The motion picture industry as we know it is in its dotage, and the continued fascination with Hollywood is unhealthy.
Nevertheless, something cropped up recently that impels me to break my self-imposed rule.
Two aging (I should talk) Hollywood stars have been in the news—Robert DeNiro and Richard Dreyfuss.
During my years in the industry, I had no contact with Mr. DeNiro other than as a fan, but plenty with Mr. Dreyfuss, who has been a friend and colleague for more than 50 years.
Mr. Dreyfuss played the leading role of Moses Wine in my adaptation of my detective novel “The Big Fix.” He was also offered the lead in my screenplay of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Enemies, A Love Story,” which he declined because of a disagreement with the director, Paul Mazursky. He was replaced by the late Ron Silver.
Both Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Dreyfuss have had what one might call political outbursts, although Mr. Dreyfuss’s was as much social as political.
What I found interesting, although not surprising, was the media’s and Hollywood’s reactions to the two. Mr. Dreyfuss was condemned, while Mr. DeNiro was either applauded or patronized.
To be honest about my biases, I agreed completely with what Mr. Dreyfuss had to say (or was trying to illustrate) and thought that Mr. DeNiro was so prejudiced that he began to resemble a parody of the worst of Trump Derangement Syndrome, something for The Babylon Bee.
The “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver” star, standing in front of the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s trial was held, went so far as to say the following with a straight face:
“The Twin Towers fell just over here, just over there. This part of the city was like a ghost town, but we vowed we would not allow terrorists to change our way of life. ... I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and eventually he can destroy the world.
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, no, wait—maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections—forget about it. That’s over; that’s done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave.”
Actually, giving credit where due, those were screenwriter Paul Schrader’s words. He created the psychotic Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver.” I have no idea whether Mr. DeNiro made up the above courthouse rant on his own.
In the actor’s view, not only will President Trump end elections, but he will “never leave.”
Delivered in high dudgeon, that sounds like a one-liner from an old Preston Sturges comedy. Mr. Trump will be 78 in a couple of weeks. Does Mr. DeNiro think he will live forever?
We all know how difficult—nigh impossible these days—“never leaving” would be under our Constitution, so I will skip past that and even skip past the evident elements of projection and the lack of the slightest bit of evidence itself in Mr. DeNiro’s screed and ask, why is this man so angry?
On the most obvious level, he and those who importuned him to do this have obviously been reading the polls favoring Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden and are reacting, or more precisely, abreacting. Mr. DeNiro called pro-Trump demonstrators at his press conference “gangsters.” Is that how he would like to characterize half his compatriots? “Deplorables” were bad enough, but 150 million Al Capones?
Some of this comes from understandable fears of being cast aside in an industry in which employment is always precarious, even for the very famous. Ideological conformity becomes the natural outgrowth of this fear. Often, it is internalized.
This makes for mediocre art. The decline in Hollywood has been well documented. Fewer seem to want to watch the Academy Awards every year. I frequently see comments online from those who haven’t seen a new movie in years. This can be ascribed partly to their age but also to that sameness and predictability, a lack of joy, in the filmmaking that we used to find no matter where it stood.
Despite having a left-wing childhood, to a surprising degree, Mr. Dreyfuss has swum against this tide of ideological uniformity.
For many years, he has spoken out and organized in favor of teaching civics in our schools. This was largely ignored by an entertainment industry that, these days, has little interest in our Constitution or regards it skeptically.
Next up was Mr. Dreyfuss’s “scandalous” appearance at the screening of one of his most famous films. In the words of USA Today in May, “Richard Dreyfuss accused of going on ‘offensive’ rant during ‘Jaws’ screening: ‘Disgusting.’”
What happened? USA Today continues:
“Several attendees later took to social media to criticize Dreyfuss’ comments.”
I bet. Naturally, he was accused of homophobia, which is ludicrous since Mr. Dreyfuss has worked and played around gays without prejudice all his life, some of whom I know personally.
What he was obviously doing, in flamboyant actor-y style, was shining a light on the crazy destructiveness of the transgender epidemic, particularly among the young, and daring to point the finger at the hypocrisy of many in his industry.
Whether you prefer Mr. Dreyfuss to Mr. DeNiro (my preference is clear), an overall question remains. Are the opinions of celebrities worth more than those of the common man and woman?
In almost all cases, I would say no. (In deference to Mr. Dreyfuss, he does a lot of reading of history.) The views of celebrities are often tainted and not particularly informed. And yet we have to hear them over and over.
My suspicion is that the public largely tunes them out, increasingly so. And although I concurred with and was amused by my friend Mr. Dreyfuss in this instance, that’s probably for the best.
