I’m sure that by now you have heard that the satiric comedy The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, has been completely pulled from release by Sony Motion Pictures. This happened on the heels of a group that had breached Sony’s cyber sovereignty and released a trove of inside information and private e-mails now threatening 9/11 style attacks against movie theaters and their patrons who would go and see the movie that had been scheduled to open December 25th, 2014.
Its been 13 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks… and with Sony pulling ALL release plans for The Interview… the terrorists have officially won.
Some might argue that they won years ago, when the Patriot Act went into effect allowing the government unprecedented access to our lives and information. Others will argue that they won when flying became an enormous hassle trying to get through the security check points. There are those who will argue that they won when the NSA booted up PRISM. All of these were turning points in our lives, shaping the country we live in today and altering the civil liberties we have enjoyed for so long. I will argue that this is the moment… this is the moment when they have been victorious in their battle.
I have always been a proponent of free speech, freedom of the press, and enjoyed our freedom of expression. I hold these three freedoms the most important and valuable of all. Ironically, freedom of speech and freedom of the press through the Bill of Rights are protections not from foreign agents, but against our very own government. The fact that the freedom of expression is being squashed by threats of radical violence from foreign extremists is proof evident of more than an ideological loss, but more of a complete and utter abandonment of one of the founding tenets of living in the United States.
The truth is we no longer live in the land of the free or the home of the brave.
The pussification of America is finally complete.
Lost The Battle… Win The War
There’s still time though. This is still something that can be turned around, but either Sony has to act quickly… or the internet has to act quicker.
Obviously the reason the “terrorists” (I use the term loosely because they’re more like cyber bullies) are doing this is so The Interview is never seen. So here’s three ways to turn this into a win:
- Release The Interview via iTunes/Amazon/Roku so that anyone who wants to see it, can. Heck, you can even charge for it and will probably make back the $44 million already spent
- Send a copy of the movie to The Pirate Bay… who better to spread the word of suppressed artists but they?
- Someone needs to start a KickStarter to buy the film from Sony… it worked for Veronica Mars so there’s no reason James Franco and Seth Rogen couldn’t go the same route. I would totally do this myself, but KickStarter isn’t something I’m versatile enough in
It’s simple really… but then there’s the tough part… making it happen. Needless to say, considering I fell asleep during the climactic battle of Amazing Spider-Man 2, I don’t have a lot of faith in Sony at this point….
The movie starts off with a black screen and audio recordings from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I found this to be both powerful, but more importantly respectful of the events and those who lost their lives.