Open Range, starring (among others) Kevin Costner, opens in about two weeks, on the 15th.

I'm going to make a prediction here. I predict that it will receive bad reviews. I'll see it anyway.

Will it really be bad? I doubt it. It's just that Hollywood hates any conservative, and Costner, though not exactly a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, has been noted for his occasional non-leftist sentiments. I suspect that the anti-conservative bias in Hollywood has played a role in some of the reviews he's received.

Remember the reviews for The Postman? Waterworld? These are not terrible movies - perhaps not blockbuster successes, but certainly not as bad as the critics said they were. (The Postman is actually pretty decent, as post-Apocalypse movies go.) Heck, the Robin Hood movie wasn't awful, though Costner's accent could have used a little work. OK, OK, maybe a lot of work.

Movie critics, of course, are creatures of the Hollywood system - their livelihood often depends on their ability to "go along to get along" with the people they are paid to critique. Indeed, if such goings-on were common on Wall Street, half of America's financial community would be vacationing at Stony Lonesome.

In Hollywood, it means the actors, directors, producers and critics are almost universally swinging on the left side of the tree. Going along, getting along. No surprise there, of course.

I recently read that Roger Ebert is one such player - not just one of the crowd, though, but significantly more "progressive" (read, a bigger idiotarian) than the usual. Once a respectable critic, he's decided that the fame he earned as a critic means he should be taken seriously when he comments in arenas outside his realm of experience. That's OK, it's a free country. But considering all the times I took his reviews as near-gospel, without knowing his political leanings, how can I be expected to take him seriously? I mean, fer cryin' out loud, he liked the fraudulent Bowling for Columbine.

How do you suppose he might review a flattering biography of Ronald Reagan...? I don't have to suppose - he'd pan it, and take shots at Reagan all the while.

What was that recent movie about the unibrow communist trollop, down Mexico way? Frida? I'll bet he loved that one. Oh, ya, what do you know - he did.

Having political opinions isn't a bad thing. Injecting them into your work and claiming anything like objectivity is. (Ya, I'm looking at you, Peter Jennings.)

So, to make a long story short [Too late! - Ed.], I'll just ignore the critics and see what audiences have to say about Open Range. I dig a good western - and I'll be happy if my prediction is wrong.

Posted by Russ at 09:04 PM, August 2, 2003 in Idiots