever make you have one.
Worry about your own twisted life, not everyone else's.
Posted by: a blinkin | February 22, 2008 9:33 AM"
Not to mention Pro-Lifers who manage to ease their conscience when they're the ones faced with actually having to deal with an inconvenient pregnancy. It's a lot easier to pass judgment on others than it is to live up to your own standards.
Posted by: Op109 | February 22, 2008 11:45 AM
Diablo Cody is from Lemont, not Chicago.
I'm not going to put down her real name here, but I knew her when she was a rug rat.
Posted by: DaveB | February 22, 2008 5:37 PM
DaveB: you don't need to dangle the possibility of exposing her real name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Cody
Juno blew donkey goats. i will cry at almost any episode of extreme makeover, home edition or not. hell, i'll cry over a tampon commercial.
juno didn't make me feel a damn thing. if anything, i felt dirty for watching the extended sunny delight commercial in the first 5 minutes of the film.
the funny lines all went to the dude from the office in the convenience store scene.
it's not a light hearted look at a substantial theme, it's an insensitively substandard shallow view of the subject.
o0o0o0o thumbnails. that's what changes her mind?
like we're to believe a "stripper/phonesex operator" turned blogger is supposed to get nominated for such a flippant film?
i'll be crying conspiracy till by deathbead, rattling my prison bars, screaming "GIGLI".
Posted by: WikiDuh | February 23, 2008 2:14 AM