Ranting On...The Interview and Why Sony Made the Wrong Decision

I remember in the wake of the Aurora shootings two years ago, my mom was visiting me.  We had planned on seeing the film The Dark Knight Rises that Saturday morning, and there was a bit of a question between the two of us over whether or not we would go see the film, with worry being a factor after the horrible deaths in Colorado and whether or not there would be copycat crimes across the country throughout the weekend.  We quickly decided that giving in and changing how we live our lives would be a silly and cowardly thing to do, and so we went, bought our popcorn, and watched Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy play the villains, not letting the real-life villains dictate how we would live our lives.  Occasionally in life you have to take a small stand against something scary, and that was what we decided to do that day to prove that freedom is occasionally worth taking a risk when you're not sure how things might turn out.

I kept thinking of this story with the news yesterday that The Interview, the Sony film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, had been pulled from its release date on Christmas after every major theater chain in America declined to see the film for fear of threats from a group likely associated with North Korea promising "9/11" style terrorist attacks on theaters showing the film.  It's understandable why the theater chains wanted to pull the film, both from a safety and from a pragmatic perspective.  Obviously no theater chain wants to put at risk the lives of the patrons, and if there was a specific threat to a specific theater they would need to deal with that threat.  And of course there's an incredible amount of money at stake here.  It's not just that The Interview would potentially have lowered receipts, but a trickle-down to other films being released at the same time could cost Hollywood astronomically, as movies like The Hobbit, Into the Woods, and Night at the Museum 3 will combined make into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple of weeks.  This is a monetary cost that Hollywood just can't bare right now, particularly considering the lowered expectations of so many films this year.

And yet, this course of events deeply, deeply disturbs me.  I have never seen something like this in my lifetime, and I'm guessing most people haven't.  I have, of course, seen strong reaction through the years to controversial films.  Movies like The Passion of the Christ, Zero Dark Thirty and 2016: Obama's America come to mind as films that produced a great amount of ire, even protests, and a healthy call for boycotts of the films, but all of them were allowed to air in theaters without reprisal against those who saw the films.  Even a film like Song of the South is kept from home video release not because of public outcry, but because Disney doesn't want to release the film due to its racial stereotypes.  The Interview is the first time I've ever seen a film not released to the general public because of a terrorist threat.

This fact should terrify us all.  One of the paramount things that makes us Americans is our right to free speech, both to say what we want, no matter the controversy, and (equally important) to hear that free speech if we so choose.  I get why these theaters chose not to put this film forward and I understand why, in the face of the outcry, Sony chose not to release the picture, but that doesn't mean I agree with it.  From a purely business standpoint, it invites any number of groups to threaten if they don't like a film.  What's going to stop another country or another terrorist group from threatening a film or TV show and making it so that that film isn't shown?  From a personal freedom standpoint, every nick and dent that we put in our personal freedoms as a concession to terrorists or threats makes us less free.  This is the entire argument against something like the Patriot Act.  Hell, it's even a part of the argument by the NRA and other gun advocates regarding the second amendment (though there's a lot more historical interpretation against their readings of the second amendment than there is for advocates of the first and fourth...but that's a topic for a different day).  The point is that we should not lightly give up our rights when terrorists threaten our way of life, because by giving in we do, in fact, let the terrorists threaten our way of life.

This is why I was so deeply disturbed a few years back when Comedy Central refused to air the prophet Muhammad in a series of South Park appearances.  When we acquiesce to terrorist groups, we are giving away our freedom of speech.  There's a reason "we do not negotiate with terrorists" is a strong policy-it's because we do not want groups whose ideals and goals run counter to everything that our society stands for to be dictating how we police, govern, and live.  It may seem small in a world where we are constantly hearing about shootings, discrimination, and unrest, but The Interview and its ban mean something more than just a movie.  It means that we let our fear of an unknown nameless group dictate how we lived our lives.  That's petrifying to me, and it should be petrifying to anyone who appreciates and celebrates freedom.  I personally hope that Sony and these theater owners reconsider their release plans for this film, and I want them to know that I will be there in line and ready to buy a ticket, not just because I want to see the movie, but because men and women have bled and died so that I have the right to see that movie.  And no amount of threats are going to keep me from honoring their memory and their sacrifice for me.