Hollywood vs. America

by Michael Medved

Book Overview

Why does our popular culture seem so consistently hostile to the values that most Americans hold dear? Why does the entertainment industry attack religion, glorify brutality, undermine the family, and deride patriotism?

In this explosive book, one of the nation's best known film critics examines how Hollywood has broken faith with its public, creating movies, television, and popular music that exacerbate every serious social problem we face,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060924357
• ISBN13: 9780060924355
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Insider Reveals what's wrong with Hollywood

Well known movie critic resigns from doing so, because of his strong conviction that Hollywood is unwilling to be responsible cultural contributor.Leaning even more to the dangerous trends Medved exposes in this book in 1992, Hollywood does not feel any responsibility to nation's moral troubles, only freedoms which they certainly are given under our laws.It's only entertainment? Of the foulest, sickest kind. History will concur with Medved that this increasingly slippery slope has led all other leading civilizations to decay, disease and collapse. Can we be of such historic stuff?Medved provides convincing evidence in this, and most disturbing is Hollywood's seeming "don't care" attitude.Suffice recent stars stance on Iraq as infuriating most of country's citizens. More like Medved and this reviewer, should boycott most of Hollywood. Wake up America, thanks Mike for this helpful classic work.

Awesome, accurate and stunning critique of Hollywood

This is an excellent book and presents a considerable body of evidence that proves Hollywood's obsession with exploiting sex and violence and other harmful trends. He convincingly refutes the standard Hollywood claim of "just making what people want". A fantastic book, give it to your most liberal friends.

The movie industry's cultural influence: quo vadis?

If you've wondered why in the world so many anti-American, anti-family, anti-religion movies manage to earn Oscars, this book is for you. In it, Michael Medved takes a long hard look at the stuff produced by the movie industry and shows that there's a pattern to it all. It's not "greed" and "profit." Despite the attempts of numerous left-leaning folks to smear capitalism and the free market, it isn't "corporate greed" that drove the movies down into their current state. As Medved shows, lots of studios could have done much better at the box office if they had produced moral and uplifting films that respected (not "promoted," just "respected") the values held by the vast majority of Americans. No, the movie industry is just out of touch with its market. And why? The culprit isn't "greed" but a false idealism. What Medved shows in effect is that the moviemakers are playing to the chorus -- looking for accolades from their peers based on their alleged "artistic achievement." And that achievement is based on a view of "art" that most of us probably wouldn't find congenial. Medved shows that there is an overarching pattern in what's been coming out of Hollywood for the last three of four decades. Its destructive "art" (with some exceptions that should have taught the industry something about its customers) tends deliberately to take traditional religion and morality as its intentional target, and regards the trashing of those values as a "success." Disagree? Then let Medved convince you. Watch him summarize, e.g., Hollywood's recent portrayals of clergy and other religiously devoted people, and then ask yourself what would have happened if the movie industry had similarly targeted, say, gays and lesbians. If you give the obvious answer, then you'll know there's a powerful bias at work in the "entertainment" world.

Disturbing Hollywood agenda, portrayed brilliantly

As studios and Hollywood producers continue to back projects that have appalling liberal bias, yet little-to-no chance of commercial success ("Cradle Will Rock" (1999), "Cider House Rules" (1999) are good examples), it is plain to see there is a larger force at work in American popular culture. Medved does a superb job of documenting the multitudinous examples of filmmakers pushing the envelope in terms of content. As a eager consumer of pop entertainment, it has made me rethink the images that I choose to grant entrance into my mind. I'm not surprised that some readers find this book overwrought or "Chicken Little". Oftentimes, the truth hurts. The simple truth proven here brilliantly, is that Hollywood has an agenda. They promote it with a force frightening. Sadly, traditional values are under attack, by those who think they "know better".

Read The Book Hollywood Doesn't Want You To Read

I came to a bookstore shortly after this book was released with $25 in my wallet, which was intended for another book. I flipped through "Hollywood vs. America" and not only couldn't I put it down, I decided that I owed it to Medved to buy the book at full list price, before it went on sale. Finally, someone with some clout was saying what I had been saying for years about show business and the people in charge. A previous reviewer faulted Medved for detailing a laundry list of vomit and urination scenes, but this is exactly what is necessary to illustrate how far "entertainment" has fallen. True humor and plot development is abandoned in favor of "realistic" special effects gore, more F-words, and bodily function gags. Especially important is his illustration of the way showbiz takes great pains to prop up evil religious straw-men/women for the purpose of demonizing traditional religion per se. He also shows how "dramatic license" is used to distort the lives of actual religious figures so that their faith is unrecognizable. Medved wrote this seven years before NBC's outrageously inaccurate and blasphemous "Noah's Ark." If you are a moviegoer, read this book. Peek into the slaughterhouse and see what's in the sausage they feed you.