The Yale Free Press

Jason Apuzzo ’92 writes the Libertas blog a forum for conservative thought on film along with his wife Govindini Murty ’96 and David Ross ’93. Co-founder of the Liberty Film Festival, Los Angeles’s first and only film festival for conservative moviemakers, he received his doctorate from Stanford in 2001 and graduated from the USC Cinema School in 2001.

YFP: When did liberals take over Hollywood?

JA: Liberals took over Hollywood as they took over academia in the late 1960’s, early 70’s. The reason they did it is because, quite frankly, there were a lot of very talented people who entered the industry at that time, like Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorscese, and Steven Spielberg, who came in and were, quite frankly, fantastically gifted and visionary directors who in terms of their worldview and their politics, tended to be more culturally Left. But they won it because they earned it. They took over Hollywood by making superb, visionary and popular films. It actually took quite some time for liberals to institutionally take over Hollywood. That kind of thing really didn’t get consolidated or set in stone until the early 80s. And that’s more or less been the situation we’ve been in up through today, and now we’re seeing some interesting signs of change. But so far, it’s still just that.

YFP: How would you compare today’s political climate in Hollywood to the last time conservatives were a significant force there?

JA: What happened really was that in, again, right about the late 1960s, what had happened up to that point is that, first of all, Hollywood – very few people know this – Hollywood was formed by Republicans. It was actually formed by a bunch of primarily, Jewish Republicans fleeing Eastern Europe. Eastern European Jews fleeing oppression, pogroms, who came out, came west, and founded the studios. Louis B. Mayer is a great example. He was actually chairman of the California Republican Party for a while. Jesse Laski, Harry Kahn, the Warner Brothers, Cecil DeMille is a great example of this among the directors. Howard Hawks, all these guys. It was really Republicans who built Hollywood. What happened was that if you take what the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood – carrying that from the 1920s to the mid- to late 60s – again this was the period of time in which the town was primarily run by Republicans, Jewish Republicans running the studios who allowed both conservatives and Democrats to flourish and have wonderful careers, the so-called blacklist aside. It was entirely possible for people like John Huston or Humphrey Bogart or Lauren Bacall or mainstream liberals – Billy Wilder, Gregory Peck – to work and have flourishing careers in the town. What happened was that by the mid to late 60s, that generation that had formed Hollywood just started to get old, frankly, and kind of tired and out of ideas. Some new guys swept into town and made a totally different kind of film, you know, you think of something like Warren Beatty doing Bonnie and Clyde, or Dennis Hopper doing Easy Rider. These are excellent films in their own right, but they completely changed the tone of the town. That’s basically what happened. Now, when you talk about when Hollywood was last kind of dominated by conservatives and so forth, you know, most people consider that to be the town’s great era. That was when more people were going to the movies per week.

YFP: How would you compare what went on with the blacklist to the way conservatives are treated today?

JA: The blacklist period is very complex. You have to remember that there were a lot of people, like Ronald Reagan among them, who were actually advocating that the government and the House Un- American Activities committee in particular stay out of this and allow the industry to police itself. There is a considerable division that existed between conservatives in Washington and conservatives in Hollywood, the latter of whom preferred that the industry police itself. I personally agree with that. I think that Washington should, generally speaking, Democrat or Republican, stay out of town.

YFP: It was self-imposed.

JA: It was for the most part self-imposed, although you did have people who came before the committee and named names, and others who refused to name names. But essentially, what you’re talking about were Stalinists! They portray this as this innocent activity – I just had my Adlai Stevenson bumper sticker on my car and I was blacklisted! – these guys were Stalinists! Incidentally, this wasn’t a period in time when the crimes of that era, the show trials, and the millions dead in the Ukraine and elsewhere, this wasn’t a period of time when that information wasn’t out. This information was very well disseminated. You’re dealing with hardened radicals, most of whom, incidentally, were not all that talented, and were kind of using their politics to get themselves ahead in Hollywood, rather than their gifts as writers or what have you. This was a complex era. The unfortunate thing is that the blacklist is used to clobber people like me on the head, even though I wasn’t even born during this period. It’s something that conservatives have to constantly “answer for,” even as we’re blacklisted ourselves today. It’s sort of a complicated and very frustrating issue, to be honest. I personally wish that Washington had stayed out, allowed the industry to handle these things in a more quiet and somewhat more civilized way. That was Reagan’s approach.

YFP: What’s responsible for this year’s downturn at the box office?

JA: There are a variety of reasons, and I don’t claim that a liberal Hollywood worldview is the only reason. It is the one reason, however, that Hollywood avoids like the plague. What they never want to talk about is their worldview, or celebrity activism, in terms of what those things do in turning an audience off. Neither I nor Govindini nor anybody associated with our websites claims that it’s the only issue. It’s just that it’s never discussed. It is a major factor – the liberal worldview of the town does turn off a lot of audiences. What are some other factors? Sure, DVDs. Also, the so-called franchise mentality – the endless sequels have run their course, and I think people are getting a little tired of being sold movies in fast food restaurants. Right now, “worldview” for Hollywood means “left-wing.” What’s going to happen over time is they’re going to put this stuff out and it’s going to do terribly at the box office. It’s just going to bomb. Syriana will make no money. Jarhead will probably do very poorly. Terminus will do very poorly. All these films, they’re not going to make any money. What will happen is that they will stimulate an interest in doing films that will make money and that will actually respond to people’s interest in seeing patriotic films, films that don’t deride the country, films that are supportive of American and Western values.

YFP: Is there any connection between Hollywood’s current politicization and its treatment of masculinity and femininity?

JA: Yes, absolutely. They’ve essentially reversed the sexes. The women have become men. They’re Amazons. Watch any movie that Angelina Jolie does. Frankly, she’s more physically imposing than half the men that are in films nowadays. The female heroine nowadays is essentially an Amazon who is there to outdo men physically, in terms of her abilities as a warrior. This is what the modern female character is. There’s a lot of pressure on actresses to take these roles where they are kicking men in the teeth. For men, it’s amazing how effeminate they’ve become. DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Cillian Murphy. They’re almost indistinguishable from women. Brad Pitt’s gotten a little bit more rugged as the years have gone on, but this is not Gary Cooper we’re talking about. This is not even Harrison Ford.

YFP: What advice do you have for conservatives and libertarians who are interested in film or film criticism?

JA: If you want to go into filmmaking, the best thing for a conservative or libertarian to do is to pick up a camera and start making short films. Get used to the process – just dive in head first. Nothing can replace the experience of making movies. Communicate your worldview and don’t worry about what people are going to think. Don’t worry about whether Hollywood agents will like it. Just communicate your worldview in a visual way. Oh, and submit it to the Liberty Film Festival. Everybody wants exposure – festivals are a great way to get exposure. Get it seen, make sure it doesn’t sit on the shelf. In terms of film writing – we do a lot of writing on our blog Libertas – blogging’s great. I was a late convert to blogging. Our blog has taken off. The blogging revolution is just tremendous. We started the Free Press while I was at Yale because the desktop publishing revolution had just taken off. Now it seems like the blogging revolution is here. It’s speed, accessibility, so many eyeballs you can get to your site. We’re at just under a million hits per month, and we just started in mid- January. It’s incredible to me how it’s grown. That’s very possible for people, it’s very democratic, because it just comes down to, can you write? If you can write, and you have some modest level of promotional ability, people will find your site.