10 Movies About Freedom of Expression Hollywood Should Rewatch ASAP


On Wednesday, the powers that be at Sony officially pulled the plug on The Interview, after hackers behind the company’s unprecedented hacking scandal threatened to unleash a September 11th-like terrorism scheme if the film was released as scheduled.

The Interview was supposed to be a dumb movie starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, in which the two conclude their adventures in North Korea by blowing up the country’s man-child leader, Kim Jong-Un. This was supposed to be a movie no one was particularly interested in discussing, because it frankly sounded terrible. It should have marched on to its dumb release on Christmas Day, but alas, Sony capitulated to what were most likely empty threats. Paramount went even further by barring theaters from showing “Team America.

If movies have taught us anything over the years, it is that when someone tells you not to express yourself creatively, you tell them to fuck off, and dance your little heart out. Standing up to the forces of artistic oppression and censorship is the main lesson of literally every single film Hollywood has ever made.

With that in mind, here are 10 movies Hollywood should rewatch:

1. Footloose

Threat: Don’t dance.

Resolution: Fuck ’em. Dance.

2. Pleasantville

Threat: Don’t paint.

Resolution: Fuck ’em. Paint.

3. Hamlet 2

Threat: Don’t do an awful play.

Resolution: Fuck ’em. Do your awful play in an old abandoned warehouse.

4. Shakespeare In Love

Threat: Don’t let a girl act.

Resolution: Fuck Colin Firth. Let Gwyneth act. 

5. Mr. Holland’s Opus

Threat: Don’t play rock & roll.

Resolution: Sit on it, William H. Macy. Rock out.

6. The People versus Larry Flynt

Threat: Don’t sell pornography and joke about Reverend Jerry Falwell having sex with his mother.

Resolution: Make as much pornography as you want. Joke extra hard about Reverend Jerry Falwell having sex with his mother.

7. Pump up the Volume 

Threat: Don’t do a radio show where you tell truth to power.

Resolution: Pump up the volume.

8. Pirate Radio

Threat: Don’t play dirty rock & roll on the radio.

Resolution: Who’s going to stop us? You? You and what Navy? Oh, the Royal Navy, I see.

9. Cradle Will Rock

Threat: Don’t put on a leftist musical.

Resolution: Find another theater. Put on your leftist musical.

10. Dirty Dancing

Threat: Don’t dance in a sensual way with the guests.

Resolution: Fuck ’em. Cue Patrick Swayze: “Sorry about the disruption, folks, but I always do the last dance of the season. This year somebody told me not to. So I’m gonna do my kind of dancin’ with a great partner, who’s not only a terrific dancer. Somebody who’s taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them. Somebody who’s taught me about the kind of person I wanna be. Miss Frances Houseman.” 

Stop putting baby in a corner, Hollywood. 

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate