User reviews

As Hollywood is known as a Democratic bastion, it's always an eye-opener when we learn about which people in Tinseltown are Republicans. In "Rated 'R': Republicans in Hollywood", Jesse Moss interviews some of them and focuses on Arnold Schwarzenegger's run for governor. Sadly, Moss never looks at specific political issues or challenges what some of these people think.

For the most part, it was mostly interesting to see affirmed conservatives (e.g., Drew Carey, John Milius) being civil, as we might assume that they sit around ranting all day. Still, the documentary would have been better if Moss had looked at the issues.

Oh, Republicans in Hollywood. How I feel for them, always surrounded by people who didn't vote for a man who strived for a Constitutional amendment to ban gay people from being married. If only they could feel more accepted around people who find it repulsive for them to have voted for that man, who spent $10 billion a month on a war with the same lack of validity as Vietnam, a war purposely sustained by another Republican. I know Republicans. I know a beautiful family of them. And Clint Eastwood is one. They are not innately bad people, but they seem incapable of acknowledging the big picture.

Beautiful Patricia Heaton points out in this moot documentary that Liberals are hypocrites because they claim to fundamentally stand for inclusiveness and acceptance yet they don't seem to have a lot of tolerance for pro-life people. Well, maybe Conservatives are hypocrites because they claim to be so protective of unborn babies but they are actually proud to send hundreds of thousands of young people to suffer, languish and die, even when it means voting for the same people who deny gays and lesbians over 1,000 rights that everyone else in America has.

There is a segment documenting a Christian screen writing lab in Hollywood where screenwriters and telewriters collaborate to exercise their agendas to adjust the media output with which they're involved to suit Christian fundamentalist values. They are interviewed, claiming to be condescended by the masses and to feel like a minority. Christians the minority?

Interviewees like Heaton, Ben Stein, Pat Sajak, Drew Carey, John Milius, the infamously unhinged Vincent Gallo and others don't see the privilege they have, an obscured daypack of exclusive supplies, maps, permission, convention, authorization, and blank checks. (If you didn't understand that last sentence, you're probably not a minority. And if you are a minority, you're probably not a Republican.) They are unconscious of who they oppress when they vote and, in some cases, run for office. They live in a town run by an industry where so many powerful figures are Jewish or gay or both. If you expect to be paid your multi-million- dollar asking price every time you work for someone you subjugate every time you vote, how can you expect them to like your political views? Maybe now you know what "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" feels like.

I may not agree with everything that Republicans do, but I don't agree with everything that Democrats do either. That's why I'm an Independent. Anyway, this was a really informative and interesting documentary. There are interviews with Republicans involved in the entertainment industry of America such as Drew Carey, Vincent Gallo, Ben Stein, and John Milius among others. There is a common stereotype that Republicans just rant and are always angry. People like Rush Limbaugh certainly don't help this common misconception. I'm happy to see that whole idea done away with completely once the interviewees actually sit down and talk frankly about what life is like in the industry. I also applaud the effort in going so far as to follow the efforts of Arnold Schwarzenegger to become mayor. That was all done very well and was interesting. I liked that Jesse Moss(the director) is a democrat and actually takes the time to unearth these ideas in an honest and hate-free way. It was really nice. The documentary works fine. I hate politics, mainly because I seem to know more about politics than almost everybody around me, so I am not particularly interested in seeing this again. But it's a solid documentary and it's worth checking out for anybody who is interested.

Pros:

-Good interviews

-relaxed filming

-no stereotypes or egos on display

-generally very thought provoking

Cons:

-I would have liked to hear from more Republicans like Sylvester Stallone or someone

-WAY WAY WAY too short

I was relieved to see someone finally exploring conservative values in Hollywood. Yes, people there are actual celebrities in Hollywood who are not too cowardly to say they vote Republican like most of us non-celebrity Americans did this last election. With the current liberal media preaching tolerance this documentary will hopefully convince all those touting this abused word to actually follow their own advice when conservative, working actors, comedians, musicians state their own conservative point of view. You have gotta hand it to former Democratic speech writer Jesse Moss for delving into such a provocative topic such as this.