What's not to like? The slogan: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people;" the trailer ending with a line from the Guy Fawkes poem...
I want to see it, too. Let's just not forget that the Chairman and President of Time Warner, and the conglomerate itself (of which the film's production company, Warner Bros. is a division) all made the gungrabber list.
Rule of thumb: rich and powerful Establishment types have no incentive to change the status quo.
As for Natalie Portman, the film's star, let's hope she's grown up some since I wrote "The Fandom Menace" for the Nov. 1999 issue of GUNS AND AMMO Magazine:
So there is no apparent disconnect when anti-gun Rosie O'Donnell displays armed "Star Wars" figurines while praising this newest release. There is no incredulity when "Phantom Menace" co-star Natalie Portman (the lightpistol-packing Queen Amidala of Theed) tells Rosie "I'm proud of you, your power, and talking about what you believe in."
As someone who has played the title role in Broadway's "The Diary of Anne Frank," you'd think Ms. Portman would know only too well the evil real life consequences of population disarmament. Instead, she vacuously asserts, "I'm in high school too, and I know what you're talking about...this stuff is hitting my school now too. Somebody's got to say something about it and not be afraid to do so."
And the audience cheers. After all, she's beautiful, successful, self-assured– what more do you need to be considered an authority in this era of image over substance? Yet they can't wait to see this privileged dilettante lead a make-believe armed retinue against the forces of darkness (as opposed to hiding in an attic with her unarmed family before being dragged off to a death camp).
We'll see how close the film "gets it," and I'll suspend judgment 'til then. But I am concerned that the guy in the comedy mask is bringing throwing daggers to what should be a gunfight...yeah, I heard the story takes place in a futuristic UK, but if the yobs in "Gunchester" can get 'em, why shouldn't revolutionaries?
