This analysis is probably too spicy for most social media, and it’s just this sort of post that keeps me spending big bucks to maintain my own private little corner of the internet.
Everybody’s second favorite war game related YouTube channel recently asked a very interesting question: why have so few big budget films been produced that are set in and featuring the events relating to the birth of the greatest nation on Earth?
They quickly discount the idea that the events of the American revolution have ever been popularized in cinema. Eh. While technically true you have to completely ignore a huge chunk of the body of work of pre-modern Disney. There was a time on the 60s when the coon skin cap was as popular as Bart Simpson shirts in the 90s. Granted, Disney’s output was largely limited to the small screen, but it was also hugely popular with the American public. The major motion picture studios have always left a huge amount of money sitting on the table because they had no interest in making films about the birth of America.
The Little Wars TV crew rightly acknowledges this when the point out – using the euphemism of ‘Eastern European immigrants so as not to name them – that the major film studios have historically been run by wealthy businessmen who don’t want to call attention to the benefits that a crew from a revolution that throws out the old order. You got to give him credit for at least nudging the line even if they never quite cross it.
Instead of blaming and shaming, they provide two REAL explanations.
First up: It’s complicated baby. Both sides of the conflict had very real beefs with the other, and it’s not exactly amenable to the classic “good versus evil” framework that makes for compelling narratives.
This argument fails for two reasons. One, Hollywood has never shied away from making complex stories in which good guys do bad things and who the real bad guys are is subject to interpretation. Shows like “Breaking Bad” to “The Wire” and films like “Letter From Iwo Jima” and even “The Watchmen” give you protagonists who aren’t likable and villains who are at least understandable, if not entirely sympathetic. They even made a movie about Rhodesia starring an Oscar award winner. Morally gray stories are often held up as more intellectual than the white hat versus black hat tales, and the AWI is a perfect playground for such tales. So where are they?
The second fail argument points to the gulf between the stated ideals of the colonists and the actual practices. Yeah, it’s slavery. That institution that the entire world practiced until the British empire single-handedly destroyed the international trade.
Again, this might explain why films about the AWI don’t get made, but it doesn’t provide a useful heuristic because the same holds true for pretty much every conflict in the history of mankind. Hell, they still make films about the American Civil War. They make movies about the Iraq War. They make movies about the American experiences in Korea and Vietnam and the list goes on and on. The American government idealized saving Yupr from tyranny only to hand half of it to the monstrous and murderous Stalin regime, but they still make WWII movies. Somehow, the only time the disconnect between the ideals and the implementation block production is the American struggle for independence.
Don’t believe it. There’s something much deeper going on here, and it’s pretty obvious for those with eyes to see.
The AWI is ignored because film-makers don’t want it to be seen as the founding myth of America. So intent are they on memory holding the great achievement of our forefathers they don’t even dare to make a cartoonishly pro-George III film. Showing the Revolutionary era, warts and all, would remind Americans of where they come from, who they are, and what they are capable of. And the new noble class, wealthy media bosses, can feel that sword of Damocles dangling just overhead. With all their power and wealth, they know how precarious their position is, and they do everything they can to make sure the sleeping giant stays dormant.