President Trump Appoints Special Ambassadors to Hollywood
The incoming President of the United States has vowed to save one of the entities that tried to destroy him. Today, President Donald Trump, who is about to be sworn into office for the second time in three days, announced on his Truth Social app that he is appointing three actors as “Special Ambassadors” to Hollywood: Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight, and Mel Gibson. These actors would, according to Trump, serve as his “eyes and ears” in Hollywood, with Trump promising to “get done what they suggest,” with the intention of restoring “The Golden Age of Hollywood.” You can see President Trump’s post below:
Trump’s statement is very vague, so I’m not sure exactly what he means. He calls the Ambassadors to Hollywood his eyes and ears, suggesting that they’re going to report back to him about the way things are going in Hollywood and suggest ways he can help. But is that the extent of it? Are Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight going to advise Hollywood producers and executives about how to make better movies? That’s how I see this, admittedly from the point of view of a guy who read Trump’s post on the internet. Regardless, it’s clear that Trump wants to save Hollywood, and that means he gets how important the movie industry is to America. They’re not just a business and one of our top exports but a vital piece of our culture and, ideally, a representation of who we are. That’s why different eras of film feel different; it’s not just because a new bunch of filmmakers arrived to flip the tables and do things their own way (although that’s certainly part of it) but because the movies are reflections of the audience: the rebellious countercultural spirit of the 60s, the paranoia and disillusionment of the 70s, the optimism and renewed national pride of the 80s, the abundance and excesses of the 90s, the desire for a superhero to save us from a post-9/11 reality in the 2000s. But what are movies saying about us now? Nothing; they’re too busy wagging a finger at us. It could be my imagination running wild, but I see this as Trump’s attempt to restore that cultural touchstone, the movie as Americana, the art form of the United States. And considering what Hollywood has done to him (or tried to do, neener-neener-neener), I consider this an incredibly patriotic gesture, a leader offering help to an avowed enemy instead of seeking retribution because he knows what it will mean to the country.
If I’m right, I like these three actors as Trump’s picks. Obviously, part of why he chose them is that they’re conservatives (or conservative-leaning), and they are supporters of his. But they also represent different aspects of Hollywood moviemaking; Jon Voight is most well known for dramas from the 60s and 70s like Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home, and Deliverance, harrowing human stories that examine dark themes and disturbing topics but speak to something fundamentally human in the audience – something Hollywood has become increasingly bad at doing. (Amusingly, in Enemy of the State, Voight played the type of Deep State monster Trump is trying to root out of the government.) Mel Gibson, while he’s got plenty of movies like Lethal Weapon and Mad Max under his belt, has also directed films like Braveheart, Apocalypto, and The Passion of the Christ, which all hearken back to some of the big epics they rarely make anymore (and certainly not well), like Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Gone With the Wind, and the like. And Sylvester Stallone, while certainly capable of crafting human stories like Rocky, knows how to entertain, but to do so in a thoughtful way. The Rambo movies highlight the abysmal way American soldiers were treated when they came back from Vietnam and the toll it took on their souls; Demolition Man was a cautionary tale about a future where people were infantilized by a government that stripped all their rights away in the name of progress and enlightenment; Cliffhanger was about a damaged man learning to overcome his fear and guilt and allow himself to live again, as well as a bunch of regular joes succeeding where the government failed; even Judge Dredd – say what you will about it – examined the pitfalls of a police state, from the lack of a fair trial to the harassment of everyday citizens to the absence of checks on the government leading to the creation of an out-of-control criminal psychopath. And I’ll be honest: I’m really hoping Sly gets Trump to bring Kurt Russell in on this so we can have a Tango and Cash reunion.
The point I’m making (aside from that Tango and Cash is awesome) is that these three actors are particularly well-versed in three of the things Hollywood used to excel at and no longer even tries to accomplish, and the diminishing audience is the result. Moreover, moviegoers have proven that when a movie does offer some of the things Hollywood used to, they’ll come back in droves. Look at Oppenheimer, a grand, epic picture about a historical event with bravura performances and a whole lot of big ideas and human drama; people loved it, and it was a smash because you almost never see movies like that anymore. Top Gun: Maverick married thrilling action and Tom Cruise at his most likable with a story about patriotism, the American Spirit, and pushing yourself to do the impossible. Sound of Freedom was a small thriller from an independent studio, and it beat big Disney-produced blockbusters at the summer box office because it was an expertly made film that touched people with its warning about the horrors of child trafficking. You know what none of these movies did? Bring their narratives to a screeching halt to lecture the audience about some social cause with which the filmmakers want to beat people over the head. Sound of Freedom is a “message movie” that never lets the message kill the art, something not even superhero movies seem capable of doing anymore. They also didn’t force elements into their stories that took people out of the movie, like a random gay subplot or a jab at real-world politicians. I’ve said that my favorite definition of woke comes from Breitbart writer John Nolte, who simply says, “Woke breaks the spell.” Movies nowadays increasingly break the spell, and they do it with glee, and audiences are looking elsewhere to find some magic.
And I believe this is why Trump chose these three guys to be his Special Ambassadors to Hollywood, again aside from their political affiliation. These actors understand the importance of maintaining the spell, as opposed to stopping their films short for the requisite public service announcement thinly disguised as a movie scene. But they also know how to make movies that are about something, something human, something important, something that can grab people by the throat and hold them for two or three hours. People still talk about Braveheart, Rocky, and Midnight Cowboy, along with many other films these three were part of; they remember the drama and themes along with the action and classic lines of dialogue. That’s what movies once did, and if what Trump and this triumvirate are planning pans out, maybe they will again.
Let us know what you think of President Trump’s Special Ambassadors to Hollywood in the comments!
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