Deliberate Ignorance

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President Bush has signed the Family Movie Act of 2005 into law, and Hollywood is outraged.

"Censorship!" screams Rob Reiner.

"A Nefarious and Sneaky Little Document" sneers the lefty blog Filmbrain.

Why? Is Bush preventing directors and producers from making films as they see fit?

Nope. He just wants Americans to be able to edit out the nudity, violence, profanity, and all those things most of us are sick of, but which Hollywood seems to think is absolutely necessary. Americans have said for decades that they want cleaner movies, and revenues from the top grossing films bears that out.

It speaks to the matter then, that Hollywood producers/directors not only think they have the right to make a film as they please (which they do), but that they also have the right to force people to watch whatever they put up there (they have no such right).

I have a very simple solution for Hollywood: Start making films the way people want to see them, and get rid of the trash, and there will be no market for companies and filters to remove the filth. How about you make films which attract people on the strength of the story, the acting, things like that?

Otherwise, we're gonna wash your film out before our kids see it.