John Cusack: Bypassing the Corporate Media

[babylonsister]

John Cusack: Bypassing the Corporate Media

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted July 12, 2008.

Cusack's anti-war polemic, War, Inc., continues to defy expectations, despite the traditional media's dismissive reception.


It's not uncommon for a big-budget Hollywood flick to get mixed reviews and then go on to do gang-busters at the box office. Movie-goers' desires when looking for a little escapism on a Saturday afternoon don't always mesh with the critics' tastes. But it's almost unheard of for scrappy, independent films to do well without critical raves. Low-budget films live or die according to their reviews, and a so-so write up is usually a quick ticket to the video shelf.

That's the rule; War, Inc., John Cusack's dark parable about the rape and pillage of the Iraqi economy -- what Antonia Juhasz calls Bush's "economic invasion" of Iraq - is the exception. While the film wasn't exactly panned by critics -- overall, its writing and acting were well-received -- quite a few mainstream reviewers were dismissive of its premise. For many in the commercial media, Iraq, and the rampant war-profiteering that's marked the adventure from the beginning, is old news, and they greeted it with a collective 'ho-hum.'

Time called the film, "a great excuse to call up your old liberal pals and relive that dreamy time when war as business was an idea worth satirizing." The New York Times' David Carr wrote, "Those who suggest that the movie's core premise - war as a profit engine - is so five years ago are right in a way" (not that Carr would suggest anything of the sort himself). Reuters' Frank Scheck predicted that "the First Look release is unlikely to counter the commercial malaise for war-themed films."

That wasn't a surprise to Cusack and his production team. "We knew this would be considered an incendiary political statement," he told me this week from Bankgok, where he's shooting his next project, Shanghai. "We knew that we'd get some push-back." Cusack decided to bypass the gate-keepers of the corporate media altogether. "From the beginning we decided to leverage the alternative media -- to take the film directly to the anti-war Audience that would support it not only for its subversive entertainment value, but also for the statement it made -- for the truth it tries to tell through its absurdist lens."

War, Inc. was the first theatrical release to have such a marketing strategy. "We did some of the usual interviews to promote the project," Cusack said. "But we also did dozens of interviews with alternative outlets and leading progressive bloggers. We started a My Space page that has some rabidly active folks down for the cause.... I posted diaries on DailyKos; we did live chats with readers of blogs like Crooks and Liars. The progressive community really got behind the film and any success we have had and will have for the life of the film is due to these sites and the online community." The film's advertising budget was next-to-nothing; Cusack said "the project had no corporate backing." In June, when the release expanded to Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Connecticut, Washington and Illinois, indy journalist Larisa Alexandrova noted that it was "thanks to word-of-mouth, the alternative press and the blogosphere."

Cusack was playing to a receptive audience. The gap between the dismissive snorts from commercial outlets like The Washington Post and the film's reception in the alternative media was a mile wide. The Nation's Jeremy Scahill called the film "this generation's Dr. Strangelove and "a powerful, visionary response to the cheerleading culture of the corporate media and a pliant Hollywood afraid of its own shadow." Arianna Huffington wrote that the film found "a savage reality-altering humor amidst the tragedy of Iraq. It delivers a wicked punch in the gut, making you laugh, wince, and get outraged all at the same time." Naomi Klein, whose work Cusack and his co-writers followed closely while working on the script, told Huffington that the film "cranks up the dial on the state of privatized war just enough that we can finally see our present clearly. As you're watching it, you can't help wondering: can these guys really get away with this?"

more...

http://www.alternet.org/movies/91114/?page=entire&ses=a7e45dbc49843e0b744708b98e3d398e

[EV_Ares]

1. I certainly will go see it. I hope this starts something where organizations by-pass the

corporate media. I don't see why it won't work. There are all kinds of alternative ways now to get the message out. Also, to get information out to people that the corporate media doesn't want to report. "Yes-we can" as our next President would say.

[ms liberty]

2. John Cusack is one of my favorite people. K&R n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Did you see Grace is Gone?

I swear I fall in love with him all over again every time I see him in another movie. This what now, a twenty-five year unrequired love affair? ;)

[ms liberty]

10. No I haven't seen it yet. I'll have to get it on DVD...

I'm 30 miles from the nearest movie theater, we don't go to the movies often!

edited for spelling.

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Invest in several boxes of tissues.

[Kolesar]

3. a private corporation, Tamerlane, owned by former Vice President of the United States-Dan Aykroyd

Ackroyd makes a great heavy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War%2C_Inc.

Plot
War Inc. is set in the future, when the fictional desert country of Turaqistan is torn by a riot after a private corporation, Tamerlane, owned by the former Vice President of the United States (Dan Aykroyd), has taken over the whole country. Brand Hauser (John Cusack), a hit man who suppresses his emotions by gobbling down hot sauce, is hired by the corporation's head to kill the CEO of their competitors. To do this, he has to have a cover-up which is in the form of a gala wedding by the outrageous Central Asian Superstar Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff). Everything changes when the ruthless killer finds himself head-over-heels in love with a sexy reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei).

[barbtries]

4. i want to know when it will be in raleigh nc

and where do i go to find out? i just googled it the other day and as far as i could tell, it wasn't playing in my neighborhood. i'm dying to see the film.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Netflix

Which is why I use Netflix...we have no decent nearby theaters.
I do have a large flat screen monitor and good sound, so renta movie works well for me.
and I keep one Netflix account solely for new releases, so they usually send the new ones immediately.

[barbtries]

8. it's in my queue

but i'm prepared to see this one in the theater (never go to the movies anymore). not just to see it in the theater but to support it as well. if it makes buckets of money, more and more movies will be made showing the truth of the situation.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. I so want to see it!

[cascadiance]

9. I just got back from seeing it at the Gaslamp...

It actually surprised me that there's some pretty decent acting and good character stories in this film. Was thinking it was going to emphasize the war as "the main character" more than it did.

I think a LOT was excellent. You could really feel the image of the "sheltered" corporate wasteland of the Green Zone, though I think the "morphing picture" screens were a bit overdone at times. Almost reminded me too much of it looking like a reference to the THX-1138 "Jesus alcoves" or something like that.

You could tell there was a lot of subtle references to things going on around there, like "imbedded journalists" vs. "embedded journalists", etc.

I told my Mom that one thing I would have liked to have been able to tell Cusack to put in as a REAL subtle reference and DIG at what's going on is if they could have very indirectly made Cusack a "suspect" for the "offing" of David Kelly.

If he'd said something in one of his internal conversations like "You know, I do come close at times to not getting a job done right, but you have to admit that we were able to get that real dangerous British guy who had the goods on us before he spilled anything more to that New York Times Reporter, and got the suicide thing to cover us then. I knew that reporter was playing ball with us, but we had it under control before it went further than her". (aka Judith Miller).

I would have LOVED hearing him say something like that!