Nearly all conservatives have a favorite scene from a movie or TV show at which they cringed and laughed when the writers tried to shove woke, left-wing garbage down their throats. Here’s mine:
Fans of FX’s American Horror Story will recall the theme of the show’s seventh season: Cult. The title refers to a gang of disillusioned people who terrorize residents of a fictional Michigan suburb in the aftermath of the 2016 Election. President Trump’s victory emboldens Kai, the cult’s maniacal leader, to hide his insanity under the guise of traditional conservatism. The person who eventually takes down the cult, Sarah Paulson’s character Ally, runs for a Senate seat in the aftermath of her victory. In the season’s final scene, she is debating her opponent when Kai, the last remnant of the cult, confronts her. He holds a gun to Ally’s head, but it is out of ammo. Just before the police shoot Kai, Ally delivers the line that best encapsulates the message of the season. She says, “You were wrong. There is something in this world more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man: a Nasty Woman.”
Yes, I’m serious.
It is easy to laugh at cringey scenes like this one, but it should not distract us from the fact that the left is in control of the entertainment industry, one of the most culturally influential tools in the country.
It is easy to laugh at cringey scenes like this one, but it should not distract us from the fact that the left is in control of the entertainment industry, one of the most culturally influential tools in the country. Nearly all the media it puts out is imbued with left-wing values. Sometimes, it is more innocuous, such as when Parks and Recreation saw Leslie Knope fangirl over Joe Biden. Most times, though, it is more harmful, even sacrilegious. The series Shameless saw a character start a “Church of Gay Jesus” which attacked Christians who support traditional marriage.
Our values are under assault, and conservatives have been searching for a counterattack for years. Now, The Daily Wire’s new movie, Run Hide Fight, presents a wonderful opportunity to start a new battle. The film follows Zoe Hull, a senior who can not wait to be done with high school, when, on the day of the senior prank, armed students try to pull off the worst school shooting in history. Zoe must find it in herself to fight off her community’s attackers and save her classmates. The critics, of course, hated it. But they celebrated Cuties, a movie which saw preteen girls dance like strippers. I think we now know not to give their opinions too much weight. Run Hide Fight thankfully lacks the smut that Cuties has, but it is by no means a typical conservative movie. It’s violent, gritty, and a welcome departure from the media which we have created in the past.
Run Hide Fight thankfully lacks the smut that Cuties has, but it is by no means a typical conservative movie. It’s violent, gritty, and a welcome departure from the media which we have created in the past.
The last movie to really make waves among Christians and conservatives was PureFlix’s God’s Not Dead. In the movie, college freshman Josh Wheaton is distraught when his professor intimidates his students into declaring “God is dead.” Josh, a faithful Christian, successfully defends God from his professor, convincing his entire class that God is indeed real. This movie has approximately two redeeming qualities. The first is the song of the same name which The Newsboys perform at the end of the film. It’s a banger. The second is the arc of Amy Ryan, a left-wing, atheist reporter who finds out she has cancer. The movie sees her become closer to God through her suffering, which is the quintessential Christian message. The presence of Amy’s arc makes this movie even more depressing because it means that the writers are capable of creating great characters, but they just don’t. Every other character goes through two stages of development: opposing Josh/Jesus and believing in Josh/Jesus. Everyone in the first phase is an insufferable jackass while all the people in the second are completely perfect, making them one-dimensional and fake.
I understand why conservatives like this movie so much. It was so cathartic to watch a college student stand up to and prevail against his left-wing professor. But we need to ask ourselves: For whom are we making movies? Are we making them to spread our values into the real world, or are we making them simply to preach to the choir?
But we need to ask ourselves: For whom are we making movies? Are we making them to spread our values into the real world, or are we making them simply to preach to the choir?
Run Hide Fight is so good because the characters are real. The world they live in is real. Zoe has flaws that she needs to overcome. She starts out believing that everything is ephemeral, but she learns that life is worth enjoying and that people are worth saving, a stark contrast to what the shooters believe. Despite the realism, some conservatives have responded negatively to the movie. Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing responded to a tweet that criticized the movie for its “extreme violence, brief nudity, using the Lord’s name in vain, and excessive language.” Boreing wrote in a thread that “Daily Wire does not aspire to and will never make films for adults that meet the ‘requirements of PureFlix.’ We don’t believe in that standard.”
Boreing is right. If conservatives are to spread our values in the entertainment industry, we need to make films that are actually enjoyable. That means they must tell real stories about real people who live in the real world. The public is, in large part, tired of movies that exist only to pander to woke critics. Conservatives have a golden opportunity to turn the tide of the culture war, so let’s not waste it.
