So, something not that chill happened last night…
The Interview, Seth Rogen and James Franco’s new film about assassinating supreme leader Kim Jong-un of North Korea, was set for release on Christmas Day, but following threats for 9/11-level terrorist attacks, large theater chains announced that they would no longer be showing the movie. Sony pictures decided to cancel the release and all preview screenings, absorbing a $44-million profit loss.
In This Is the End (easily the funniest movie of the decade), the last film in which Seth Rogen and James Franco co-starred, they lived out the apocalypse. This time, they may have begun the cascading domino effect leading to World War III.
What began as an anonymous cyber-attack on Sony Pictures escalated into a threat of national terrorism to theaters across the country that planned to air the film. The U.S. has linked North Korea directly to the attacks. Kim Jong-un has called the film an “act of war.” The threat of attack was enough for theaters to cancel the film. The Fort Collins shooting on opening day of The Dark Knight Rises made theater-goers uneasy for months, and another tragedy, a publicized one at that, would be inconceivable.
This is not the first movie to joke about the death of a world leader. It is also not the first movie to kill a leader from North Korea. In 2004 Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of constantly controversial South Park, released Team America: World Police. The ending finds Kim Jong-Il, who is “So Ronery,” impaled on a German Ambassador’s hat. His corporeal form dies, but his spirit cockroach escapes and flies back to his home planet on its mini-spaceship.
One North Korean ambassador asked for the film to be banned in the Czech Republic to no avail. No lives were lost because of the making of this film.
In response to Sony’s cancellation of The Interview, one theater in Texas is going to show Team America instead. Employees will be given American flags on the day of the showing to increase patriotism.
In a related dictatorial debacle, Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 classic, The Great Dictator, starred Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel (sound similar to anyone?). Although Chaplin’s dictator survived the film, he used multiple gags to mock Adolf Hitler, such as the famous dance with the inflatable globe, as if to say he has the world in his hands until it pops upon landing.
The film was banned in Germany. No lives were lost because of the making of the film.
In the aftermath of this week’s shit-storm that passed through Hollywood, a film starring Steve Carell, was also cancelled by Sony. Based on the graphic novel Pyongyang, by Guy Delisle, which centers on the author’s time spent in North Korea.
The easy argument is to say that America has never had to deal with films about assassinating our public leaders, but in October of 2006, a British film was released entitled The Death of a President. The faux documentary features the assassination of President George W. Bush and then proceeds to solve the crime like a TV drama. Instead of the government complaining about the film and in turn giving the film all the free promotion in the world and piquing public curiosity, it went quietly into obscurity, just like how North Korea could have handled the release of The Interview.
How Sony should have handles the threats is similar to how Trey Parker and Matt Stone reacted when they nearly faced the wrath of the Islamic nation after depicting Muhammad in South Park not once, but twice. Comedy Central wanted to forbid them from showing Muhammad, so the two threatened to leave the network instead of giving in to death threats. Their logic was that if they prevented content from being shown because it offended one group, then the list of offended groups would grow, leaving the show with nothing.
America has freedom of speech for a reason. It’s strange that films about Kim Jong-Il and Adolf Hitler received almost no punishment other than a regional ban, yet The Interview is being forbidden from being seen by the public because it is offensive to Kim Jong-Un. Watching the death scene (which leaked here) is, admittedly, a bit discomforting. This is a real human they are facetiously killing; a human who is uncomfortable with the slightest bit of negative press; one who has access to nuclear missiles and power to begin an international war. It’s disquieting.
Part of me understands the inherent wrongness of this, but on the flip side, in This is the End, nearly every comedian on the face of Earth was killed. Michael Cera was killed by being stabbed by a lightpost while high on cocaine and looking for his lost cell phone. Jonah Hill was raped by Satan before his demise, and James Franco was eaten by cannibals, and I laughed as hard as I have ever laughed.
The bottom line is that this is a movie. It is a comedy made by the same guys who brought us a stoner-action flick in Pineapple Express, Freaks and Geeks, and introduced us to McLovin. The film’s main goal is to make people laugh, even if the joke is inferred internationally as a provocation for war. While we may not see the film anytime soon, have faith. If SMiLE by the Beach Boys can exist in the world, then so can The Interview. It may just take a little longer than we would like to wait, so for now, be calm and don’t overindulge yourself on swiss cheese.
Follow Craig on Twitter: @wgwcraig