I’m done with Tom Hanks
And you know, it’s not even because he called Mormons un-American. I mean, if you’re gonna go that route, then whatever. If you can’t respect someone else’s right to vote according to their beliefs, then what am I going to say.
And it’s not because if you’re going to go the whole “Mormons have it wrong about gay marriage” thing in the context of Big Love, you could just avoid the whole “un-American” argument and go with the more obvious and more difficult to argue “the people in this show are going about marriage in a way that works for them; this was a part of Mormon history; how is gay marriage different; blah blah argument”, and avoid having to backtrack once you realized that you offended a whole bunch of the target market for your fine upstanding movies like Forrest Gump and Apollo 13.
No. What offends me is this: “The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church,”. Last I checked Tom Hanks is a producer on this show. This show that he apparently believes is about people from “some bizarre offshoot” of my church. And you know what? I don’t necessarily disagree with him, but I’m not making major bank off of a show about people who are part of that “bizarre offshoot”. It seems to me that he’s profiting pretty heavily off of a group of people he holds disdain and a complete lack of respect for. That’s not integrity, that’s exploitation. And you know, naive as it may have been, I expected more from Mr. Hanks.
So I’m done.
hmmm…brooke was upset about this too:
http://reservetheright.blogspot.com/2009/01/ignore-influences-of-hollywood-left.html
i’m not sure why i’m not. is it because i subscribe to hbo almost exclusively to watch big love, which i adore? is it because i have such (such, such, such) a hard time with prop 8? is it because i can see making an off the cuff remark that i regret later? i’m not sure.
i do know that i am not mad at tom hanks, though.
Like I said, (and I meant it) I’m not really upset over the un-American thing. Even if he meant it, whatever. He has the right to that opinion. I just really feel like he’s being completely disrespectful about people that he’s making money off of, and that just rubs me the wrong way. I haven’t watched the show (we don’t have HBO), but everything I’ve heard about it indicates that the show depicts these people with respect, so for someone behind the show to show such disregard just seems really wrong to me.
yes, the show itself is very not exploitative. i read his comments from the link on brooke’s blog, and he did say bizarre. even in context (he seemed to be trying to connect the polygamists with the lds church, to make a point somehow about prop 8), you’re right that his attitude is a little bit like someone who makes a movie about baby rapists. “i’m showing their motivation, but i don’t condone their actions”. but it seems like often in movies or tv shows with unsavory characters (like 24 or dexter), the creators are sympathetic to the characters, and are trying to show us ourselves in them.
okay, i’m exhausted from too much interview cramming and i’m not sure i’m making sense or even what my point is anymore 🙂 i think i need to think on tom hanks some more.
night night…
I fully support your being “done” with Tom Hanks. For me it absolutely is the “un-American” thing. Proposition 8 absolutely followed the letter of the governmental process we have in this country. It wasn’t done with lawyers and judges, it was done with the people of this state voting.
It’s yet another example of a so-called “tolerant” person being intolerant of our beliefs.