Some say Oprah helping ‘The Butler’ attendance. No one asked how much Jane Fonda’s role kept people away – Updated

The Butler

Knowing the history of the film’s creators, "you have to go to motive," said Craig Shirley, author of Rendezvous with Destiny.
"The screenwriter for this movie did write ‘Game Change,’ which was grossly unfair to Sarah Palin. He also wrote ‘Recount,’ which again a lot of people thought was a retelling of the history of the recount that made the George Bush forces look very devious and the (Al) Gore forces look good," said Shirley. "You do have to go motive with Hollywood and movies."

Some say Oprah helping ‘The Butler’ attendance. No one asked how much Jane Fonda’s role kept people away…

Nelson Abdullah of  Conscience of a Conservative notes preliminary box-office results reported by Deadline.com say Oprah Winfrey’s role in the movie ‘The Butler’ was a drawing point for Friday, essentially opening night, attendance. But the movie still doesn’t look like the blockbuster is was promoted to be.

Also interesting to note is that 72% of Fandango’s The Butler ticket-buyers who were surveyed claimed that co-star Oprah Winfrey’s involvement increased their interest in seeing the film. Love her or hate her, Oprah in her first movie role in 15 years is helping The Butler‘s box office right now.

Much to the disgust of conservative Republicans and veterans, when the word came out that ‘Hanoi’ Jane Fonda was given the role of Nancy Reagan, it appeared a backlash may develop in protest. Whether the protest is successful or not will be seen in coming days or weeks but one thing is sure… no one polled anyone on what negative affect ‘Hanoi’ Jane’s role would have, as they did for Oprah’s positive affect.

Insensitive, and obviously unrepentant, Fonda had earlier stoked criticism after attending a promotional event for the movie, wearing a shirt emblazoned with ‘Hanoi’ Jane, and earlier said that veterans who were critical of her role as Nancy Reagan "should get a life."  Hmmm… perhaps she should have gotten a jail sentence as a traitor for what she did to their lives?!?

Comment Posted at Boycott Hanoi Jane Playing Nancy Reagan is on Facebook Page:  When Hanoi Jane found out that I and other Veterans were boycotting her she told me and all the other Vets to GET A LIFE…..well Jane, I do have a life, a wonderful life, spent 20 years of it defending the rights of trash like you. Unfortu…nately their are 58 thousand names on the WALL that don’t have a life, I wonder how many of them heard you call them MURDERERS AND LIARS while you were delivering your radio messages to them, I wonder how many of them died while you gave your speeches and applauded whiled B52s were shot down……I wonder how many of them died while you cavorted with the North Vietnamese and sat on the anti-aircraft gun……we have a life Jane, they don’t….

Another one of those clueless liberal progressive remarks… Vets who fought, died and were imprisoned for America should ‘get a life’… sounds a lot like Hillary Clinton’s comment during her testimony on Benghazi before Congress, “What difference does it make?”, about the timetable that led up to the death’s of our Ambassador to Libya and 3 other heroes who were serving America.

And now to make things even worse, in a story published on The US Report, about the casting of ‘Hanoi’ Jane, the director acknowledges his political activism and admitted the insult was intentional.  Perhaps magnifying the casting insult is, not only was/is Mrs. Reagan a gracious first lady she was at one time one of them… an actress, whose husband was not only an actor but President of the Screen Actor’s Guild.  Shame on them!!

Plus if that were not enough, there is also a new controversy over how President Ronald Reagan, actually both the Reagans, were portrayed in Daniels’ film.  In the film, Reagan refuses to economically punish South Africa for apartheid. Critics say the representation is by no means fair or accurate.  See video HERE.

Craig Shirley, author of ‘Rendezvous with Destiny,’ said that the film is accurate in that Reagan opposed the sanctions. “It’s not accurate to the extent as to why he opposed the sanctions. It was a very tricky situation. Everything in the Reagan administration, and his presidency, has to be judged in the context of the Cold War.”

Shirley further explained that the only strongly anti-Communist country in Africa was South Africa. ”The sanctions would have hurt […] the least affluent in South Africa at the time who were the blacks there.”

“I’m all for historical fiction […] but when you take a complex issue like South Africa and present it as if Reagan’s somehow racist, it’s unfair to the subject matter and to the subject of that portrayal,” Shirley said.

[…] "It’s a cudgel the left uses against the right. When you critique someone as racist, it’s very powerful and it is effective, but it’s soul killing. I think that’s a theme that really rankles people on the right and deservedly so”, added Shirley.

"The Butler’s negative re-imagination comes at a real social cost," wrote Richard Epstein, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University, in a journal article published by Stanford’s Hoover Institution. "Watching the movie, the viewer comes away with thinking that the civil rights movement has largely failed. But the actual record is more upbeat."

The movie is unlikely to besmirch Reagan’s reputation as Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III noted, Reagan is one of America’s most-beloved figures.  But The Butler’s fictionalization of history is harmful in a greater sense and belittles "the progress that the civil rights movement has made."

Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor, a Reagan biographer who wrote The Crusader (Kindle) and God and Ronald Reagan (Kindle), sparked a backlash last week against the film’s "ideologically driven fiction," dubbing it "Hollywood malpractice", yet many Hollywood types are already floating the idea of film as an Oscar contender.

"Ronald Reagan is actually beloved by most people, whether conservative or not. In poll after poll he has shown he is one of the most popular people in history across the political spectrum," Meese said.  Read full article HERE

 

As boycott proceeds, ‘The Butler’ director acknowledges political activism

Lee Daniels, director and producer of the film The Butler did a Q&A with Politico’s Patrick Gavin.

The film has already become a target for Vietnam-era veterans and their supporters because Jane Fonda was cast as First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Fonda’s activism against the Vietnam War and her vitriolic attacks on U.S. troops as well as her praise for repressive government systems made her quite possibly the worst choice in the universe to play President Ronald Reagan’s wife.

Was Fonda deliberately cast in the role as an insult?

If an actress stands for most of what Reagan was against, Fonda is the poster femme.

Daniels acknowledged there was a political slant, not only in the choice of actors, but in the spirit of the film.

The group Boycott Hanoi Jane Playing Nancy Reagan has grown to more than 26,000 supporters on Facebook. Many supporters of the boycott remember Fonda’s behavior at a time similar to today, when there was bitter division among the people and weak leadership in Washington.

The US Report urges all conservatives, Republicans and others who admire the Reagan legacy and who respect the U.S. military to boycott the film and click ‘Like’ on the Facebook page.

America’s enemy confirmed years after the war that Fonda and other celebrities were a valuable asset in their fight against the U.S. on behalf of communism.

Read more at The US Report

The Butler (Kindle) is (would be) a terrific story that deserves to be told.  Too bad it wasn’t told by honest people without political agendas who felt it necessary to use a traitor to portray one of our most beloved first ladies (insulting Vietnam Vets of all colors) and to distort much of history.  Perhaps reading Wes Haygood’s book The Butler: A Witness to History would be a better option, or at least waiting until the movie comes to (free) TV, if you watch it knowing the slant and bias the movie is based on.

By Marion Algier – Ask Marion

Related:  

The Butler from Another Planet….

Heritage Foundation’s Ed Meese to Newsmax: ‘Butler’ Movie Wrong to Portray Reagan as Racist

Fictional History in ‘Butler’ Belittles Civil Rights Progress

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